Investigating key success factors and performance in retailconstruction

The retail sector, with its dynamic and competitive nature, plays a crucial role in shaping customer experiences, driving economic growth, and strengthening brand equity. Retail firms continuously invest in developing and optimizing their retail spaces to gain a competitive advantage, and meet evolving customer expectations. This effort brings the retail sector into intersection with the construction industry, where unique success factors emerge, highlighting the critical importance of strategic project management. Despite their significance, the critical success factors (CSFs) for retail construction projects have remained underexplored. This study addresses this gap by identifying and analyzing the CSFs that influence project success through the systematic evaluation of drivers, enablers, inputs, barriers, benefits, and impacts. The study adopts a mixed-methods approach to provide a comprehensive analysis. Accordingly, a literature review, pilot interviews with industry professionals, survey studies, and a case study of a retail construction project for a global retail chain were conducted. The findings revealed critical factors such as time sensitivity, technical expertise, the competence and structure of the project team, effective communication, alignment of stakeholder priorities, and streamlined processes. Additionally, the research highlighted the importance of focusing on improved financial performance with timely project delivery and enhanced brand image as key outcomes of successful retail construction projects. This study contributes as a bridge between academia and industry by offering a foundational framework of critical success factors for retail construction, integrating the dynamic principles of the retail and construction sectors to provide actionable strategies for enhancing project efficiency, stakeholder collaboration, and alignment with business objectives.