Causes of contractors’ claims in international engineering-procurement-construction projects

AbstractEngineering-Procurement-Construction (EPC) method has increasingly been applied in international markets. In this research, the causes of contractors’ claims in international EPC projects are modeled and empirically tested with industry survey, structural equation modeling and case studies from the perspective of Chinese contractors. The established model outlines the causes of contractors’ claims as: external risk (sociopolitical risks, economic risks, and natural hazards), clients’ organizational behavior (untimely payment, change orders, and inefficient processing), and project definition in contract (unclear scope of works, and unclear technical specification). The structural equation modelling validates that these causes have direct influences on claim respectively. Besides, clients’ organizational behavior acts as a partial mediation between external risk and claim, demonstrating that external risk can also exert influence on claim through affecting clients’ organizational behavior. Seven ca...