Value management in China: Current state and future prospect

Purpose - To look into the current state of value management (VM) practice in China and reveal the challenges and opportunities to its future development. Design/methodology/approach - Copies of a questionnaire (2,000) were mailed to chief engineers in manufacturing companies (1,000) and construction companies (1,000). Interviews with six practitioners and two experts were followed up in leading cities of VM applications in China. Findings - Reveal awareness and applications of VM in manufacturing and construction industries, different VM method from overseas mainstream and rank the difficulties in applying VM in China. Limited scope of applications, misusing mathematical techniques in VM studies and the inappropriate measures adopted to promote VM applications were identified as three main factors blocking the development of VM in china. In order to overcome these problems, more cooperation with overseas VM practitioners is recommended. Research limitations/implications - The findings of this paper based on VM applications in China limits its usefulness elsewhere. Practical implications - This paper reveals the main problems in current VM applications in China and point out the direction to overcome the difficulties for promoting VM practice in future. It is instructive for VM practitioners, especially in the construction industry. Originality/value - This paper provides an overall understanding of the current state and future prospect of VM application in China for VM researchers and practitioners.