Comparative study of relationship management in design-bid-build project delivery methods in infrastructure projects

Supply chain management (SCM) concepts suggest that high fragmentation of roles on projects causes significant negative impacts such as lower processes integration and higher transaction volumes. Within the scope of construction SCM, relationship management (RM) is regarded as one of the most important aspects for achieving efficient SCM. The use of RM in construction projects administration worldwide is manifest on alternative procurement methods, drifting away from traditional systems to ones that are relationship-based. Despite the significance of relationships for project delivery, there were no previous studies that investigated the influence of supply chain RM on construction projects utilizing different project delivery methods (PDMs). The aim of this paper is thus, to determine how RM among parties may be influenced by the PDM utilized. This is achieved through conducting case studies to compare RM in multi-prime design-bid-build versus design-build projects. The researchers adopted the core values developed by Meng’s 2011 RM maturity model to assess RM on projects utilizing different PDMs. Based on the two case studies, the total project RM score was seen to be lower in DBB projects compared to DB projects suggesting that the PDM employed influences RM on construction projects. Such findings can serve as a preliminary evidence of PDM choice effect on project RM and can help project parties gain a better understanding of PDM association to effective supply chain RM implementation. This study could be further extended to encompass more projects to provide statistical evidence of the influence of PDM on RM.Non UBCUnreviewedFacultyOthe