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Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
1
Exploring the Applicability of Construction Partnering in
Mainland China: A Qualitative Study
Yuming Hong, Daniel W.M. Chan and Albert P.C. Chan
Department of Building and Real Estate, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China
Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to explore the applicability of construction partnering in Mainland China,
and to provide useful suggestions and possible implications for decision-makers to adopt this
collaborative approach to project procurement.
Design/methodology/approach – Document analysis was first employed to identify the favourable
conditions and potential difficulties in partnering application in Mainland China. A series of
face-to-face semi-structured interviews targeting on academic experts and industrial practitioners
were undertaken to solicit their perceptions on the benefits and difficulties of implementing partnering
in Mainland China, coupled with their overall assessment of the applicability of and suggestions for
partnering implementation in the region.
Findings – The results of document analysis indicated that the cultural roots of co-operation and
mutual trust, together with the increasing needs for improving the current state of project performance
in Mainland China, underpin the application of partnering in the construction market although its
application and generalisation still encounter some significant difficulties. The perceived benefits,
potential barriers and effective strategies for partnering application in Mainland China were
determined from the interviewees. The interview results further supported the applicability of
construction partnering and provided constructive and practical suggestions for possible
implementation in the Mainland Chinese construction industry. The partnering approach has been
evaluated as practicable and appropriate in this study for the construction industry of Mainland China.
Research limitations/implications – Although it is essential to base the analysis of partnering
applicability on a qualitative study, an empirical quantitative investigation of the benefits and
difficulties of partnering application could further reinforce the quality of analysis. Future research
could look into the project-based assessment of partnering application in terms of the perceived
benefits and potential difficulties of, and success factors for partnering implementation in Mainland
China.
Practical implications – Policy-makers aiming for the introduction of the partnering approach could
be equipped with stronger confidence from the favourable cultural environment and industrial needs.
Restrictions to partnering application underlying in the current working culture could be mitigated
when appropriate strategies are taken by the initiators of the partnering approach.
Originality/value – The increased worldwide attention to construction partnering has shed light on
the construction industry of Mainland China to achieve better value for money in project procurement
and management. This paper has provided valuable reference for decision-makers to consider the
adoption of partnering based on the qualitative analysis of the applicability of partnering in the
construction industry of Mainland China.
Keywords: Partnering, Applicability, Construction industry, Mainland China, Culture
Paper type: Research
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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1 Introduction
The international construction industry of the past two decades has been marked by the
increased attention to construction partnering. In many countries or regions such as the
United Kingdom (Reading Construction Forum, 1995 & 1998; Green, 1999; Wood and Ellis,
2005), the United States (Weston and Gibson, 1993; Larson, 1995), Australia (Walker et al.,
1999), Hong Kong (Chan et al., 2003a & 2008), South Africa (Allen et al., 1999) etc, the vast
practices of construction projects have evidenced the substantial benefits reaped through the
application of partnering concepts.
However, industrial application and generalisation of construction partnering in Mainland
China is still in its infancy. There are plenty of research studies asserting that there is no
project clearly labelled as partnering projects in Mainland China, although the key elements
of partnering can be observed in many projects (Zhang and Cao, 2005). Specific
questionnaire surveys conducted by researchers in the Chinese Mainland also indicated that
the past recent years recorded no construction projects implemented with the “partnering
mode” (Zhao, 2005; Jiang, 2008).
Meanwhile, although many aspects of the study of project partnering and strategic alliancing
in developed construction markets have been reported, there has been limited research on
these areas in the Chinese construction sector (Lu and Yan, 2007a). Since there seems no
evidence from the literature indicating that partnering is a management approach suitable for
some countries but not the others (Koraltan and Dikbas, 2002), identifying the suitability of
partnering application in Mainland China is conducive and essential in unveiling the
understanding about the potential of construction partnering in the region.
Although the term ‘‘partnering’’ is relatively new to the construction industry of Mainland
China, there exist many project practices having embraced partnering philosophy, which
usually refers to commitment, mutual trust and good faith between contracting parties (Lu
and Yan, 2007b). Some partnering tools (e.g. team building sessions and review meetings)
have also been used to promote co-operation between project parties (Lu and Yan, 2007a).
By means of two case studies, Jin and Ling (2005) developed a holistic framework for
building up relationships and mutual trust in project organisations, which concurrently
promotes partnering application in construction projects. These studies pertaining to
partnering in China revealed that the application of partnering in the Chinese construction
sector has been emerging.
2 Scope of study
Although the definitions of partnering in construction vary from one study to another, there
exists a common consensus on the key elements of partnering through co-operation and
teamwork: commitment, mutual trust and respect, communication, equity, responsiveness to
problems, continuous evaluation, common goals and joint problem resolution (Cook and
Hancher, 1990; Construction Industry Institute, 1991; Ng et al., 2002; Chan et al., 2003b). To
crystallise the research scope, the definition of construction partnering given by the
Construction Industry Board (1997) based in the United Kingdom was adopted in this study.
The Construction Industry Board (1997) defined partnering to be:
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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“A structured management approach to facilitate team working across contractual
boundaries…… it should not be confused with other good project management
practice, or with long-standing relationships, negotiated contracts, or preferred
supplier arrangement, all of which lack the structure and objective measures that
must support a partnering relationship.”
Under such definition, construction partnering is a structured management approach with the
objective project performance measures, usually denoted by signing on a partnering charter,
launching regular partnering workshops, developing a partnering performance monitoring
matrix and establishing an agreed issue resolution mechanism, etc.
In line with the current status of partnering application in the construction industry of
Mainland China, this study, rather than vaguely looking at basic relational elements in a
contractual relationship, centres on the application of construction partnering under the
structured partnering process. In fact, the reported partnering practices in Mainland China
within the literature fall exclusively under the category of ‘informal partnering’ projects,
deviating more or less from those under the structured partnering process.
Through exploration into the State Procurement Law (SPL), new developments in Turkey,
anticipated changes and the public construction process, Koraltan and Dikbas (2002) assessed
the applicability of partnering in the Turkish construction sector. Lu and Yan (2007b)
proposed a framework for assessing the applicability of partnering, where management
mechanism, organisations involved and project dimensions can be evaluated for determining
partnering use. It should be noted that these three constructs for the assessment of partnering
applicability focus on the organisational/project level and stand on no empirical validation.
To date, there has been a conspicuous lack of research studies on systematically exploring, at
the national level, the applicability of construction partnering in Mainland China.
This study aims to bridge this research gap through desktop literature review and expert
interviews. It is also dedicated to provide clear answers to the questions in relation to
partnering application in Mainland China as adapted from those raised by Zhang and Cao
(2005), including:
(1) Can formal partnering procedures and tools be applied in the Mainland Chinese
construction industry?
(2) What favour and underpin the implementation of partnering in the current context of
Mainland China?
(3) What are needed to promote the implementation of formal partnering?
(4) Are there any obstacles of partnering implementation?
(5) If prospective clients and the government take the initiative to embrace partnering and
implement it, what is the most appropriate way to adopt this approach?
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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Partnering, as an innovative procurement approach, is perceived to be analogous to
“technology”, which shapes the global affairs and itself is shaped by global economy, politics
and culture (Fritsch, 2011). To assess the applicability of construction partnering in Mainland
China, this study therefore initially extends the analytical contexts of Koraltan and Dikbas
(2002) to these three dimensions, reflected as political law, culture and economy in
construction. Since the archival research indicates that the national laws/regulations have no
ordinances conducive to partnering implementation in the building and construction sectors,
culture and economic needs are mainly introduced, explored and summarised to elaborate on
the favourable contexts for partnering implementation in Mainland China.
This paper reviews partnering related articles since it was introduced to the international
construction industry in the 1980s. Based on an extensive desktop review of prevailing
partnering literature, document analysis of national culture, economic development in
construction, and possible barriers to partnering implementation, coupled with expert
interviews in Mainland China, this paper reviews, assesses and facilitates the applicability
and adaptability of construction partnering in the construction industry of Mainland China.
3 Research methodology
This study, employing the approaches of archival research and face-to-face semi-structured
interviews, is basically qualitative by nature for obtaining general perceptions on the
applicability of construction partnering in Mainland China. The filtering and sorting of
recorded archives of the Chinese culture in business and economic developments and
demands in the construction and building sectors enable a clear and substantiated picture of
the adaptability of construction partnering to a certain extent. While the semi-structured
interviews are intended to further consolidate the analysis purely based on the existing
literature, which may help trigger a comprehensive image of the issue pertaining to the
feasibility and adaptability of partnering in the Chinese construction industry.
Two major dimensions of national characteristics, i.e. national culture and economic needs,
were initially resorted to for verifying the favourable contexts for partnering application in
Mainland China. The document analysis also encompasses the investigation of potential
barriers to partnering implementation from four distinct perspectives, being cultural, juristical,
economic, and technical barriers, which are perceived as inclusive of essential contexts for
overall assessment. An analytical framework can be visualised in the model presented in
Figure 1.
Figure 1 gives a preliminary analysis of the favourable contexts and potential impediments of
partnering application in Mainland China which may infer the general feasibility and
suitability of partnering implementation in the region. If it is perceived and determined from
the analysis that partnering is not applicable in the current context, the key barriers to
partnering implementation will be traced and possible effective measures for
mitigating/avoiding the barriers will be recommended in order to improve the applicability of
construction partnering for future practice. The introduction of partnering in construction
projects will, in turn, affect and ameliorate the organisational culture of the industry,
demonstrate its perceived benefits in practice and improve the existing market demand.
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
5
denotes unilateral effect denotes interactive effects
+ denotes applicable denotes non-applicable
Figure 1. Framework for document analysis of partnering applicability in Mainland China
Pursuant to the document analysis of favourable elements of and potential barriers to
partnering implementation, the study further launched a series of in-depth semi-structured
interviews (each lasting for about one hour) to identify the major barriers and effective
strategies for partnering implementation in the Chinese construction industry. In
consideration of the specific regional characteristics of Mainland China, five
well-experienced academic experts in the field of project procurement and construction
partnering from Mainland China were interviewed for soliciting their perceptions on the
potential barriers to partnering implementation and generalisation in Mainland China. In
addition to the analysis of the barriers to practical implementation, they were further invited
to evaluate the feasibility of partnering in general and to provide constructive suggestions for
application in particular. Subsequently, a senior industrial representative was targeted for
verifying and substantiating the perceptions and suggestions as provided by the interviewed
experts from the academic sector. Interviews are regarded as a useful method for collecting
in-depth data and insightful opinions from a small sample of representative experts, as
previously applied by the research team on investigating the application of target cost
contracts in Hong Kong (Chan et al., 2007) and on identifying the key risk factors and risk
mitigation measures for target cost contracts in Hong Kong (Chan et al., 2010). Furthermore,
in terms of the number of interviews required, previous research studies have demonstrated
that a sample of six interviews may have been sufficient to enable the development of
meaningful themes and useful interpretations (Guest et al., 2006).
Barriers
Cultural
Technical
Economic
Juristical
Cultural context
Trust/distrust
Reciprocity
Time dimension
Harmony
Economic needs
Favourable elements
and incentives
Assessing
partnering
applicability
Potential benefits
Partnering
application
Identify key
barriers
+
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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The six interviewees (as shown in Table 1) represent a combination of the academics and
practitioners in the construction field of Mainland China. All of them have known well about
the partnering concepts and implementation process, and were thus able to provide valid and
reliable comments on the prospect of partnering implementation in Mainland China. Amongst
the six selected interviewees, three are academics researched and had several publications on
construction partnering in Mainland China, two are well-experienced and representative
experts in the field of construction engineering and management, and one has gained direct
hands-on experience in construction projects where relational agreements between the client
and the contractor had been formed.
A total of nine open-ended questions were asked during the interview to convey general ideas
of the information solicited, while the interviewees were encouraged to express freely on the
subject, without being restrained by the preset questions related to the topic. Details of the
questions are listed in Appendix A for reference. The questions were designed in close match
with the literature on assessing the partnering applicability in construction. The initial two
questions are to examine the current status and potential benefits of partnering
implementation in Mainland China. The succeeding five questions are compiled for
investigating the potential barriers to partnering application from four macroscopic
perspectives, whilst the future prospect of partnering application in Mainland China could be
captured from the last two questions.
The answers acquired from the interviewees were first audio-recorded in Chinese and later
transcribed into written dialogues in English. A systematic account of information obtained
from in-depth interviews was archived for subsequent analysis using the content analysis
technique, as previously adopted by Chan et al. (2007) and Chan et al. (2011). Outcomes
derived from the analysis of interviews were cross-referenced to the opinions and
observations solicited from various interviewees in order to identify any consensuses and
divergences.
In accordance with the document analysis of partnering applicability in Mainland China, a
schematic flowchart for assessing the applicability of construction partnering, based on the
semi-structured interview results, is proposed in Figure 2. With an overall assessment of the
benefits of partnering practices and potential costs on mitigating/eliminating the impeditive
effects to partnering implementation, the general viewpoint on the applicability of partnering
could be generalised. Costs may be incurred from the necessary actions to improve the
industrial understanding of the partnering approach, adaptive measures to mitigate/avoid
confrontation with the prevailing construction regulations, and expenses on the essential
procedures of partnering practice, e.g. launch of partnering workshops and appointment of
partnering facilitators.
4 Favourable conditions for partnering implementation in Mainland China
4.1 Cultural context
Amongst many variables impacting on the procurement-related decisions taken, one of the
most influential and all-pervading variables is culture (Liu and Fellows, 1999).
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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In consideration of the cultural perspective which may favour the adoption and
implementation of partnering in Mainland China, “culture” here refers to the national culture
rather than those of any other types (e.g. organisational culture, corporate culture, etc)
(Yeung et al., 2012). The national culture, based on the physical boundaries of the nation
state, is a geographical distinction, whereas industry culture, occupational culture, corporate
culture, and organisational structure and managerial practices form distinctive patterns of
behaviour of a social unit (Pizam, 1993).
Current status of partnering implementation
Perceived benefits of
partnering application
Potential barriers to
partnering implementation
Evaluate
Cultural
barrier
s
Juristical
barrier
s
Economic
barrier
s
Technical
barrier
s
Not significant Significant
Measures to mitigate
impeditive effects
Comparing long-term
benefits vs costs
Mitigate
/overcome
Determining the applicability of
partnering
in Mainland China
Yes
No
Potential costs on mitigating
/eliminating impeditive effects
Figure 2. Schematic flowchart for assessing the applicability of construction partnering
in Mainland China
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
8
The Chinese culture has evolved for more than 5,000 years and is influenced by three
moulding forces: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. All of these three forces act together
to produce a culture of humanism, making the Chinese way of life intensely practical and
philosophical (Sheh, 1995; Haley et al., 1998; Kwan and Ofori, 2001).
Amongst the three moulding forces, Confucianism has significantly influenced the Chinese
way of life. Its influence covers ‘humanity’ (ren), personality and character, education,
‘familism’, rites and music, as well as how to govern the country (Kwan and Ofori, 2001).
Confucianism regards ren, based on ‘mutual trust’, as the binding force of society (Chao,
1994; Low, 1998).
With reference to Hofstede’s (1980) five dimensions of national culture, this study follows
Wu’s (2000) identification of key Chinese cultural values, which include: trust (Redding,
1990; Wong, 1995), reciprocity (Redding, 1990; Kirkbride et al., 1991), face (Yau, 1994;
Lockett, 1988; Kirkbride et al., 1991; Redding, 1990), time dimension (Yau, 1994; Kirkbride
et al., 1991), harmony (Yau, 1988 & 1994; Kirkbride et al., 1991), hierarchy and
power-distance (Kirkbride et al., 1991; Lockett, 1988; Yau, 1988 & 1994) and long-term
orientation (Bond, 1987). These Chinese cultural values are mostly in line with the seven core
rituals of Confucianism: Benevolence, Harmony, Midway, Forbearance, Filial Piety, Trust
and Cautious Words (Li and Wu, 1996).
Mutual trust
Mutual trust is built on personal relationships and understanding of the parties’ needs.
Williamson (1983) advocated that exchange relationships based on personal trust will survive
greater stress and display greater adaptability, while Thorelli (1986) observed that trust in
Oriental culture may even take the place of contractual arrangements.
Under the Chinese culture, personal relationships form the basis of social order and correct
behaviour (Butterfield et al., 1983; Pennet and Zhao, 1992). Trustworthiness or ‘xinyong’ is
also a predominant feature of Chinese–Chinese business transactions (Kwan and Ofori,
2001).
Trust, also identified as one of the key elements and success factors of construction
partnering (Bresnen and Marshall, 2000; Cook and Hancher, 1990; Chan et al., 2004; Naoum,
2003), is indispensable in developing the partnering agreement. Trust is also generally seen
as the cornerstone of the successful partnering relationship (Hellard, 1995). The common
values of Chinese culture stress the importance and necessity of trust within business deals
amongst all parties involved, which highly underpins the adoption and implementation of
construction partnering in Mainland China.
Reciprocity
Reciprocity is one of the hostages which sustain a network relationship (Wu, 2000). As
indicated by Kirkbride et al. (1991), the principle of reciprocity is universal but the concepts
have particular salience in the Chinese case. For most of the Chinese, a transaction or an
exchange will only take place when there are mutual benefits for both parties involved. In
fact, Lazar (1997) categorised the partnering relationship into two groups—trust-based and
reciprocal-based. In the reciprocity-governed relationship under partnering, failure to
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
9
reciprocate in a timely or proportional manner, can quickly damage the relationship from
apparent trust to aggressively hostile, particularly when there is a pattern of non-reciprocation
(Friedland, 1990; Lazar, 1997). The underlying value of reciprocity in China equips the
adoption of partnering approach with favourable prerequisite where mutual benefits are
achieved through partnering practice, incentivises the adoption of partnering and in turn
realises the principle of reciprocity in benefiting each other.
Face, Hierarchy and Power-Distance
Face is a concept of central importance because of its pervasive influence on interpersonal
relations amongst the Chinese (Yau, 1988). Face is directly involved with personal prestige
and reputation which are achieved through getting on in life, through success and ostentation
(Hu, 1944). By taking account of personal reputation, the Chinese people may feel a loss of
face when peers no longer have confidence in him/her in any business networks. The
conception of face and prestige is deeply rooted in most Chinese mind such that they may not
risk loss of their faces in most occasions.
This dimension of culture value is in line with the element of commitment within the
partnering relationship as a lack of commitment from one party may cause disrespect from
his business partners, in which case face may lose consequently. It has also been shown that
the Chinese cultural values such as face, hierarchy, and power-distance are closely related to
the creation and development of business network (Wu, 2000), and are thus facilitative to the
implementation of construction partnering in Mainland China.
Time dimension/Long-term orientation
The time dimension, as suggested by Yau (1994), has two orientations: past time orientation
and continuity. The continuity indicates that the Chinese are long-term oriented. Emphasis on
long-term relationships is exhibited amongst the Chinese through reciprocating benefits.
Kirkbide et al. (1991) indicated that compromise is found to be the preferred solution by the
Chinese to an unsettled conflict. Partnering process runs through the whole life-cycle of a
construction project which may last for some years (e.g. project partnering) and even spread
to a series of projects in a long-term strategic relationship (e.g. strategic partnering). In view
of the importance of long-term relationship perceived by the Chinese, partnering has
seamless connection with the Chinese cultural value in terms of the time dimension.
Harmony
It has been found that traditional Chinese cultural values and cognitive orientations have
influenced the Chinese to preserve overt harmony by avoiding confrontation and to adopt a
non-assertive approach to conflict resolution (Kirkbride et al., 1991).
In the context of partnering, co-operation rather than confrontation is emphasised (Smith,
2008). As evidenced in practical cases, partnering is an effective technique for placing
responsibility for anticipating problems early and on those best equipped to effect their
resolution (Smith, 2008). Hence, with respect to the avoidance of confrontations and conflicts
amongst project participants, partnering substantially fulfills the requirement of the culture
value of harmony.
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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All of the above identified Chinese cultural values, to a certain degree, favour and facilitate
the adoption and implementation of partnering in Mainland China. A research study
conducted by Kwan and Ofori (2001) also indicated that the intrinsic values of the Chinese
culture facilitate the partnering implementation because of their emphasis on “guan xi”,
mutuality and respect, trust and friendship, and maintaining harmony, which are critical
success factors for partnering implementation.
4.2 Economic needs
The Chinese construction industry has witnessed the remarkable development and prosperity
in the past decade. After entry into the 21st Century, the gross output values of construction
enterprises have increased from RMB 1,249.760 billion in 2000 to RMB 6,203.681 billion in
2008, indicating an average annual increasing rate of 22.17%. The number of construction
enterprises in China has increased in parallel from 47,518 in 2000 to 71,095 in 2008, with an
annual average increasing rate of 5.17%.
While the construction market in China has enormous demands, high levels of project
performance and project success are rarely seen (Lu and Yan, 2007a). The construction
industry is considered a weak sector of the economy by international standards, which is
largely attributed to the backwardness of the Chinese construction industry as compared to
that of the developed countries in terms of the legal framework and institutional mechanism,
industrial structure, technology, and international market share (Xu et al., 2005). The
problems rooted in the Chinese construction industry were highlighted by Xu et al. (2005) as:
inadequate legal framework and mechanism, low productivity level and lack of competition
within the industry, relatively unsophisticated construction equipment and technologies,
coupled with low international construction market share.
A research study conducted by Wang et al. (2006) revealed that the clients in China try to
take advantage of the buyers’ market and the poorly developed market mechanisms to
increase their own benefits at the expense of construction firms. All prevailing problems
besetting the construction industry has resulted in a lower profit margin than that of typical
market economies, particularly in Mainland China.
Amongst the various strategies proposed to develop the competitive construction industry, the
adoption of multi-procurement routes is one of the key recommendations suggested by Xu et
al. (2005). Partnering, as an innovative procurement approach since the 1980s, has proved its
concerted effort in improving project performance and industrial efficiency through a rich
body of project practices.
In fact, as indicated in the study of Wang et al. (2006), other than the competitive bidding
approach, the relationship with client and assignment of project by the government are the
other two channels for the contractors to obtain construction contracts. Table 1 shows that
awarding contracts based on a relationship (guan xi) approach takes a considerable proportion
of the total construction contracts awarded in China.
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
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Table 1. Methods to obtain construction contracts (adapted from Wang et al., 2006)
Methods State-owned
enterprises (%)
Urban
collective-owned
enterprises (%)
Share-holdin
g (%)
Private
(%)
Competitive bidding 95.59 100.00 95.65 100.00
Relationship (guan xi) 35.29 11.11 26.07 20.00
Assignment by
government
7.35 0.00 6.52 0.00
The relationship-based contract awarding approach provides a substantial basis for partnering
adoption in the Chinese construction industry since it is on the basis of stable relationship,
mutual trust and commitment amongst the project stakeholders that partnering can run the
projects more smoothly and successfully. In light of the characteristics of the current
construction industry in Mainland China, it is anticipated that partnering has great potential
and prospect to be adopted and it can assist in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of
the industry as a whole.
5 Barriers to partnering application in Mainland China
In Mainland China, some legal restrictions (particularly in the public sector) limit alternatives
for contractor selection. The contemporary construction law, except for exceptional cases,
requires fair and transparent compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) for public procurement.
The partnering process can be implemented only after the contract is awarded but again with
certain restrictions.
An extensive review of the literature unfolds the different categorisations of the significant
barriers to successful partnering under different major themes. Larson and Drexler (1997)
identified five major themes of barriers to successful partnering, covering adherence to the
key elements of partnering, perceptions, knowledge and skills of partnering approach, and the
nature and structure of partnering projects.
Lazar (1997) examined the organisational barriers to partnering: the external barriers and the
internal barriers. Within Lazar (1997)’s study, the external barriers arise from the politics
while the internal barriers are grouped into 3 sub-categories: organisational culture, climate
and structure.
Some other researchers (Eriksson et al., 2008a & 2008b) grouped the barriers to partnering
into cultural, organisational and industrial barriers by jointly referring to the barriers to the
change in a firm for sustainable development (Post and Altman, 1994) and the barriers to
supply chain information inflow (Childerhouse et al., 2003). Scrutiny into the reported
literature indicates that although several research studies have been dedicated to the
exploration into the barriers to partnering success (Larson and Drexler, 1997; Eriksson et al.,
2008a & 2008b), limited research has been conducted on identifying and screening out the
barriers to the adoption of construction partnering.
This study, based on the major themes of barriers identified from the literature, attempts to
find out the restrictions inherent in the construction sector which impede the adoption of
construction partnering. To look into the more detailed and tangible restrictions, four major
themes are investigated: (1) juristical; (2) economic; (3) cultural; and (4) technical aspects.
Facilities - Special Issue on Facilities Management Development (Final Accepted Manuscript),
Volume 30, Issue 13/14, October 2012, Pages 667-694
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The juristical barriers can be viewed as in line with the industrial barriers as identified in the
previous studies (Eriksson and Nilsson, 2008a), while the economic and technical barriers
can be perceived as inherent in the organisations.
5.1 Cultural barriers
Culture issue of changing the way a company is operated can also be seen as important
(Matthews, 1999). At the project level, Newcombe (1997) defined the ‘project culture’ as ‘the
shared values, beliefs and assumptions of stakeholders involved in a project’. Liu and
Fellows (1999) further pointed out that where there is a strong ‘project culture’, project
participants will look forward to the cultural paradigm or ideology for guidance when facing
difficult decisions.
Naaranoja et al. (2008) advocated that the practitioners are not able to change their
perceptions easily and may prevent fast changes. With the support from six studies, Matthews
(1999) also indicated that a start may be made under the partnering philosophy but this may
change back to a traditional mode of philosophy.
In the contemporary Chinese construction industry, adversarial ways amongst the contracting
parties exist extensively and are hard to change within a short period of time. Past studies (Xu
et al., 2005; Ling et al., 2007) manifested that while the Chinese are known to stress
collectivism, face and harmony (Yuen, 1992), the Chinese contractors have strong claims
culture as their usual practice is to bid low and later claim for variations.
5.2 Juristical barriers
The current regulatory system on project procurement and management in the Chinese
construction industry is formed by three major construction related laws: (1) Construction
Law (revised and effective on 1 July 2011); (2) Tendering and Bidding Law (adopted on 30
August 1999); and (3) Contract Law (adopted on 15 March 1999). The major restriction to
partnering application from these construction related laws stems from the compulsory
requirement of applying the competitive tendering strategy in procuring most types of the
construction projects, e.g. projects with the investment budget of over RMB 30 million. This
requirement, to a certain extent, limits the client from selecting the main contractor on a
relational basis, although past studies have identified that there exist other approaches apart
from the competitive tendering for the contractors to obtain construction contracts, such as
the relationship (guan xi) and government assignment (Wang et al., 2006).
Meanwhile, it is widely recognized that the Construction Law in China is too sketchy and too
narrow to regulate various actors in the construction market (Sha 2004), where the harmful
trends continue as many law-breaking activities are not punished promptly. The imperfect
legal environment may dampen the practitioners’ confidence towards a successful partnering
relationship without a strict and effective legal engagement.
5.3 Economic barriers
The current competitive tendering strategy for procuring construction projects in Mainland
China has been mature as compared with other procurement strategies because the
contracting parties have been accustomed to it for long. A pilot use of partnering approach
would engender unprecedented costs relating to the facilitation of partnering workshops,
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13
partnering performance monitoring activities, etc. Although it has been evidenced that
partnering can largely save cost, reduce time and improve project quality, it is understandable
that the industrial practitioners shall concern significantly the costs arising from the
implementation of partnering before the benefits are reaped through its practice. If proceeded
inappropriately, adoption of barely practiced procurement strategies (e.g. partnering) may
engender conflicts of interest amongst contracting parties as a result of the disruption of the
prevailing gain-share /pain-share mechanism.
5.4 Technical barriers
This branch of barriers mainly refers to a lack of understanding of partnering concepts and
process within the construction industry. As the past research indicates that no partnering
project has been recorded in the Chinese construction industry (Zhao et al., 2005; Jiang,
2008), the concepts of partnering may be relatively novel to the industrial practitioners
although some introduction of the partnering philosophy and its basic framework have been
provided in the academic field by the domestic researchers since the new millennium of
2000. When introducing the term “partnering”, the industrial practitioners in Mainland China
may view it just as simple partnership with other contracting parties while not fully
understanding the essential elements and standard procedures of the partnering approach.
In view of the current status of infertile practice of partnering in Mainland China, it could be
easily perceived that a lack of understanding of partnering concepts and process could be a
critical problem impeding its adoption within the industry. In addition, for some reasons, a
lack of credit is perceived to be normal in the Chinese construction industry. The government
and corporations in construction care little about the concepts and awareness of individual
and organisational credibility, which render it difficult for the industry to form
relationship-based partnership with other stakeholders.
Above all, partnering requires for many a mindset change for it to be successfully utilised
(Matthews, 1999). Dozens of issues arise in addressing the aforementioned barriers for
facilitating the trial use of partnering in the Chinese construction industry.
6 Perceptions of interviewees on partnering implementation in Mainland China
In this section, perceptions gleaned from the interviewees are presented in adherence to the
interview questions raised. A total of nine open-ended interview questions enable to solicit
the experts’ perceptions on current status of partnering application, potential benefits of and
barriers to the adoption of partnering approach, as well as the prospect/likelihood of
generalising construction partnering in the future construction industry of Mainland China
(see Appendix A).
6.1 Current status of partnering application
In response to examining the current status of partnering application in construction in
Mainland China, three of the six interviewed academics/professionals with deep
understanding of the current status of the Chinese construction industry, confirmed that there
were no recorded construction projects implemented with standard partnering process (i.e.
with regular partnering workshops, partnering charter, partnering performance monitoring
matrix, establishment of issue resolution mechanism, etc), whist two other experts, though
non-confirmative in their perceptions, also stated that very few projects, if any, may be
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undertaken under partnering agreement. The interview findings are overall in line with the
previous survey results on partnering application conducted in Mainland China (Zhao, 2005;
Jiang, 2008).
With respect to partnering philosophy, such as trust building, co-operation, and commitment,
all of the interviewees, based on their hands-on experiences of construction projects, assured
that several key elements of partnering (such as teamwork, collaboration, mutual trust, etc)
have been well embodied in many projects in the Chinese construction sector. As revealed
from the interviewees’ opinions, the Chinese construction industry, though without publicised
and well-documented records of the application of structured partnering approach, is on the
emergence of adopting relationship-based contracting approach for project procurement and
management.
All of the interviewees indicated that the Chinese construction industry has applied the
concepts of partnering and witnessed corresponding strategies for fostering relationship
amongst the key stakeholders in construction projects, in many of which satisfactions of main
stakeholders have been recorded. To a large extent, the practitioners in Mainland China
began to realise the importance and effectiveness of co-operation and collaboration amongst
various parties in the project, which is one of the key principles and elements of construction
partnering.
It was specifically indicated that the clients, especially some large-scale real estate or
property developers in Mainland China, have been searching for long-term strategic
partnership with some leading main contractors for continuous collaboration in launching and
developing building projects. This may lie in the premise that the clients are recognising the
substantial benefits and working efficiency achieved through long-term co-operation with
those main contractors.
6.2 Potential benefits of and barriers to partnering implementation
Interview questions (2-7) concern the potential benefits of and barriers to partnering
application. The benefits reaped through partnering (including informal partnering approach),
as perceived by the interviewees, encompass cost and time savings, quality improvement,
closer relationship, reduced litigation and more efficient problem solving.
It is noticed that when indicating the potential benefits of partnering, the interviewees
perceived more direct (hard) benefits while hardly referring to some invisible (soft) effects of
partnering, e.g. site safety, overall environmental performance, technology innovation and
other long-term advantages acquired from the use of partnering. This may be attributable to
the fact that partnering practice in Mainland China is still in its infancy as the extended
benefits of partnering are not so much visible with limited cases of evidence from
construction projects.
In line with the four aforementioned dimensions of barriers, the interviews further
investigated the barriers to partnering implementation based on the experts’ opinions. To this
end, the semi-structured interviews include some pertinent questions as listed below:
Cultural barriers: nature of the construction industry in China (harmonious or competitive)
Juristical barriers: restrictions from government regulations in construction
Economic barriers: conflicts of interest amongst project participants
Technical barriers: understanding of partnering concepts and process
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All of the interviewees admitted that the construction industry in China is at large competitive
by nature, while the ‘casting couch’ of the industry plays an important role in awarding the
building contracts. The contemporary competitive culture between the client and contractor
arises from the conflicts in the shared benefits. Resultant from the competitive project culture
is the poor project performance and ultimately low productivity of the industry.
The interview results also unfolded that collaboration between the client and contractor is
weakened or even damaged as a result of the prevalent competitive tendering policy in
project procurement, which may form as one critical barrier to partnering implementation in
the Chinese Mainland. Without the government support and associated policies, efforts in
attempting to introduce the partnering approach may be wasted and may even end up in vain.
Although the benefits of partnering have been evidenced in practices since its introduction
into the construction industry, the gain-share/pain-share mechanism developed amongst the
contracting parties involved in construction projects may be influenced or damaged by the
adoption of partnering as it would be difficult for the practitioners to adapt to the new way of
project procurement within a short period of time. Even if the interview results in general
support that such influence should not be significant in impeding the application of partnering
in Mainland China, some interviewees did confirm that changing the existing profit-sharing
mechanism amongst project participants promptly essentially causes some difficulties,
although the negative impacts of partnering on the profitability of the contracting parties may
be mitigated and even fade away in the long-run.
On top of the aforementioned barriers, the industrial understanding of partnering concepts
and process was also investigated through the interviews. Concurrence has been achieved on
the perception that a lack of full understanding of partnering concepts and process is
detrimental to the initial trial use of the partnering approach. But there is no consensus on the
significance of such barrier to future partnering application, which implies that a lack of
theoretical knowledge about partnering may be alleviated through some effective strategies,
e.g. launch of partnering seminars, conferences, training workshops and promotional
pamphlets, together with documentary evidence of research reports and journal articles for
dissemination within the construction industry.
It is perceived by the interviewees that the potential barriers to partnering implementation in
Mainland China can be attenuated and overcome in the current context of Chinese
construction industry. The inter-firm competitive culture can be mitigated if one or two
parties take the initiative to inject a collaborative relationship. Impeditive effects arising from
juristical restrictions may also be neutralised through the introduction of post-contract award
partnering, which could be implemented after a building contract has been awarded to the
winning contractor. Effective training and education on the partnering approach could help
disseminate partnering concepts within the industry and convince practitioners of the
substantial benefits of partnering during implementation.
6.3 Future prospect of partnering development
The interview results indicated that the Chinese construction industry is heading towards a
more regulated construction industry, where the traditional adversarial relationship amongst
contracting parties is now changing. Though it is admitted that it is a long-term task to
overcome the identified barriers to partnering implementation, the substantial benefits
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resulting from the use of partnering substantially outweigh the potential costs for adoption
and generalisation of this approach.
Past research studies asserted that partnering could be used together with any forms of
contract (e.g. Main Roads Project Delivery System, Australia, 2005; Chan et al., 2009). The
most feasible approach to the introduction of partnering in the Chinese construction industry,
as perceived by the interviewees, is to initiate it in parallel with the use of other contemporary
procurement systems and management strategies (e.g. design-bid-build, design-build, target
cost contracting, build-operate-transfer, value management, etc). It could be discerned that
the overall future prospect of the development and application of construction partnering is
promising at large.
7 Recommendations from interviewees on partnering implementation in Mainland
China
7.1 Initialisation of partnering with unstructured approach
When implementing partnering, there are both structured and unstructured approaches (Chan
et al., 2009). As mentioned before, the “structured” partnering approach involves a number of
partnering workshops, encompassing the initial workshop with an established partnering
charter, interim workshops and a final wrap-up workshop. In contrast, the “unstructured”
approach only contains the partnering spirit within the project team in a construction project
without any workshops. As there is dearth of understanding of structured partnering concepts
and process within the industry, it would be more acceptable for the industrial practitioners to
adopt the “unstructured” partnering approach at the initial stage. The interviewees suggested
that the unstructured partnering process, compared to a formal partnering approach, could
lower the threshold and burden for the practitioners to practise partnering when launching a
construction project due to fewer possible restrictions and standards posed to the contracting
parties.
In whatever type of approach it is implemented, partnering is a process beyond the contract to
align the common goals and objectives of the parties to the contract and to facilitate effective
communications, integrated teamwork and joint problem solving (Chan et al., 2009).
7.2 Client’s initiative to adopt partnering approach
Almost all of the interviewees stated that the client is decisive in deciding whether to adopt
partnering or not, which echoed the findings of previous studies indicating that clients are in a
key position of influence in the selection of an appropriate project procurement method
(Black et al., 2000). The client’s initiative to adopt the partnering approach is beneficial and
critical to the implementation of partnering in the Chinese construction industry.
In view of the clients’ decisive role in selecting a suitable procurement strategy, it is also
recommended that some large-scale real estate or property developers could be targeted for
launching pilot construction projects to adopt partnering approach as the owner’s
representatives familiar with partnering principles will help in applying an informal form of
partnering (Conley and Gregory, 1999).
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On the other hand, there seems a necessity that collaboration should be established between
academics with substantial knowledge and full understanding of partnering concepts and
major property clients (e.g. large-scale real estate developers) during the project
pre-procurement period. Such academia-industry collaboration is perceived to be highly
essential in promoting the adoption of partnering. As also suggested by the interviewed
experts, publicising partnering concepts and its associated benefits towards the industry,
together with the provision of training programmes on construction partnering to the
industrial practitioners, as launched by domestic professional bodies and academic
institutions, are conducive and essential to attempting partnering practice at the initial stage.
7.3 Combined use with other contemporary procurement strategies
With respect to the strategy for adopting the partnering model in the Chinese construction
industry, the interviewees also advocated that improvement on the practicality and feasibility
of partnering could be attained through the combined use of partnering approach with other
contemporary project management strategies which are relatively mature in the construction
industry of Mainland China.
The interview results also suggested targeting some large-scale and specific types of
construction projects to implement partnering in Mainland China wherever mutual and
long-term collaboration amongst project participants is essential in achieving win-win
outcomes for the contracting parties.
The possible strategies for facilitating partnering implementation in Mainland China are
generalised as follows for reference.
Initiation of partnering implementation by virtue of practising unstructured partnering
process where collaborative partnership exists amongst project participants.
Motivation of the client’s intent to adopt the partnering approach.
Collaboration between academics with substantial knowledge of partnering and
large-scale real estate developers during project pre-qualification period.
Start with large-scale and specific types of construction projects to implement and
generalise partnering in Mainland China.
Combined use of partnering with other contemporary project procurement strategies
(e.g. design-bid-build, design-build, target cost contracting, build-operate-transfer, value
management, etc) which are relatively mature in the construction industry of Mainland
China.
Effective propaganda and specific training on partnering implementation and
introduction of its potential benefits to domestic industrial associations.
As generally viewed by the representative experts, the Chinese building and construction
sectors have been developing towards a more regulatory and collaborative industry. The
fragmented and highly dynamic nature of the industry lasting for decades is encountering
transfer or change and amelioration with more systematic regulatory system, as well as more
focus and reliance on long-term collaboration amongst business partners. With substantiated
evidence from previous industrial practices, partnering undoubtedly meets the market
orientations, and thus is perceived to be promising in the future Chinese construction
industry.
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8 Discussions and implications for the construction industry of Mainland China
Though faced with difficulties ranging from the organisational/industrial culture to the
national regulations, partnering application and generalisation in Mainland China is still
brilliant at large. The major impediments of partnering practice in Mainland China
predominantly lie in the poor recognition of partnering implementation model and process, a
lack of government initiative to promote the use of the partnering approach in construction
projects and the existing non-cooperative working relationship amongst the major contracting
parties whilst the restrictions to partnering implementation arising from the project
procurement regulations could be mitigated by some effective measures introduced from the
client side.
In retrospect to the process for assessing the applicability of construction partnering in
Mainland China as shown in Figure 2, the impeditive effects on partnering practice in
Mainland China are perceived as insignificant and could be mitigated or even evaded through
some effective measures. Furthermore, the costs associated with the promotion of partnering
application in Mainland China are viewed as short-term oriented, which could be
counterbalanced by the potential benefits reaped through partnering practice within a short
period of time. Hence, it is discerned that partnering is applicable and appropriate in the
construction industry of Mainland China for achieving better value for money in the long run.
In consideration of the potential impediments to partnering implementation in Mainland
China, appropriate training on and due recognition of partnering concepts and its associated
benefits is the first and foremost step because a change in people’s mindset is critical in
facilitating the acceptance of new things. With respect to the initiative of government
agencies in facilitating partnering practice, Hong Kong, as the neighbouring region of
Mainland China, can provide valuable experience for future partnering practice in Mainland
China. As recorded within the Hong Kong construction industry, the earliest formal
partnering arrangements were exclusively applied to hospital projects in 1994 (Skues, 1996),
with the two pioneering proponents, the Hospital Authority and Hsin Chong Construction Co
Ltd, a Hong Kong based leading contractor. As the largest public housing provider, the Hong
Kong Housing Authority (HKHA) is by far the leading government organisation having
extensively adopted partnering practice (Chan et al., 2002). The active support from the
HKHA has widened the coverage of project partnering in the construction industry of Hong
Kong (Chan et al., 2002).
Partnering is best when led by the client organisation and it has a better feel to it (Mason,
2008), indicating that the client is seen as pivotal in bringing partnering into practice.
Targeting on typical clients (e.g. real estate or property developers) can provide an effective
source to initiate and facilitate partnering implementation within the construction industry. In
view of the client’s role in facilitating partnering practice, it is recommended and practicable
to stipulate the use and experience of partnering as one of the key criteria for selecting project
partners, i.e. major contractors, at the stage of tender invitation.
The European Construction Institute (1997) categorised partnering types as including
post-award project-specific partnering (PAPSP), besides project partnering and strategic
partnering. In this type of partnering arrangement, the contract is subject to a normal
competitive process, and partnering starts after the contract has been awarded. Post-award
project-specific partnering is a variation of project partnering that is more suited to the public
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sector (Koraltan and Dikbas, 2000). As also initiated by the Arizona Department of
Transportation (ADOT), the post-award project-specific partnering approach can be resorted
to for collaboration under the partnering relationship. After taking account of the
requirements of public competitive tendering in the current construction industry of Mainland
China, this type of partnering approach is deemed to be most suitable for those industrial
practitioners to implement partnering after awarding the project contract to the winning
contractor.
As advocated by Lenard et al. (1997), experimental partnering may be another alternative.
Project participants adopt this approach either because they are uncertain of the partnering
process, or they are cautious about their dealings with other project stakeholders (Lenard et
al., 1997). In view of the suitability for testing the partnering process (and their potential
partners) under this approach, it is recommendable for the practitioners in the Chinese
construction industry to adopt experimental partnering first such that a trial run of partnering
could be conducted without entering into long-term commitments.
By referring to the suggestions of Smith (2008) on the most appropriate project types for
launching partnering, it is generalised that partnering is likely to be adopted in the following
circumstances:
On complex projects where user requirements are difficult to specify;
For organisations requiring similar facilities repeated over time, giving scope for
continuous improvements in cost and quality;
For projects where construction conditions are uncertain, solutions are difficult to
foresee and joint problem solving is necessary, for example, where the land is
contaminated; and
For individual projects or a series of projects where there are known opportunities to
eliminate waste and inefficiency from the construction process.
Moreover, several research studies undertaken by the Chinese academics proposed to initiate
the adoption of partnering in some specific types of projects, as the outset to underpin more
extensive applications within the construction industry. Those types of projects may be of
high quality, complicated design, great significance or potential for long-term collaboration
between the client and the contractor. Despite the challenges inherent in the local
construction industry, potential for partnering application has been demonstrated in virtue of
the favourable context and witnessed by the representative experts in Mainland China.
9 Concluding remarks
Judged from the cultural, economic, juristical and technical perspectives, this study has
systematically elaborated on the current practices of partnering (both formal and informal
types), potential barriers to and effective strategies for the implementation and generalisation
of the structured (formal) partnering approach in Mainland China. The archival research
findings echoed and supported the expert interview results, which implies that there is a great
potential for partnering application in the Chinese construction industry. The study unfolded
a series of endeavours essential for the development and application of partnering, which are
underpinned by the stimulation of client’s interest and government support of the partnering
approach either during or after project procurement stage. The favourable background in
terms of cultural and economic needs has paved the way for the adoption of partnering whist
the perceived impediments for application could be alleviated, even evaded through a series
of effective strategies such as frequent training, industry-wide promotion of partnering
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concepts, process and its associated benefits. In general, the partnering approach is regarded
as applicable and suitable for the construction industry of Mainland China.
The research findings has provided a solid platform for the industrial practitioners, with the
initiative to adopt the partnering approach, to recognise, identify and overcome possible
impediments to partnering application and success. It has also set the scene for future
empirical studies to determine and analyse the perceived benefits of and barriers to partnering
success based in the construction industry of Mainland China. Ultimately, better overall
project performance is anticipated to be achieved through the successful implementation of
partnering in both the West and the East.
10 Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the organisations and expert interviewees who have kindly
participated in the interview meetings and provided their valuable opinions and necessary
project information to facilitate this research study. Moreover, special gratitude is extended to
the Department of Building and Real Estate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for
providing financial support to this research study. Heartfelt thanks are also given to the guest
editor of this special issue (Dr Zhang Xiaoling) and several anonymous reviewers for
bestowing constructive comments and valuable suggestions to improve the quality of the
manuscript before publication.
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Corresponding author
Yuming Hong can be contacted at: 09901758r@connect.polyu.hk
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Table 1. Background of interviewees for assessing the applicability of construction partnering in Mainland China
Interviewee Nature of
profession
Years of working
experience
Number of publications on
partnering research
Number of projects with
partnering relationship involved
Interviewee 1 Academia 5 3 N/A
Interviewee 2 Academia 3 3 N/A
Interviewee 3 Academia 24 0 N/A
Interviewee 4 Academia 27 0 N/A
Interviewee 5 Industry and
Academia
19 3 N/A
Interviewee 6 Industry 8 0 3
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Table 2. Perceptions on the applicability of construction partnering from expert interviewees in Mainland China
Perceptions from academic experts Particulars
consulted Interviewee 1 Interviewee 2 Interviewee 3 Interviewee 4 Interviewee 5 Interviewee 6
Status of
communication
and collaboration
amongst project
participants in
Mainland China
1. Client taking
control of the
communication
process
2. Lacking mutual
trust amongst project
parties
3. Communicating
under informal and
nonstandard
approaches
Communicating
under
informal/private
approaches (e.g.
dinner talk) with few
written documents
Communicating
mostly under
informal
approaches and
procedures, with
very little written
and standard
documents
1. Mostly informal
and nonstandard
communication, far
from the written level
2. Very little
comprehensive and
in-depth
communication
The level and
extent of
communication
and collaboration
differ from project
to project
Communicating
informally with
little written
documents while
focusing mainly
on personal
benefits and
profits
Amount of projects
implemented with
structured
partnering process
Very few None None Very few None Very few
A large number of
projects embracing
partnering
philosophy?
Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Barriers to
adoption of
partnering-restricti
on from
government
regulations in
construction
The contemporary
construction policy of
bidding for launching
a construction project
damages the
long-term
collaborative
relationship between
the client and
contractor)
Collaboration among
client and contractor
and subcontractors is
restricted and
damaged by the
prevailing strategy of
low bidding price
winning the bidding
in many projects
Long-term
collaboration
between the client
and contractor is
damaged as a result
of the competitive
tendering policy
Existing but not
significant
Quotation rules
and bid evaluating
issues in the
contemporary
bidding system
strictly pose
restrictions on
partnering
implementation
Regulations are in
favour of
government-invest
ed construction
projects/not
critical
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Barriers to
adoption of
partnering-
conflict of
interest amongst
project
participants
Not significant in
the long-run
Not significant and
will decrease and
die away in the
long-run
Not applicable Not significant Existing and
significant
The existing
profit-sharing
mechanism
among project
participants is
hard to change
in a short period
of time
Barriers to
adoption- lack of
understanding of
partnering
concepts and
process
Existing/non-signifi
cant
Existing and
significant
Existing/non-sign
ificant
Existing/non-signifi
cant
Existing/significa
nt
Existing and the
actual profits
shall be
perceived
through practical
cases first before
adoption
Barriers to
adoption of
partnering-nature
of the
construction
industry in China
(harmonious or
competitive)
Competitive in
general
Competitive in
general
Competitive in
general
Hard to summarize Competitive in
general
Competitive in
general
Future prospect
of partnering
implementation
in Mainland
China
Promising Highly promising Promising but a
long-run task
Promising on the
premise that efforts
are made to tackle
relevant problems
Promising and
only lacking the
facilitator.
Promising with
the development
of a more and
more regulated
construction
industry
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Table 3. Suggestions on partnering implementation from expert interviewees in Mainland China
Suggestions from expert interviewees Interviewee
1
Interviewee
2
Interviewee
3
Interviewee
4
Interviewee
5
Interviewee
6
Introducing partnering to construction practitioners
with the broadened definition and key philosophy of
partnering, e.g. form of collaborative partnership
amongst construction participants
√
Motivation of the client’s initiative to adopt the
partnering approach √ √ √ √ √
Collaboration between academics with substantial
knowledge about partnering and large-scale property
developers (e.g. real estate developers) during project
pre-qualification period
√ √
Starting with some large-scale and specific types of
projects to implement partnering in Mainland China √ √ √
Combined use of partnering with other contemporary
procurement systems and project management
strategies (e.g. design-bid-build, design-build, target
cost contracting, build-operate-transfer, value
management, etc) which are relatively mature in the
construction industry of Mainland China
√
Effective propaganda and training on partnering
implementation and introduction of its potential
benefits to domestic professional bodies and academic
institutions
√ √
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Appendix A. List of interview questions for exploring the applicability of construction partnering in Mainland China
No.
List of Interview Questions
1
Are there any projects implemented with the partnering model (with structured partnering process)? Are there any projects embracing
some key elements of partnering philosophy such as efficient communication and co-ordination, mutual trust, effective conflict resolution,
teamwork culture, among construction participants (especially between the client and the contractor)? Please list and brief introduce some
examples.
2 What are the major benefits from the employment of relationship-based contracting approaches like partnering?
3 Is there any kind of pressure or restriction to partnering from the macro/micro control measures and regulations of local government?
4
The construction laws and regulations in Mainland China regulate some specific types of projects for adopting tendering and bidding as a
project procurement strategy. Do you think if there is any substantial restriction to adopting partnering under the existing construction laws
and regulations?
5 Will the application of partnering influence or impair the established and stable system of gaining and sharing benefits among the business
partners? Is such consideration a critical factor impeding the adoption of partnering from the viewpoint of the clients and contractors?
6 As partnering is relatively a new concept to the Mainland Chinese construction industry, is the lack of background knowledge about
partnering a major barrier for the construction participants to adopt the partnering approach?
7 Does the Chinese culture in general support the philosophy of partnering and facilitates the progress of the implementation of partnering in
China? Or does the competitive environment seem to be the main theme of current construction industry development in China?
8 What is the future prospect of implementation and future development of such kind of project procurement and management mode within
the construction industry of Mainland China?
9
Will the traditional construction procurement and management mode (such as Design-Bid-Build, BOT, etc) still dominate the construction
industry for a long-term period or will some new construction procurement forms and management modes (such as partnering, PPP, etc)
emerge to take the place of those traditional approaches in the future in the construction industry of Mainland China? If partnering
emerges, How will it be developed in Mainland China? Will it be implemented with the combination of the traditional modes or will it
independently survive with the gradual extinction of the traditional modes?
