Li, Y and Ning, Y (2022) Mitigating opportunistic behaviors in consulting projects: Evidence from the outsourced architectural and engineering design. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 148(7): 04022044, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Although control strategies are widely used to mitigate opportunistic behaviors, their implementation in consulting projects with intangible outputs can be challenging. Whether or not control strategies are effective to curb consultants' opportunistic behaviors remains unknown. To fill the knowledge gap, this study examines the effects of clients' control strategies on consultants' opportunistic behaviors in consulting projects, with requirement risks and information asymmetry as moderators. The results from a questionnaire survey of 360 architectural and engineering design consultants showed that outcome control breeds opportunistic behaviors. This effect is exacerbated in projects with high levels of requirement risks or information asymmetry. It was also found that behavior control constrains opportunistic behaviors. The findings complement the project management literature by providing empirical evidence for the role of control strategies in curtailing design consultants' opportunistic behaviors and by revealing that the tangibility of project outputs is an important contextual factor for mitigating opportunistic behaviors.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | architectural and engineering design; consulting projects; control strategies; information asymmetry; opportunistic behaviors; requirement risks |
| Index terms: | project management, implementation, opportunistic behaviour, engineering design, survey, strategy, information asymmetry, outcome control, evidence, questionnaire, behaviour control |
| Subjects: | evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, transaction economics, business, contractual arrangements, project delivery, project management theory and practice, design process, management, behavioral psychology |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Project Management, Business Strategy, Procurement, Digital Applications, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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