Interaction Effects of Information Technologies and Best Practices on Construction Project Performance

Abstract

Building from considerable empirical research in the general business literature, this paper quantitatively explores the view that the benefits of information technologies manifest themselves through improvement in work processes. In turn, better work processes lead to increased project performance. Using an overall sample of 133 projects (missing data make specific correlation sample sizes smaller) from the Construction Industry Institute Benchmarking and Metrics database, this paper analyzes correlations between technology use and integration, best practices, and project performance measured with cost, schedule, and rework metrics. Data are also used to assess the complementary interaction between technology use, work processes as measured by best practices, and performance. The findings show that there are limited significant beneficial correlations between information technology use and performance, slightly more significant beneficial correlations between best practice use and performance, and several significant correlations between information technology use and application of Best practices. Interaction effects of the combined use of information technologies and best practices against performance are assessed, finding several positive correlations, although limited data availability prevents robust statistical evaluation. Overall, the paper concludes there is evidence that the benefits of information technologies in construction are found through changes in work processes. This paper thus challenges more common approaches that attempt to directly correlate the impact of information technology use on project performance with corresponding implications for both academic and industrial attempts at assessment.