Disaster Prevention and Management

Purpose – The features of construction projects, characterized by their transient nature, multi-players, and strong dependency on local natural and human environment, highlight the difficulties of risk management in construction firms. This is particularly crucial when a construction firm ventures overseas where the risk exposure is high. However, it is unclear how Chinese construction firms would behave organizationally or if they have adopted appropriate risk management best practices, especially when they operate outside of Mainland China. Moreover, it is also unclear if such firms have formally documented risk management lessons for the purpose of organizational learning to share both success and failure so that similar mistakes can be avoided in the future. This paper primarily aims to establish a conceptual framework linking organizational learning with risk management, focusing on the organizational behavior of Chinese construction firms when they operate in both Mainland China and overseas.

Design/methodology/approach – The research agenda proposes the use of questionnaire surveys and in-depth case studies of Chinese contractors with operations both in Mainland China and Singapore.

Findings – An outcome of the study is the formulation of a research agenda that will eventually lead to the development of a knowledge-based decision support system (KBDSS) linking organizational behavior with risk management for supporting organizational learning in Chinese construction firms.

Practical implications – The outcomes of the research agenda can help chinese contractors gain “sustainable competitive advantage” against contractors from other developed countries in the global market.

Originality/value – This is possibly the first ever study to correlate organizational behaviour (OB), technical, organizational, project and external (TOPE) risks, CQ-SET and mitigate, accept, avoid or transfer (MAAT) within the context of Chinese construction firms operating both in Mainland China and the overseas market of Singapore. As part of the research agenda, theories of organizational behavior and risk management would also be applied to the empirical findings to draw inferences.