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This study addresses a long-standing debate as to why escalation in capital costs is so common over the lifecycle of 'megaprojects'-the project-based, multi-party organizational contexts that are set up to develop capital-intensive, long-lived infrastructure. We ground our study on three case studies conducted with theoretical alertness to a range of factors that need to be considered from an organizational governance perspective. Our findings trace cost escalation to fundamental changes of the project governance structure and concomitant renegotiations of the value to be created and the value distribution. Specifically we link substantive cost hikes to, first, early negotiations to agree a value proposition that unifies a core group of autonomous actors under a shared form of governance. And second, to collective action problems that arise as key nonmarket stakeholders are brought into a polycentric governance structure to encourage cooperation in joint local value creation activities. We also associate cost hikes, although less substantive, to market transactions with suppliers and to bilateral agreements with other nonmarket stakeholders that stay excluded from direct participation in governance-related decisions. We discuss implications to our theoretical and empirical understanding of megaproject behavior and performance.

There has long been inconsistence on the relationship among prior interactions, contracts and cooperative behavior. This study aims to examine how prior interactions affect cooperative behavior, including the effects of prior interactions on cooperative behavior and the mediating role of the contract between prior interactions and cooperative behavior. We classify cooperative behavior as in-role and extra-role behavior, and contract as a three-dimensional construct, including control, coordination and adaptation. Collecting data from 200 contractors in Chinese construction industry, the empirical results demonstrate the significance of the effect of prior interactions, the relationship between contract and cooperative behavior, and the mediating role of contractual coordination. According to our result, increasing contractual coordination emerge from prior interactions, while contractual control and adaptation is not related to these repeated collaborations. The findings reflect the interconnectedness of real-life projectsand provide a nuanced explanation to the complex relationships among prior interactions, contracts and cooperative behavior.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify and analyse factors that affect contractors’ behavioural strategies in resolving disputed claims. Design/methodology/approach Factors were explored by a literature review and an open-ended questionnaire survey. In total, 9 hypotheses involving 12 factors were developed accordingly. Then a structured questionnaire survey was conducted, and 248 valid questionnaires were received from Chinese contractors. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings Factors that have the largest impacts on the contractual approach and the relational approach regarding obliging and compromising are favourability of evidence, time pressure and reputation, respectively. Unexpected results show that obliging behaviours are negatively correlated with procedural fairness but positively correlated with occurrence time of the dispute. Research limitations/implications The results are based on correlation, although the research design improves the internal validity. Furthermore, this study belongs to single-level research. In the future, researchers can conduct multilevel research to enrich theories. Practical implications The findings not only enhance practitioners’ understanding of the factors influencing contractors’ behavioural strategies when dealing with disputed claims, but also offer insights into both parties’ ex ante focus of attention on specific factors to facilitate the subsequent dispute resolution. Originality/value This study furnishes a nuanced picture of multiple factors’ impacts on contractors’ behavioural strategies of claim-related dispute resolution, and thus supplements the relevant construction dispute management literature. From the perspective of contractual governance, it is one of those exploring drivers of contract application in problem situations. It extends the body of knowledge on this topic and hopefully will encourage more research on contractual governance from the reactive perspective.

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PurposeThis study aims to first identify influencing factors of outsourcing decisions in construction projects systematically and further to unravel the interactions of these influencing factors from a holistic perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study concerns the design and analysis of two-stage studies, where, at the first stage, a systematic literature review and 48 semi-structured interviews with senior practitioners in construction firms were conducted to identify influencing factors in outsourcing decisions in construction projects. At the second stage, the decision-making and trial evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method was employed to explore the interactions between influencing factors and pathways of outsourcing decisions.FindingsThree focuses for outsourcing decisions are outlined, revealing that outsourcing restrictions, strategic needs and cost objectives need to be considered in outsourcing decisions. In addition, the finding contributes to the integration of transaction costs perspective and capability perspective by unravelling the mechanism of how different factors work together.Practical implicationsThis study outlines 18 influencing factors and three sequential focuses for outsourcing decision-making, providing a clearer understanding of each factor’s contribution for decision-makers.Originality/valueMost of the existing studies stressed the net effect of individual outsourcing factors from a single logic and paid little attention to their complex causal relationship. This study develops a holistic perspective of the influencing factors of outsourcing in construction projects by contending the overall knowledge of outsourcing and analyzing the causal relationship between them.

Violations happen frequently in construction project due to opportunistic intentions and/or the lack of awareness of obligations and/or honest attempts to react to unforeseen circumstances. Dealing with contract violation plays an important role in managing projects.The aim of the research is to investigate the impact of trust, analyzed in terms of goodwillbased and competence-based trust, on both contract and social enforcement after contract violation. Questionnaire survey, partially based on semi-structured interviews, was used for data collection. All the data is from Chinese construction industry since it provides a fertile context to explore the research questions. The results show that: 1) reputation is used as social enforcement in practice and the severity of it is reflected by the scope of disclosure, 2) the two dimensions of trust have opposite influences on severity of contract and social enforcement via different mediating effects of perceived intentionality. Specifically, goodwill-based trust reduces severity of enforcement via decreasing perceived intentionality, while competencebased trust increases severity of enforcement by increasing perceived intentionality. A comprehensive and nuanced understanding for managing contract violation is generated in this research, which will help project managers to manage the contract violation and the interfirm relationships more effectively.