The challenges of risk and reward sharing in the implementation of integrated project delivery contracts in the Iranian construction industry

The Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) system is the contemporary contracting approach used in construction projects. However, its implementation faces many challenges due to the evolving nature of this project delivery system. Risk and reward sharing is one of the most challenging fields in IPD, and this study aims to identify and prioritize these challenges based on their importance in the project's success. The potential challenges were collected through a deep literature review and interviews. Subsequently, the most important ones were arranged in the questionnaire, and finally, they were analyzed using structural equation modeling based on the partial least squares (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that contractual challenges, compared with the other challenges, are more critical to the successful implementation of IPD. To the best of our knowledge, even though several studies have been accomplished to identify the challenges of IPD implementation, no study has focused particularly on the challenges of risk and reward sharing. This study's outcome helps construction industry experts to find solutions for the most critical challenges regarding risk and reward sharing, which leads directly to significant impacts.