Contractor’s Critical Factors Influencing Project Success: a Case of Indian Construction

Abstract

In India, the success is a basic issue for many construction projects. Many critical success factors (CSFs) are responsible for success/failure of the projects. Contractor is the main stakeholder who is responsible for the success or failure of the project. So, it is necessary to study about the influence of contractor on construction projects. This study deals with the contractor's CSFs influencing project success in terms of budget, schedule, and quality. In order to identify the impact of contractor a questionnaire survey with 29 CSFs were used. The responses for this survey were taken from professionals in construction industry. The data collected through the survey was analysed using factor analysis initially. From factor analysis, certain number of attributes turns out to be the components. Later, a logistic regression model was developed to identify the factors affecting project success. I. INTRODUCTION Construction industry is one of the largest industries in India. The revenue contribution to the nation from this industry is very huge. This industry comprises many skilled and unskilled personnel. Many infrastructure projects are being executed. A number of challenges are faced during the execution of the projects. The challenges may include on time delivery of project, cost overrun, inadequate quality, incompetency of the management, resources availability, clients, contractor, subcontractor , etc. Many studies reveal that contractor's qualification plays a significant role in project implementation. So, there is necessity in understanding how the contractor is responsible for the project success. projects. The project success is not just dependent on time, cost, and specifications but there are other criteria to be considered. There are many critical factors (known as critical success factors in this paper) which impact the success criteria. The factors may be related to management, stakeholder, resources etc. The critical factors vary with the perception of the viewer (professional). Since they are dependent on perception there are infinite number of factors. In past, many studies were done to identify these factors but no study could identify all the factors. So, the scope of the study in this field (project success) is very high. The project is considered successful if it meets the criteria of time, cost and quality[1]. The iron triangle represents the most accepted criteria (on time, under budget, according to quality) for project success [2]. There was an intensive attempt in the previous studies to measure this project success but there is no universal criteria to measure project success [3]. Many stakeholders (government, contractors, management, customers etc come under stakeholders) play a key role in the construction of projects. The importance of the contractor as a main stakeholder is studied in many previous studies. This importance is seen in studies done in selection criteria of the contactor based on his/ her qualification [4] [5].