Contracting in overseas construction markets involves not only the typical risks at home, but also the complex and diverse risks peculiar to international transactions. In addition, international construction project risks are highly interdependent. The objectives of this study are to (1) explore the risk paths in the international construction projects performed by Chinese contractors, and (2) examine the risk effects on the objectives of these projects. To achieve the research objectives, a total of 60 risks were identified from literature review and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 104 professionals from Chinese international contractors. Adopting the structural equation modeling technique, this study proposed a networking of 20 significant risk paths. Specifically, host government–related risk, contractor’s lack of experience, and contractors’ lack of managerial skills had significant effect on project cost, quality, and schedule objectives, respectively. Moreover, host government–rel...

Purpose: The objective of this research is to develop a decision method that can generate appropriate risk response strategies for international construction project managers (PMs) and allow these strategies to reflect their different risk preferences.Design/methodology/approach: The optimal model approach is adopted. A credibility-based fuzzy chance constrained programming (CFCCP) model is developed, which simultaneously minimizes the expected losses of risk events and total costs of risk response. To solve this multi-objective model, a fuzzy interactive solution method is used. Moreover, the model performance is demonstrated by a real international industrial plant project. In addition, a sensitivity analysis of the model is conducted.Findings: The result of the sensitivity analysis indicates that PMs with a greater risk aversion can lead to a higher mitigation ratio of expected losses of risk events and a higher total cost of risk response.Practical implications: This research provides contractors with an effective decision-making model to develop a project risk response plan, and it will assist contractors to minimize risk losses and enhance the project performance in the international construction market.Originality/value: Previous studies overlook the risk preference, which is an important behavioral factor influencing decisions in risk response strategy selection. This research proposed a novel risk response strategy selection decision method that considers different attitudes toward risk among decision makers.

Urban infrastructure, the lifeline of modern society, consists of inherently multidimensional and interdependent systems that extend beyond various engineered facilities, utilities, and networks. The increasing frequency of extreme events, like floods, typhoons, power outages, and technical failures, has heightened the vulnerability of these infrastructures to cascading disasters. Over the past decade, significant attention has been devoted to understanding urban infrastructure cascading disasters. However, most of them have been limited by one-sided and one-dimensional analyses. A more systematic and scientific methodology is needed to comprehensively profile existing research on urban infrastructure cascading disasters to address this gap. This paper uses scientometric methods to investigate the state-of-the-art research in this area over the past decade. A total of 165 publications from 2014 to 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science database for in-depth analysis. It has revealed a shift in research focus from single infrastructures to complex, interconnected systems with multidimensional dependencies. In addition, the study of disaster-causing factors has evolved from internal infrastructure failures to a focus on cascading disasters caused by extreme events, highlighting a trend of multi-factor coupling. Furthermore, predicting and modeling cascading disasters, improving infrastructure resilience, and information sharing for collaborative emergency responses have emerged as key strategies in responding to disasters. Overall, the insights gained from this study enhance our understanding of the evolution and current challenges in urban infrastructure cascading disasters. Additionally, this study offers valuable perspectives and directions for policymakers addressing extreme events in this critical area.

Deciding whether bid for the construction project is classic risk‐based decision‐making that is crucial to the survival and prosperousness of construction companies. More contractors are adopting group bidding decision‐making to reduce the number of incorrect decisions. However, previous related studies mainly focus on project factors that overlook the members of bidding groups and the interaction between bidding group members. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to investigate the potential factors that influence group bidding decision‐making for construction projects. Twenty factors relating to individual, group, and organizational levels are identified through a literature review and interviews with experienced practitioners. A questionnaire survey of 203 Chinese international contractors is conducted to obtain the importance of the factors involved. The results of the ranking analysis indicate 14 critical factors, among which “risk perception” and “team decision preference” are regarded as the two most significant. Moreover, 20 factors can be classified into five groupings: (1) values and strategic goals, (2) collaboration and learning orientation, (3) consensus reaching, (4) risk awareness, and (5) empowerment and development, with risk awareness having an especially strong influence. This research deepens the understanding of factors belonging to different organizational levels that need to be highlighted during the group bidding decision‐making process and provides strategies for bidding groups and their companies to improve their decision performance.

Purpose: Organizational resilience offers a promising approach for projects facing unexpected challenges. The discourse on resilience in project studies involves various levels, yet limited research has conceptualized a valid scale to measure resilience at the inter-organizational project level. Moreover, the influence of resilience on project performance has not been fully explored. The objectives of this study are twofold: develop a model measuring project organizational resilience (POR) from an interorganizational relations perspective and examine the effects of POR on risk management performance and project performance. Design/methodology/approach: Following the literature on rigorous scale development procedures, Study 1 was conducted to develop a 12-item scale specifically designed to measure POR in an interorganizational project context. Subsequently, Study 2 was undertaken to investigate the impact of POR on performance improvement. Findings: The results show that POR is a hierarchical and multidimensional concept, comprising two primary dimensions: (1) proactive project organizational resilience (PPOR) and (2) reactive project organizational resilience (RPOR). The proactive dimension further includes two sub-dimensions: readiness and collaboration. Furthermore, the results indicate that POR can improve project performance through the mediating effect of risk management performance and that network density positively moderates the linkage between RPOR and risk management performance. Practical implications: Practitioners can benefit from this research by understanding the effective strategies for assessing and enhancing resilience capability when operating construction projects. Originality/value: The findings contribute to the body of knowledge by (1) developing a validated scale to measure resilience in the project environment and (2) unveiling the black box between different dimensions of POR and performance.

Resilience is critical for construction projects to cope with diverse risks and uncertainties. Inter-organizational relationship governance has been widely recognized as an important means of strengthening project resilience. However, existing research has paid limited attention to how different governance mechanisms interact and combine to enhance resilience in construction projects. Drawing on a configurational perspective, this study examines how contractual, hierarchical, and network governance jointly contribute to construction project resilience. Based on survey data from 289 practitioners, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is employed to identify the governance configurations associated with high project resilience. The results reveal three configurational pathways leading to high resilience: (1) relational–structural network governance coupled with contractual governance; (2) a combination of contractual, hierarchical, and network governance; (3) relational–cognitive network governance coupled with contractual governance. These findings offer important theoretical and practical implications for understanding the role of hybrid governance in the resilience of construction projects. Theoretically, this study extends resilience research by demonstrating that contractual, hierarchical, and network governance do not operate in isolation but jointly enhance project resilience through distinct configurations. Practically, these findings offer guidance for project stakeholders to optimize and integrate governance mechanisms, thereby improving their capacity to anticipate, respond to, and manage internal and external crises.