Critical success factors for managing construction small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries of Middle East: Evidence from Iranian construction enterprises
Highlights
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Construction SMEs in developing countries struggle to be competitive and profitable.
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A mixed research design helped in identifying the key factors that can reverse the trend.
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Use of technology, technical capability, and stakeholders upskills are considered very critical.
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Practical blueprints, recommendations, and implications of the study are discussed.
Introduction
The construction industry makes up a significant portion of the gross domestic product of each country, and its success can result in long-term economic success [1]. According to international reports regarding the status of projects in various countries, a massive part of budgets in countries is dedicated to the construction industry [2]. Therefore, the success of construction companies and the successful completion of their projects is important for the governments [3].
A project is a combination of events and occurrences which could be planned or unplanned, which continue during the project's life cycle and influences some changes in the environment [4]. defined success factors as a set of environmental factors, realities, and other influential factors that can affect projects' output. These factors can facilitate the implementation of a project or create problems during its execution but cannot be used to evaluate the project. Among these factors, some have a more significant influence on the success or failure of the project [5].
The results of various studies [[6], [7], [8]] indicated that along with the success factors of each project, other factors such as comprehensive project management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management, and support management could play important roles in the success of construction enterprises. Furthermore, four areas of project safety management, environmental management, financial management, and demand management are the main areas of special importance in the construction industry [9,10]. Other factors that can also affect the success of construction projects and companies include the implemented construction system, type of materials, implementation method, building application, resource allocation, and other similar factors [11].
Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that today's markets face a higher amount and variety of competition than in the past. Therefore, achieving a suitable strategy for expanding the activities of construction SMEs to complete more projects and gain more profit is one of the main concerns of managers in these companies. In this environment, many companies attempt to create new comparative strategies and gain comparative advantages to facilitate their development through their products and services [12]. It is evident that in this intense competition, successful companies are those who pay special attention to factors such as project management methods, organisational structures, organisational resources, comparative strategies, relations within the company, tenders, marketing methods, use of novel technologies, cost management, support, and supply chain, as well as management processes [13].
Furthermore, companies require a more comprehensive knowledge regarding their status and their competitors and other environmental factors to make better decisions when faced with every situation [14]. Without sufficient understanding of their competition or incomplete analysis of their business environment, companies would fail to provide suitable strategies for their dynamic environment, resulting in decline and damage over time [15]. Based on these factors and because the construction industry is one of the most dynamic industries in developing countries [16], especially in the Middle East region, it is necessary for companies active in this field to understand factors affecting their success and failures over their competition.
Therefore, the current study aims to answer the following questions: (i) What factors affect the success of construction SMEs in the Middle East developing countries? (ii) What are the levels of importance of factors affecting the success of construction SMEs in Middle East developing countries?
The current study aims to identify and rank critical success factors (CSFs) for construction SMEs in Middle East developing countries. Since the majority of previous studies [17,18] have investigated the success of civil or construction projects or have analysed the opportunities, threats, weaknesses, and strengths of these projects, very few studies have specifically investigated the CSFs for construction companies. Therefore, the current study can fill the gap in previous studies in this regard. Furthermore, a review of previous literature indicates that only a small number of studies have investigated CSFs in civil projects [19,20], introducing factors such as customer satisfaction, time, income and profit, quality, costs, project management satisfaction, suitable budget allocation, experienced and multidisciplinary team, and accessible resources among CSFs of construction projects.
However, the success of civil and construction companies, which can, in turn, result in the success of civil projects, has been rarely investigated in previous studies. The current study aims to fill this existing gap in the current knowledge. The results of the current study can be used by employers, contractors, and other participants in civil projects. Attention to these CSFs can help companies achieve better results in their future projects and become one of the more active companies in their industry. Furthermore, the results of the current study can create a suitable environment and conditions for the growth and development of SMEs active in civil and construction projects.
Section snippets
Definition of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
The definition of SMEs differs from one country to the next [21]. However, despite different definitions, these companies share similar characteristics. Table 1 shows the number of employees and total cash flow of companies in developed and developing countries. In general, and according to various sources, it can be said that the most common criterion used to distinguish SMEs is the number of their employees. Other criteria include total capital, total assets, annual cash flow or sales, and
Research methodology
A mixed research method was employed in the study to identify and rank the CSFs for construction SMEs in developing countries of the Middle East. Available options for collecting data from respondents are qualitative, quantitative or a combination of both using mixed methods [67]. Of these, the mixed-methods approach is regarded as the most effective for conducting research in the fields of management and organisational studies, as argued by Ref. [67]. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the design of
Results and discussions
In this section, the study findings based on each research question are presented.
Conclusions
The current study was undertaken to identify and rank CSFs for managing construction SMEs in developing countries of the Middle East. To this end, CSFs were extracted from the extant literature and were evaluated using three Delphi rounds. Finally, 63 CSFs were identified from the extant literature. The researcher-made questionnaire based on the 63 identified CSFs were categorised under eight CSFs categories: project management, financial management, competitive advantage, organisational
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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