Acar, E and Yasemin, G (2011) Prediction of risk perception by owners' psychological traits in small building contractors. Construction Management and Economics, 29(8), pp. 841-852. ISSN 1466433X
Abstract
Risk decisions in small companies are not only based on the rational evaluations of the likelihood and magnitude of risks, but also rely on the personal traits of the owners, who are the dominant or single decision makers in their organizations. The major hypothesis of this paper is that risk management decisions in a small organization cannot be separated from the personality of its owner. Studying the risk perception of owners may be important to understand the ways they handle risky and ambiguous situations across different domains and to devise project risk management strategies that fit in with the particular needs of small companies. Owners' risk perception related to building projects was statistically predicted by their psychological and demographic traits along with a set of organizational variables. Statistical analyses of data from 32 small general contractors specializing in residential and commercial building construction portray the risktaking profile of owners and suggest that individuals with low risk propensity in health and financial domains have a higher risk perception, which is also positively associated with organizational size. These findings confirm the domain-specific nature of risk taking and provide a basis to examine thoroughly the project management strategies and actions at individual level in the case of smaller companies.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | ambiguity tolerance; risk management; risk propensity; small business |
| Index terms: | building contractor, owner, statistical analysis, project risk management, personality, risk management, commercial building construction, project management, risk taking, risk propensity, general contractor, risk perception, strategy, small business |
| Subjects: | data science, organization, risk assessment, practitioner, building construction, sociology, behavioral psychology, environmental hazards, decision-making and reasoning, management, financial risk, project management theory and practice |
| Topics: | Design Practice, Project Management, Research Practice, Cost Management, Business Strategy, Sustainability, Roles and Professions, Stakeholder Management, Risk Management |
| 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