Understanding the competitiveness factors of Korean contractors in the international construction market

Figures & data

Figure 1. Factors influencing competitiveness-Korean enterprises.

Figure 2. Korea’s annual construction output. Source: Construction Association of Korea (CAK) and International Contractors Association of Korea (ICAK).

Figure 3. Research framework.

Table 1. Survey respondents.

Experience(Years)	Project Managers	Site Managers	Project Engineering	Design Managers	Other roles	Total Responses
Less 10	8	5	5	7	10	35
11-15	13	9	12	2	4	40
16-20	9	16	9	1	7	42
21-30	5	5	3	1	–	14
Over 30	1	3	–	–	1	5
Total	36	38	29	11	22	136

Table 2. Result of bartlett’s test and KMO measure.

Bartlett’s test of sphericity	Approx. χ$²$	703.118
	Sig	.003
	Df	110
KMO measure of sampling adequacy		.695

Table 3. RII and Ranking of Korean competitiveness factors.

Category	No.	Competitiveness factors	Rank	RII	Import-ance weight (%)	Interrela-tionship weight (%)
Market condition factors	F01	Ease to market entry and barriers to entry (opaque and transparent) (G)	23	0.566	2.801	4.48
	F02	Cultural (psychic) distance to country/ region (G)	16	0.648	3.206	3.39
	F03	Local industry characteristics and resilience (G)	26	0.534	2.642	3.14
	F04	Korean government support for export and winning work (K)	9	0.701	3.469	5.21
	F05	Intensity of competition in market (K)	28	0.498	2.464	3.62
	F06	Exploiting trading alliances (such as trading bloc agreement) (G)	31	0.366	1.811	1.60
	F07	Geopolitical relationships of Korea with country (K)	15	0.651	3.221	2.77
	F08	Security in the region (G)	18	0.617	3.051	1.89
	F09	Availability of export credit to guarantee payments (G)	19	0.603	2.984	2.21
Regulatory and governance factors	F10	Registration requirements-professional and business (G)	27	0.501	2.479	2.96
	F11	Ethics and corruption (G)	13	0.669	3.310	2.34
	F12	Health & safety requirement (G)	12	0.681	3.370	1.96
	F13	Financial regulations on currency (G)	30	0.431	2.133	2.03
	F14	Taxation arrangements (G)	32	0.353	1.747	2.27
	F15	Restrictions on foreign ownership and local participation requirements (G)	29	0.484	2.395	5.65
Enterprise competence factors	F16	Ownership of enterprise, and strength of belonging to a Chaebol group (K)	6	0.786	3.889	1.92
	F17	Attitude to risk exposure (K)	17	0.646	3.196	3.66
	F18	Size of enterprise (annual revenue, number on payroll (K)	11	0.686	3.394	3.81
	F19	Strong balance sheet (G)	24	0.557	2.756	4.24
	F20	Strong leadership on internationalization (K)	1	0.852	4.216	4.73
	F21	Technology focus with links to manufacturing, design and production on site giving an integrated approach (K)	3	0.833	4.123	2.36
	F22	Project creation with ability to access project finance (G)	14	0.657	3.251	5.56
	F23	Experience in delivering project types (G)	5	0.795	3.934	2.20
	F24	Specialisation and ability to leverage technological advantage (K)	7	0.783	3.876	1.85
	F25	Digitalisation as core competence (K)	10	0.689	3.409	2.44
	F26	Environmentally responsible, embracing the circular economy (G)	20	0.590	2.919	2.29
	F27	Social responsibility seen as important (G)	25	0.538	2.662	1.77
Project and operational factors	F28	Experience and resources available to deliver project (G)	4	0.801	3.963	2.83
	F29	Empathy with client requirements (G)	22	0.567	2.804	1.45
	F30	Strong management systems for cost, time, quality, health & safety, and exploiting digital strength (G)	8	0.703	3.478	1.51
	F31	Using robust and mobile Korean supply chains (K)	2	0.835	4.132	5.63
	F32	Financial targets and profitability (G)	21	0.589	2.914	6.23
					100	100

^a(G): General competitiveness factor/(K): Korea-featured competitiveness factor.

Figure 4. Causal loop diagram of project competitiveness factors.

Figure 5. System dynamics modelling for project performance.

Figure 6. Comparison between general and Korea-featured factors model.