Ogbu, C P (2018) Survival practices of indigenous construction firms in Nigeria. International Journal of Construction Management, 18(1), pp. 78-91. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
All over the world, small and medium-sized (SME) construction firms are prone to high mortality rates. Indigenous construction firms (ICFs) (mostly SMEs) must adopt practices that support their survival. However, firm-level practices that are supportive of ICFs' survival have hardly been holistically identified and reduced into a more meaningful set of fewer practices for ease of implementation in the Nigerian context. This paper studied the survival practices of ICFs in Nigeria. Its objective was to summarize identified survival practices (n = 83) of ICFs in the area using a data reduction technique. A structured questionnaire administered on 420 ICFs (146 consultancy and 274 contracting firms) in the area provided data for factor analysis. The reliability test of the questionnaire instrument yielded Cronbach's alpha value of 0.983. The study revealed that seven survival practice factors–human resource management, marketing, bid strategy, financial management, organizational culture, smart work methods and firm strategy factors–account for most of the survival practices adopted by the ICFs. Cumulatively, the seven factors explain 69.07% of the variance in the variable set. This study has helped to reduce the survival practices of ICFs into a fewer number of practices for ease of implementation.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | bid strategy; factor analysis; firm survival; indigenous construction firm; Niger delta; Nigeria; organizational culture; survival practice |
| Index terms: | construction firm, human resource management, strategy, organizational culture, consultancy, questionnaire, Niger Delta, Nigeria, indigenous construction firm, variance, financial management, survival, implementation, marketing, factor analysis, mortality |
| Subjects: | Geography, management, physical geography and landforms, statistical analysis, sociology, measurement and scaling, business, organization, data collection methods, health monitoring assessment and metrics, economic analysis, environmental science, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Human Resources, Organizational Design, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Sustainability, Procurement |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here