Transaction costs occur when a good or service is transferred across a technologically separable interface, and include the costs of drafting, negotiating and enforcing an agreement, and also the costs of governance and bonding to secure commitments. In the complex and high risk environment of a construction project, questionable decisions can be made in the planning and design phase, and disagreements, conflicts, disputes, change orders, and claims can occur in the construction phase. These problems contribute to an increase in transaction costs. Transaction costs at the pre-contract phase of a project are different from the transaction costs at the post-contract phase. However, there is no consensus on a standard definition of transaction costs in construction projects. In this study, a detailed literature review focusing on transaction costs in construction project management is presented. The factors that affect transaction costs are identified and categorized under the headings of the owner’s and contractor’s roles in the transaction, project management efficiency, and the characteristics of the transaction environment.

No abstract

No abstract

Determining the relationship between conflict factors and performance of international construction projects", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. 21 Iss 4 pp. 369-382 http:// dx.If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Transaction costs arise from economic exchange rather than production activities. However, the term "transaction cost" is not consistently defined in the construction industry because the concept of transaction cost is not universally accepted by all stakeholders in construction projects. As a result, empirical studies are few and conflicting because accessing data on transaction costs is problematic, and the interpretation of the data is difficult. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the transaction costs borne by the owner in a construction project from the perspective of transaction cost economics and construction project characteristics. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire survey was administered to construction owners. The factors that impact transaction costs were analyzed in the context of human-related issues (the owner's and the contractor's positions in the transaction), and environment-related issues (the transaction environment, and project management efficiency). Statistical analyses were conducted to compare the transaction costs incurred in the pre-vs post-contract phases of a project relative to the private vs public sector, different project delivery systems, different procurement methods, and different types of contracts. Findings -The owners surveyed believe that transaction costs may be reduced if the owner and the contractor follow some basic guidelines (e.g. experience in similar projects, prompt payment, good relationship with project participants, no irregularities in bidding, and only few material substitutions and claims), if the project is well-run (e.g. technical competency, strong leadership, prompt decision-making, effective communication, and fair/speedy conflict management), and if the transaction environment is favorable (e.g. fair risk allocation, early contractor involvement, and complete design documents). The findings of the survey also indicate that post-contract transaction costs are much higher than pre-contract tran...

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

As a new development mode for solving urban water control problems, a sponge city has been widely concerned and steadily promoted in China. The source engineering in the non-public land is called a low-impact development system. Although it is an important part of a sponge city, the effect of its construction and operation is not ideal at present. The main reason for this lies in the moral hazard behavior of the developer who is the responsible party and the agent. In this research, governance mechanisms for preventing the moral hazard behavior are put forward. Additionally, corresponding models are constructed and designed based on incentive theory and project governance theory. Furthermore, the existence constraint conditions of different governance mechanisms are obtained, as well as the optimal reward and punishment of the government. Meanwhile, this paper calculated the expected returns of the government and the developer. The result shows that project completion probability and supervision cost are two key factors affecting the choice of the governance mechanisms. According to different value of project completion probability and supervision cost, this paper evaluated the selection conditions of different governance mechanisms. Moreover, this research puts forward some governing tactics and suggestions for preventing the developer’s moral hazard behavior, in order to improve the effect of project construction, and promote sponge cities to develop in a more efficient and sustainable manner.