Building a conceptual framework for measuring business performance in construction: an empirical evaluation

Abstract

The importance of business performance measurement across industries has elevated in the last decade in what has been described as a revolution. Meanwhile, the construction industry has been criticised for its underperformance and the Latham and Egan reports emphasized the need for performance improvement and measurement. Companies have had to face the dilemma of choosing among different performance measurement frameworks. Hence, a need has been identified for a comprehensive framework. The aim of this research is to fulfil this need by building a conceptual framework for measuring the business performance of construction organizations. The framework had been formulated in previous research upon the principles of the Balanced Scorecard and Business Excellence Models. The research attempts to empirically evaluate and revise the framework through a series of expert interviews and case studies. In addition, empirical feedback has been used to: express the revised framework in a more communicative form, illustrate how business performance can be measured; and highlight the differences between the proposed framework and contemporary performance frameworks.

Keywords:

• Balanced scorecard
• construction
• empirical evaluation
• excellence model
• performance measurement

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the construction companies and experts participating in this research for their support and collaboration, and in particular Morrison Construction Ltd. The corresponding author would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport and the British Council.