Development of a competitiveness model for international contracting firms

Competitiveness is an important research topic in construction business. Contractors need to assess their competitive position in order to sustain their existence in increasing globalization and fierce competition environment. However, competitiveness concept is argued by many practitioners and theorists because the term does not have an exact definition, it cannot be assessed easily and measured directly. This study aims to develop a framework that can assess construction contractors' competitiveness. For this purpose, the competitiveness parameters for construction contractor's competitiveness are identified. Competitiveness factors of construction contractors can be found in literature and in this study, comprehensive list of competitiveness factors of construction contractors are provided. An Analytic Network Process (ANP) model is proposed to analyze these factors involved in the analysis. Data collection is based on the experts' opinions from the Turkish construction sector. The developed conceptual model is applied to Turkish contractors. According to the study, these factors are provided in 9 groups that include effectiveness of strategies, management capabilities, organizational capabilities, efficiency of technical resources, efficiency of human resources, efficiency of financial resources, relationship, favorability of host country, and favorability of market conditions. There are 47 factors in total. The analysis shows that "effectiveness of strategies" is the most influential factors that contribute to the competitiveness of the Turkish contractors, followed by "organizational capabilities" and "managerial capabilities", respectively.