Modelling the risks faced by Indian construction companies assessing international projects

There are just two Indian construction companies in the ENR 'Top 225 Global Contractors 2006' list and Indian construction companies have only a 0.05% market share of the $3-4 trillion global construction business. International construction experience in India is limited, but enormous scope for growth exists. This research presents the international construction risk factors from the Indian construction professionals' viewpoint, in a comprehensive format to enable practitioners to prioritize the efforts to manage the risk factors. Fourteen important risk factors have been identified through literature survey and interaction with industry experts. Interpretive structural modelling (ISM) has been used to present a hierarchical model showing the interrelationships between the risk factors. MICMAC analysis has been used to quantify and classify the risk factors based on their influence and dependence on other risk factors and to highlight counter-intuitive risk factors. We find that poor project management is a key risk factor forming the hub of the system, while political instability has maximum influence. The findings may be useful to the practitioners in the construction industry and may also interest academicians, since the method used here can be applied in other areas of construction management as well.