A number of procurement selection systems have been developed over the last decade. The use of multi-attribute decision analysis has been considered the foremost technique for examining client needs and the weightings of preferences from experts for each procurement system in the most objective way available. However, the major difficulty of these selection models lies in the lack of consensus among the experts on the utility factor of the selection criteria. To overcome these deficiencies, a Delphi technique was adopted to develop a multi-attribute model. Four rounds of Delphi surveys were conducted. A statistically significant consensus on the weighting of the utility factors for each procurement system was obtained from eight experts. The results vividly reveal that the Delphi method is a powerful and appropriate technique for deriving objective opinions in a rather subjective area such as the multi-attribute model for the selection of procurement system.

Disputes have been identified as one of the epidemics of the construction industry. Many studies have found that risks, uncertainties, inadequate contract documentation, and behavioral factors are notable dispute sources. Many have described disputes with reference to the subject matter. This approach is pragmatic but has not yet lead to any form of conceptualization. The study contributes to the construction dispute research domain in (1) proposing an anatomy of construction disputes, (2) identifying the key factors contributing to the happening of construction disputes, and (3) providing an example on the use of the anatomy through a dispute occurrence likelihood evaluation exercise. The proposed anatomy distinguishes two types of construction dispute: contractual and speculative. Contract incompleteness is the root cause and underpins both types of construction disputes. In addition, task and people factors fuel contractual and speculative disputes, respectively. The proposed anatomy is arrange...

The establishment of trust has been identified as the most critical factor that facilitates partnering success. As such, management should direct their efforts and energy to enhance trust effectively and systematically. It is hypothesized that partners’ trust level is positively related to their performance, permeability, and relational bonding and can be system based. This paper reports the use of the structural equation modeling technique to test this hypothesis. Project-based data on partnering success and the relative importance of the four trust factors were collected through a questionnaire survey, and the level of partnering success was assessed by the achievement of the preset project targets. The findings of the study support the hypothesized positive relationship between the partners’ trust level and partnering success. In addition, performance, permeability, and relational bonding were found to make significant contributions toward parties’ trust level.