Banwo, O (2016) The development of a procurement decision support system to enhance construction claims management practice. PhD thesis, Coventry University, UK.
Abstract
Delays resulting from claims are a major source of disputes in construction projects. There are different classifications of claims. However, inherent in any claim is a quest for additional resources – material, time and/or cost. Construction contract claims increasingly constitute significant delays and are often accompanied by additional cost. Existing literature shows that 70% of Nigerian projects suffered delay set-backs in their execution and reveals an average cost over-run of 17.34%. This research investigated the main factors affecting the management of claims in the Nigerian construction industry and results obtained revealed that corruption, lack of claims management experts and procurement strategy, respectively, are the main factors affecting the management of claims in the Nigerian construction industry. Given that corruption is a socio-cultural issue and insufficient claim managers is a human resource issue, the research found procurement strategy adopted in each project case to be the main operational issue affecting claims management in the industry. Consequently, the research developed a decision support system for selecting procurement strategy in order to enhance current industry practice. The passive implementation of the most convenient rather than the most suitable procurement strategy has led to the misfortune of so many projects in the Nigerian construction industry. The aftermath of this has been numerous contractual claims during project execution resulting in cost over-run, time over-run and poor project delivery. In extreme cases, where claims are left unresolved, it has led to arbitration, mediation, litigation and in some cases outright project abandonment. Pragmatic research paradigm was adopted for the study. This research also employed a mixed research methodology, with both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection for data analysis. The use of structured questionnaires and multiple case studies were also adopted in eliciting knowledge from industry practitioners using a snow-balling technique. An inductive and deductive approach was adopted in developing a strategic procurement decision support system capable of bridging existing knowledge gap(s) among industry practitioners. A total of 66 valid responses were collected through administering structured questionnaires to industry practitioners in two (2) separate surveys and 31 project case studies were further analysed. This research contributes to the body of knowledge in construction management by exploring the key factors affecting the management of claims and developing a strategic procurement decision support system to enhance the successful delivery of construction projects. It is an academic work that provides greater insight as to the problems affecting claims management.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | arbitration; claims management; construction management; construction project; contract claims; corruption; decision support; dispute; litigation; mediation; Nigeria; procurement; survey |
| Index terms: | research methodology, construction contract, procurement decision, contract claim, paradigm, arbitration, project delivery, construction industry, implementation, case study, Nigeria, procurement strategy, litigation, dispute, quantitative method, questionnaire, practitioner, corruption, human resource, construction project, management practice, construction claim, body of knowledge, data analysis, decision support, mediation, manager, survey, strategic procurement, abandonment |
| Subjects: | Geography, production management, professional ethics, completion, contract type, practitioner, knowledge management, contractual arrangements, strategic project management, education and knowledge transfer, management, payment, decision analysis, industry analysis, procurement strategy, data collection methods, research design and methodology, dispute resolution, data analysis and analytics, project delivery |
| Topics: | Procurement, Risk Management, Geographical Context, Project Management, Legal Issues, Roles and Professions, Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy, Contract Administration, Human Resources |
| 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