Dispute resolution and litigation in the Dutch construction industry. Evidence on conflicts and conflict resolution in the Netherlands and Germany

The constructionindustryisregardedtobeatoughandcompetitivebusinesscharacterizedbyshort- term andopportunisticrelationsratherthanbeingbasedoncooperativepartnerships.Inparticular, conflictsandlitigationhavebeenclaimedtoproliferateintheconstructionindustry.Uponcloser inspectionoftheliterature,itseemsthattheempiricalbasisoftheseclaimsislargelycircumstantial. Using dataoncontractor–subcontractorrelationsintheconstructionindustryinTheNetherlands,we considertheextenttowhichlitigationinconstructioniscommon.Thenwecomparetheresultsto similardatasetsonIT-purchasingbothinTheNetherlandsandGermany,andtoadatasetwithmore generalbusiness-to-businesstransactionsoflargerDutchandGermanfirms.Wefindsomeevidence that theconstructionindustryhashigherpercentagesoftransactionsleadingtoeitherarbitration, suspensionoftherelation,orlegalsteps(1.6%versus1.2,0.4and0.6).Thedifferencesarehowevernot as extremeasonemightconcludebasedonsuperficialreadingofthepopularandscientificliterature, and certainlynotbiggerthanthedifferencesbetweentheotherdatasets.