Sanni-Anibire, M O; Mohamad Zin, R and Olatunji, S O (2022) Causes of delay in the global construction industry: A meta analytical review. International Journal of Construction Management, 22(8), pp. 1395-1407. ISSN 1562-3599
Abstract
The construction industry continues to suffer from efficiency and productivity losses such as delays. The effects of delays may include time and cost overruns, litigation and project abandonment. Thus, the global research domain is saturated with studies investigating the causes of construction delay. However, despite the rising trend of construction globalization, a systematic review of what has been achieved so far in construction delay research is lacking. Such a study will synthesize extant data from previous studies to illustrate the global picture and will be of potential benefit to concerned stakeholders. Consequently, this study presents an overall review of studies on the causes of construction delays and executes a meta-data analysis utilizing Relative Importance Index (RII) values from some influential studies in the last 15 years. 36 common delay causes investigated globally were identified, and the effect summaries derived from the meta-analysis showed that the top five causes include: “contractor’s financial difficulties”, “delay in approval of completed work”, “slow delivery of materials”, “poor site organization and coordination between various parties”, and “poor planning of resources and duration estimation/scheduling”.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | delays; globalization; metadata analysis; systematic review |
| Index terms: | global research, abandonment, coordination, systematic literature review, estimation, construction delay, construction industry, site organization, duration, approval, litigation, cost overrun, meta-analysis, efficiency, data analysis, scheduling, causes of delay, productivity, global construction, relative importance index, globalization |
| Subjects: | strategic management, industry analysis, dispute resolution, completion, financial and cost management, research evaluation and metrics, performance management, operations research, data analysis and analytics, contractual role, economic factors, professional development, risk assessment, project controls, management |
| Topics: | Quality Management, Organizational Design, Cost Management, Site Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Legal Issues, Contract Administration, International Construction, Time Control, Risk Management, Information Management, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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