Management Decision

Purpose – To provide a structured and integrated framework of corporate strategy in order to help practitioners and researchers identify critical issues related to the Chinese construction industry and analyze its dynamics from a holistic viewpoint.

Design/methodology/approach – A brief review of the major themes of strategy mostly developed by western researchers is first presented. This is then supplemented by a review of the pertinent characteristics of the construction industry in general, and those related to China's context in specific, which affect management decision-making. Two case studies are used to illustrate the concepts implied by the proposed framework.

Findings – The cases of Guangsha and the Shanghai Construction Group demonstrate that there is no hard and fast rule in developing a coherent strategy. This is even truer considering the fact that China's circumstances are still evolving.

Practical implications – The critical elements identified in the proposed framework serve as a good starting point for individual firms to further develop a more detailed execution plan.

Originality/value – This paper bridges a management gap that exists between mainstream management researchers, who have few precedence of studying the construction industry, and traditional construction management researchers, who tend to focus on project-level issues rather than corporate-level issues.