A step towards IPD implementation : establishing trust in DBB projects.

Abstract

Integrated project delivery (IPD) is one of the relational project delivery approaches that has been lately adopted in construction projects in the United States, Canada, China and many other countries in the world. IPD presents many benefits on project performances over the traditional transactional delivery approach Design-Bid-Build (DBB) that is mostly used in the construction field in the Middle East (ME) region. Implementing IPD requires trust between project participants since trust is at the core of relational contracting. However, the construction industry in the ME area lacks trust which hinders the implementation of IPD in the region. Therefore, establishing trust in the DBB approach is a crucial and critical step towards IPD implementation. Many researchers have tackled the issue of distrust and how to establish trust in construction projects but no research has yet described how trust attributes found in the literature can be employed in a DBB approach in order to improve project performances. This research study presents a theoretical model targeted at establishing trust between project participants. Results revealed that many of the IPD traits effective in building trust, in addition to a basket of trust attributes composed of relational, organizational and project characteristics, can be applied to a DBB project lifecycle especially to the construction phase. The study contribution lies in providing owners and project managers with a strategic model that can help improving the distrust issue faced in a traditional transactional delivery approach and develop a trustful working environment.