Demystifying Critical Success Factors for Applying Value Management in Construction Projects along the Belt and Road Regions: Focus Group Study

Abstract

The Belt and Road (B&R) initiative creates a highly competitive and dynamic environment and cooperation network for construction projects in specific regions. By using the experience of other countries, construction professionals can be well-equipped with management skills for solving intractable problems during the project management process of a construction project. Value management (VM) is a systematic team decision-making methodology used to achieve the best project value, but it is rarely applied in developing regions along the B&R. This study aims to identify critical success factors for the implementation of VM in construction projects in both developed and developing regions along the B&R. Six focus groups targeting three groups of regions were conducted, including advanced VM developed regions (Regions 1), advanced VM developing regions (Regions 2), and unadvanced VM developing regions (Regions 3). Three main groups of critical success factors were identified by using contextual analysis: technical process, team behaviors, and outcomes. By comparing VM in advanced VM regions (Regions 1 and Regions 2) and traditional team decision-making in unadvanced VM regions (Regions 3), the study revealed that (1) practitioners in Regions 1 applied VM to achieve project success with a logical process and positive team behaviors, although several problems were also encountered; (2) surprisingly, in some technical respects, VM practitioners in Region 2 performed better than those in Regions 1, but positive team behaviors were still not emphasized; and (3) inefficient traditional decision-making activities with illogical technical processes and negative team behaviors in Regions 3 often led to poor project outcomes. A propositional model is established based on the identified critical success factors and comparison results among the three groups of regions. Finally, several practical recommendations are proposed to ensure effective VM application and promotion in both developed and developing regions along the B&R. In the developing countries that participated in the Belt and Road initiative, poor performance is not uncommon for megaconstruction projects with multiple stakeholders due to poor problem-solving strategies. This research revealed that value management practitioners in developed regions could achieve good project outcomes by applying value management with a logical framework and positive team behaviors, but they have not yet found a good way to resolve problems in terms of time constraints, no follow-up actions, and duplicate information from the public. VM practitioners in some of the developing regions put much effort into VM application, but the poor function analysis and insufficient conflict management, commitment, and transparency still impacted the final project outcomes negatively. Various problems such as no information analysis, serious corruption, and limited participation were encountered in illogical traditional team decision-making activities in developing regions, which significantly destroyed stakeholder outcomes and project performance. This research explores the insufficient value management practices in both developed and developing regions along the B&R, which provides empirical evidence to constriction professionals to update their VM/traditional team decision-making strategies and find out the best ways to conduct VM logically and effectively for improving final project outcomes.