The global influence of national cultural values on construction permitting

Kaminsky, J (2019) The global influence of national cultural values on construction permitting. Construction Management and Economics, 37(2), pp. 89-100. ISSN 01446193

Abstract

This research discovers how national level culture shapes construction permitting across 62 nations. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions explain variability in components of World Bank’s dealing with Construction Permits index, which measures the number of required permitting procedures, the required time in days, the cost as a percentage of a standardized warehouse value, and a permitting quality index. After controlling for gross domestic product, statistically significant relationships between permitting time and Hofstede’s Uncertainty Avoidance and Masculinity-Femininity dimensions emerged. Hofstede’s Power Distance Index shared statistically significant relationships with the number of procedures required for permitting, and a limited relationship with the cost of permitting. These data provide empirical evidence that different cultural preferences lead to different construction permitting practices, and allow the construction community to better understand the culturally shaped ways in which permits govern projects. This builds the theory of social sustainability of infrastructure, which seeks to generalize ways to match construction practice to societal preferences to improve community and project outcomes. For example, policy makers may use the results presented here to shape more culturally appropriate construction permitting regulations. In another example, construction firms may use these results to navigate permitting challenges they encounter on global projects.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: culture; global projects; permitting; regulation; social sustainability
Index terms: gross domestic product, World Bank, project outcome, social sustainability, construction community, dimension, variability, masculinity, construction firm, evidence, regulation, preference
Subjects: communities and social development, political science, statistical analysis, sociology, professional development, decision-making and reasoning, institutional frameworks, health monitoring assessment and metrics, economic analysis, evaluation and assessment methods, organization, project completion
Topics: Stakeholder Management, Governance, Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Information Management, Research Practice, Project 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