Developing a framework to minimize the occurrence of construction conflict and disputes in different procurement strategies: An initial review of literature

The selection of the procurement system leading to the decision of contractual agreement to be adopted has been a popular research focus over the last two decades. Different kind of disputes concerning construction contracts have occurred and becoming increasingly common. However, it was also evident that current research in the construction contract management appears to pay more attention towards the dispute resolution rather than preventing conflict and disputes to occur in the first place. In light of this, a PhD research project has been set aiming to minimize conflict and disputes in construction contracting. As an integral part of the on-going investigation, a thorough study encompassing a critical review of reported cases as well as research that has been conducted for the past two decades on the conflict and disputes in construction contracting have been conducted and the findings are presented in this paper. Various conflict and disputes are grouped within different procurement systems and analysed against the characteristics of the relevant procurement systems in order to determine direct and/or indirect links. The findings capture the relationship between characteristics of the procurement system and the types of conflict and disputes occurred in the construction industry that can be used as a platform for the development of a framework to minimize their occurrences in different procurement scenarios.