Investigating Risk-Constraint Nexus of Construction Projects in Caribbean Small Island Developing States

Abstract

This research identifies the critical risk factors in the management of construction projects and assesses their relationship on the project implementation constraints of cost, time, and quality, in order to gain a deeper understanding of those factors hindering project success in in Caribbean small island developing states experiencing the dilemma of transitioning to be sustainable in economy and environment. Through three-phase surveys, we identify 26 risk factors from five risk source categories that are more region-specific to influence construction project management, discover strongly positive relationships between a set of risk variables and a set of constraints, and estimate the relative importance of every dimension to the integrated risk-constraint canonical correlation. In risk categories, management has the dominant effect followed by design, contractual, and financial source. For implementation constraints, cost exhibits the most dominance, followed by time and quality. Overall, the directions and magnitudes of interactions gauged in the risk-constraint nexus provide a guideline for improving project planning, thus offering a reference value to other developing countries.