Osuizugbo, I C; Fauzi, M A; Omer, M M; Njogo, B O and Orekan, A A (2024) Research trends on early contractor involvement in construction projects: A bibliometric analysis. Construction Economics and Building, 24(4-5), pp. 160-178. ISSN 2204-9029
Abstract
The present study aims to highlight most significant journals in early contractor involvement (ECI) research, most productive authors on ECI studies and territories, geospatial network of the active ECI research countries, current trend in ECI studies, and the most relevant keywords and co-occurrence networks in ECI studies. This study comprehensively examined the ECI research field by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 210 journal articles between 1992 and 2023 from the Web of Science (WoS) database. The findings showed that, Transportation Research Record, Construction Management and Economics, Journal of Management in Engineering, and Journal of Construction Engineering and Management are the most represented journals. Per Erik Eriksson from Luleå University of Technology is the most productive author identified in this study. United States of America, England and Australia are the most productive countries on ECI research. Current trends in ECI studies include ECI and project delivery, ECI as critical success factors, ECI in design and its impact on construction schedule performance and overcoming cost-related issues through ECI. The highest co-occurred keywords are "procurement", "early contractor involvement", "performance," and "construction." The findings from this study suggest that applying Collaborative contracting theory to ECI enhances innovation, project delivery, and communication, while relational contracting theory fosters collaborative risk management, trust, and flexibility, resulting in better relationships and outcomes. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to conduct bibliometric analysis of past studies on ECI. As a result, the study contributed to the existing knowledge by identifying the pattern and trend of ECI research area, revealing its broader themes of research and clusters, mapping the network of key ECI authors and territories. This study identified "governance structure" as an aspect of ECI study that is scarce in the literature and needs further exploration. Additionally, since most ECI studies originate from developed countries, future research should focus on developing countries.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | bibliographic coupling analysis; bibliometric analysis; co-word analysis; construction projects; early contractor involvement; procurement; scientometric analysis |
| Index terms: | early contractor involvement, science, journal, bibliometric analysis, developing country, schedule performance, critical success factor, co-word analysis, construction project, mapping, exploration, developed country, Australia, database, coupling, England, relational contracting, governance, United States of America, project delivery, construction engineering, risk management |
| Subjects: | engineering methods, systems engineering, data management, project controls, research evaluation and metrics, control systems, business, risk assessment, project delivery, data analysis and analytics, development economics, Geography, production management, spatial and geospatial analysis, specialized education, research dissemination and communication, contractual arrangements, environmental resource management |
| Topics: | Governance, Information Management, Research Practice, Time Control, International Construction, Digital Applications, Sustainability, Procurement, Risk Management, Engineering Principles, Project Management, Geographical Context, Education |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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