Selecting control strategies in projects of intangible outputs: Empirical evidence from architectural and engineering design projects

Purpose: Project managers rely on control strategies to deliver excellent outputs. However, little is known about how clients' project managers select control strategies in projects which are knowledge-intensive and have intangible outputs. This study aims to examine how clients' project managers select project control strategies in professional service projects. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey of 360 architectural and engineering (A/E) design projects was adopted. Data were analyzed through the hierarchical regression. Findings: Both clients' knowledge of measuring outcomes and process uncertainty give rise to their project managers setting up behavior and social controls. Level of process uncertainty positively moderates the impact of client's knowledge of measuring outcomes on outcome control. Research limitations/implications: This study mainly examined the client's knowledge of measuring outcomes and process uncertainties. Future studies could be conducted to expand the scope by including other contextual factors, for instance market and regulatory factors. Practical implications: From the client side, if they want to simultaneously adopt outcome, behavior and social controls, they would need to increase their knowledge of measuring outcomes by adopting established assessment tools or appointing a third party to assist in design outcome evaluation. Originality/value: This study contributes to the body of knowledge by showing that the level of intangibility of project outputs influences the types of control system which project managers adopt.