The Moderating Effect of Guanxi on the Dynamic Capacity and Competitive Advantage of Chinese International Contractors

Abstract

With the active support of the national policy "One Belt and One Road" Initiative, Chinese contractors seized this historic opportunity to accelerate strategic globalization, and they gradually stood out in international construction projects owing to their low-cost advantage. However, despite China having large-scale contractors and wide-range business, compared to developed countries, a considerably large gap still exists. China is confronted with complex and changeable international projects filled with increasing competition. us, it is both a focus issue and a major task for Chinese international contractors, and many scholars, to consider how Chinese contractors can obtain and maintain long-term competitive advantages to improve their capabilities in response to dynamic environmental changes. erefore, the objectives of this study are (1) to study the influence of the dynamic capability of Chinese contractors on competitive advantage in a project and (2) to explore the moderating effect of Chinese guanxi on the dynamic capability and competitive advantage of Chinese international contractors.is study primarily aimed at researching the impact of dynamic capacity of Chinese contractors on competitive advantage and the moderating effects of Chinese guanxi. e findings suggest that the environmental perception capability and the integration and coordination capability of the dynamic capability have a significant positive effect on the project competitive advantage; business guanxi positively moderates the relationship between the environmental perception capability and the competitive advantage. Business guanxi also negatively moderates the relationship between learning ability and competitive advantage, while political guanxi negatively moderates the relationship between the environmental perception capability and competitive advantage. is paper contributes to the construction management literature not only by providing empirical evidence on the dynamic capability and competitive advantage of Chinese contractors but also by expanding guanxi research. e results may also help Chinese contractors by providing strategic reform guidance and sustainable development in international construction projects.

Understanding Critical Variables Contributing to Competitive Advantages of International High-Speed Railway Contractors

“…L. Shen, Lu, Q. Shen, and Li (2003), Shen, Lu, and Yam (2006) focused on identifying the key competitiveness indicators and assessing a contractor's competitiveness. In addition, some researchers studied the relationship between contractors' competitive advantage and some certain variable, with examples such as innovation (Lu, Liu, Rowlinson, & Poon, 2013;Lim, Schultmann, & Ofori, 2010), quality management (Jaafari, 2000), political risk management (Deng, Low, Li, & Zhao, 2014;Chang, Hwang, Deng, & Zhao, 2018a;Chang, Deng, Zuo, & Yuan, 2018b), positive psychological capital (Toor & Ofori, 2010), project safety (Rechenthin, 2004), decision-making style (Oyewobi, Windapo, & Rotimi, 2016), equipment selection (Samee & Pongpeng, 2016), and guanxi (Lin, Q. Chen, Liao, P. H. Chen, & Cheng, 2018). However, the research about the competitive advantage of contractors on international HSR projects is very scarce.…”

Sustainable international competitiveness of regional construction industry: Spatiotemporal evolution and influential factor analysis in China

“…According to the ENR (2020), 74 Chinese contractors are on the top 250 international contractors list, and their international revenue accounts for 25.4% of the total international revenue of the top 250 international contractors. However, the complex international marketing environment makes it difficult for national or regional construction industries to sustain competitiveness (Lin et al, 2018). OCP turnover and growth rate in 27 regions in China from 2008 to 2018 are shown in Fig.…”