Project external environmental factors affecting project delivery systems selection

Project delivery systems (PDSs) selection is crucial to construction project management success. The matching between construction projects and PDSs is hypersensitive to project external environment. Existing studies on selecting PDSs mainly focus on owner’s and project’s characteristics and attach less attention to project environmental factors. This study, therefore, aims to formally identify key project external environmental factors affecting PDSs selection using a data-driven approach. Key factors are summarized and identified through the granular computing method based on 61 Chinese project samples. Empirical results indicate that four factors including market competitiveness, technology accessibility, ma-terial availability, and regulatory impact are critical to PDSs selection. This study extended previous research findings on PDSs selection from a perspective of project external environments. Research conclusions can be used as references under-pinning construction owners selecting appropriate PDSs considering project external environmental factors.