Collaborative Project Procurement in the Construction Industry: Investigating the Drivers and Barriers in Malaysia

Abstract

The traditional construction procurement approach engenders adversarial attitudes and the pursuit of individual organisation’s gain has led to inefficiencies and poor project management. Previous studies suggest collaborative working in the construction supply chain may produce better outcomes. This paper examines the drivers and barriers to embracing collaborative procurement practices pertinent to the construction industry in the developing world; using Malaysia as a base of the study. Drawing on an empirical survey involving construction professionals (contractors, consultants and clients), the significance of the drivers and barriers are prioritised based on mean scores. The most significant drivers are better quality outcome, better cost control, better time control, effective problem solving and increased client satisfaction. As for the barriers, resistance to change current way of working, communication problem, incompatible personalities and organisational cultures, lack of top management support, and inadequate training and guidance rank the highest. Next, Kruskal-Wallis tests were selected to compare the results given by the three groups of respondents. All the drivers are homogeneously perceived except for ‘long-term relationship’. Homogeneous perceptions are observed for all drivers. Results from this study are expected to benefit both construction practitioners and researchers in the exploration, planning and implementation of collaboration-based project procurement arrangements.