Messner, J I (1994) An information framework for evaluating international construction projects. PhD thesis, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Abstract
Construction companies depend on projects to remain in business. The projects which a company decides to pursue will impact the direction of the company, the resources the company needs, the risks it incurs, and the rewards it obtains. The decision to pursue or not to pursue a project has received little attention from the research community. This thesis describes an exploratory investigation into the project evaluation decision made by construction companies pursuing international projects. The investigation first defines the characteristics of the project evaluation decision currently performed within the construction industry. The evaluation decision was found to rely heavily on intuition of the construction executives and was performed in an unstructured manner. To improve this decision, the Organization Based Information Architecture (OBIA) was developed. It identifies the factors which impact the decision to pursue or not to pursue a particular project opportunity. The OBIA identifies five generic categories of information needed to effectively evaluate a project. These are: organizations, commitments, processes, environments, and facilities. Each of these categories is decomposed to identify additional information needed. To further improve the project evaluation decision, a process was defined which decomposed the decision into five main subprocesses. These subprocesses are: (1) assess project feasibility, (2) determine ability to perform, (3) assess competitive advantages, (4) determine project risks, and (5) select projects to pursue. Detailed questions for each process are presented. The models presented in this research were developed through interviews with ten construction industry executives. These models were then tested by analyzing ten international project evaluation decisions. From the interviews and case studies, it was determined that the OBIA contains the information which affected the decisions made by the companies evaluating the projects.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor: | Sanvido, V E |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | competitive advantage; international project; project evaluation; case studies; interview |
| Index terms: | commitment, construction company, interview, international project, international construction project, intuition, competitive advantage, project feasibility, case study, construction industry, project evaluation, investigation, executive |
| Subjects: | value management, practitioner, organization, strategic management, data collection methods, psychology, industry analysis, cognitive psychology, market analysis |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Project Management, Business Strategy, Roles and Professions, International Construction, Organizational Design |
| 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