A Conceptual Model for Selecting Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) for a Project

Amongst different aspects of a capital construction project, procurement is found to be the most important area and represents over 80% of the contract value. The selection of an appropriate procurement strategy is an important contributor to overall project success. Within several procurement methods, Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), a relatively new strategy to procure a construction project, is becoming more popular for infrastructure projects across Australia. However, it appears that ECI has been adopted as a preferred procurement option with little research or piloting, and decisions to select ECI for a project have been mostly judgmental, and subject to biases of the decision-makers. This paper focuses on this important issue and proposes a conceptual model for selecting ECI for a construction project. Grounded Theory research methodology is employed for this study that facilitates the generation of categories and contextualises theory. Validation of the theory was ensured by carefully practicing the theoretical coding procedures through ‘open coding’, ‘axial coding’, and ‘selective coding’. The data is collected through individual interviews with experts within client organisations who held senior management level roles in their organisations and were involved in the selection process of ECI and could provide input into their experience in that area. The proposed selection model integrates the procurement selection criteria specifically related to the project characteristics, client’s objectives, and internal and external project environments with alternative selection approaches and practices. This paper also discusses the notion of social, process, and output control by using ECI.