Unveiling and modelling the impact of safety drivers on the overall success of construction projects in developing countries

The construction industry faces significant risks, leading to high accident rates and injuries, underscoring the urgent need for effective safety implementation. In developing countries, safety implementation is often inadequate, leading to increased incidents and project failures. This study investigates how implementing safety drivers (SDs) can enhance overall project success (OPS) in construction through a five-step process. Initially, systematic searches and scientometric analyses are conducted to review existing literature and establish a foundational understanding. A questionnaire is then distributed to experts in the Egyptian construction sector. The third step involves exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to categorize relevant variables. Following this, partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) tests the proposed conceptual model and analyzes relationships among the variables. The final step employs Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation (FSE) to rank SDs categories. Findings from PLS-SEM indicate that SDs have a medium to high impact on OPS, accounting for 58.8% of the total influence. The FSE results reveal that the planning and implementation group ranks as the most significant at 3.48 on evaluation matrix. This research contributes to the limited literature on safety in developing countries like Egypt by proposing a novel model that links SDs to OPS, offering practical insights for the construction industry.