Diagnosing critical barriers to international construction joint ventures success in the developing country of Ghana
ISSN: 1471-4175
Article publication date: 5 August 2022
Issue publication date: 27 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
International construction joint ventures (ICJVs) implementation is plagued with several barriers, full understanding of which is still lacking due to a lack of an in-depth exploration of them, particularly in developing countries. To fill this knowledge gap, this study aims to investigate the critical barriers to the success of ICJVs hosted in developing countries by examining the Ghanaian case.
Design/methodology/approach
This study builds on a previous study that identified 37 barriers factors to ICJVs success via a systematic literature review. Through expert interviews, 34 potential barriers were identified, and a two-round survey was conducted with 84 ICJVs practitioners in Ghana. The data collected was analyzed using the combination of a multidimensional fuzzy logic method and confirmatory factor analysis.
Findings
Results showed that 22 barriers were critical. The top five most critical barriers were “lack of preparedness to accept company philosophy,” “competing objectives,” “opportunistic behavior of parties,” “conflicts” and “lack of management control.” Furthermore, the results uncovered and confirmed five significant underlying components for the 22 critical barriers, namely, organizational-related, cultural-related, knowledge-related, individual-related and logistics-related barriers.
Practical implications
The findings could be useful to ICJVs practitioners and policymakers in developing suitable strategies for the successful implementation of ICJVs. Further, foreign firms aiming to execute and promote ICJVs in Ghana could have prior knowledge of the critical barriers and prepare for them.
Originality/value
This study empirically analyzed the individual levels of barriers criticalities in ICJVs context and from a specific-country perspective – the developing country of Ghana – rather than in the context of construction joint ventures and from a cross-country perspective in extant studies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a broader-scope PhD study on Determinants of success for ICJVs in Ghana. The authors acknowledge that this paper shares a similar background and methodology with other related papers published with different objectives and scopes. The authors wish to thank the Department of Building and Real Estate of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for funding this research. The authors are also thankful to the Ghanaian partners and their foreign partners of ICJVs who participated in the questionnaire survey and to Mr Robert Quansah-Opirim, Mr Stephen Nana Opoku Ware and Miss Monica Assem Kaki for their invaluable assistance in the data gathering. Acknowledgment is finally due to the editors and anonymous reviewers who provided constructive comments and suggestions that helped to improve this paper.
Declaration of competing interest. The authors whose names are listed above certify that the manuscript titled “Exploring barriers affecting ICJVs for infrastructure delivery in developing economies: The Ghanaian case” has not been published neither is it under consideration elsewhere.
Citation
Tetteh, M.O., Chan, A.P.C., Mohandes, S.R. and Agyemang, D.Y. (2023), "Diagnosing critical barriers to international construction joint ventures success in the developing country of Ghana", Construction Innovation, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 1151-1185. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-01-2022-0021
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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