Organisational Strategies for Competitive Advantage in the Construction Industry: Chinese Dominance in Southern Africa
Main Article Content
Abstract
Chinese enterprises are presently dominating various sectors of businesses abroad, offering a wide range of low to high-end quality products and services. The construction sector in Africa is now being dominated by Chinese multinational contractor companies, who find in Africa their next preferable market to grow. The available literature on the field has serious gaps in explaining which organisational strategies increase the competitive advantage and the market dominance of Chinese multinational contractors, especially in the Southern African region. This research aims to uncover the organisational strategies, implemented by Chinese multinational contractors operating in the Southern African region, who have paved the way and consolidated their success in the region. Through a mixed methods process, qualitative and quantitative data are obtained. The construction markets of the Southern African region are analysed (environmental analysis) and the main multinational Chinese contractors are identified, through a literature review and organisational analysis. Several organisational strategies are shortlisted and, finally, through an online questionnaire, the opinions of the participants to rank the organisational strategies previously identified in terms of contribution to the actual success, copying capability, etc., are carried out. The findings revealed that the capability to offer a lower price for construction services, the easy access to loans and funds from the organisation's home government and the capability to trade debt for local resources, such as wood, land and minerals are the organisational strategies that mostly contributed to the recent Chinese contractor dominance in the Southern African construction market.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Afonina, A. (2015). Strategic management tools and techniques and organizational performance: Findings from the Czech Republic. Journal of Competitiveness, 7(3): 19–36. https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2015.03.02.
Altheide, D. and Johnson, J. (2011). Reflections on interpretive adequacy in qualitative research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th Ed. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 581–594.
Bannister, S. (2007). Ethical issues and qualitative methods in the 21st century: How can digital technologies be embraced in the research community? Journal of Ethnographic and Qualitative Research, 1(1): 1–10.
Berg, B. (2001). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences. 4th Ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Birkinshaw, J., Hood, N. and Jonsson, S. (1998). Building firm-specific advantages in multinational corporations: The role of subsidiary initiative. Strategic Management Journal, 19(1): 221–241. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(199803)19:33.0.CO;2-P.
Berinsky, A. (2006). American public opinion in the 1930s and 1940s: The analysis of quota-controlled sample survey data. The Public Opinion Quarterly, 70(4): 499–529. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfl021.
Cheah, C., Kang, J. and Chew, D. (2007). Strategic analysis of large local construction firms in China. Construction Management and Economics, 25(1): 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600693450.
Chen, C., Chiu, P., Orr, R. and Goldstein, A. (2007). An empirical analyses of Chinese construction firms' entry into Africa. In The CRIOCM 2007 International Symposium on Advancement of Construction Management and Real Estate. Sydney: The Chinese Research Institute of Construction Management (CRIOCM).
Cheng, H. (2010). Chinese Companies and the International Engineering Contract Market in the 21st Century: China Statistical Yearbooks (1996–2009). 2nd Ed. Beijing: China Statistical Publications.
Chui, K. and Bai, Y. (2009). Comparison of Contract General Conditions between the US and China: Becoming More Competitive in the Chinese Construction Market. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Publishing House Ltd.
Corkin, L. (2011). Chinese construction companies in Angola: A local linkage perspective. In Making the Most of Commodities Programme (MMCP), Discussion Paper No. 2. Cape Town: University of Cape Town and Open University.
Creswell, J. (2011). Controversies in mixed methods research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th Ed. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 269–284.
Dey, I. (2005). Qualitative Data Analysis: A User-Friendly Guide for Social Scientists. 3rd Ed. London: Routledge.
Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. (2012). Management Research. 4th Ed. London: SAGE Publications.
Erickson, F. (2011). A history of qualitative inquiry in social and educational research. In N. Denzin and Y. Lincoln (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. 4th Ed. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 43–60.
Ernest and Young (2017). China Communications Construction Company Limited: Annual Report 2016; Independent Auditor's Report. Shanghai: EY Press.
Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and organizational strategy. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 14(1): 1–16.
Flanagan, R., Lu, W., Ye, K. and Jewell, C. (2013). Developing construction professional services in the international market: SWOT analysis of China. Journal of Management in Engineering, 133(12): 302–313. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)ME.1943-5479.0000144.
Gabčanová, I. (2011). The employees: The most important asset in the organizations. Human Resources Management and Ergonomics, 5(1): 1–12.
Gale, N., Heath, G., Cameron, E., Rashid, S. and Redwood, S. (2013). Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 13(1): 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-117.
Ghahroudi, M. (2011). Ownership advantages and firm factors influencing performance of foreign affiliates in Japan. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(11): 119–137. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v6n11p119.
Goldman, E., Scott, A. and Follman, J. (2015). Organizational practices to develop strategic thinking. Journal of Strategy and Management, 8(2): 155–175. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSMA-01-2015-0003.
Hibberts, M., Johnson, R. and Hudson, K. (2012). Common survey sampling techniques. In L. Gideon (ed.), Handbook of Survey Methodology for the Social Sciences. New York: Springer, 167–211. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3876-2_5.
Johnson, B. and Turner, L. (2003) Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. In A. Tashakkori and C. Teddlie (eds.), Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research. London: SAGE Publications, 297–320.
Johnston, M. (2014). Secondary data analysis: A method of which the time has come. Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Libraries (QQML), 3(1): 619– 626.
Kim, W. and Mauborgne, R. (2004). Blue ocean strategy. Harvard Business Review, 82(10): 76–84.
Kinnie, N., Hutchinson, S., Purcell, J., Rayton, B. and Swart, J. (2005). Satisfaction with HR practices and commitment to the organization: Why one size does not fit all. Human Resource Management Journal, 15(4): 9–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2005.tb00293.x.
Kotzé, T. (2007). Guidelines on Writing a First Quantitative Academic Article. 2nd Ed. Pretoria, South Africa: University of Pretoria Press.
Lan, Y. (2011). The expansion of Chinese construction companies in the global market. MSc diss. University of Kansas.
Larson-Hall, J. and Plonsky, L. (2015). Reporting and interpreting quantitative research findings: What gets reported and recommendations for the field. Language Learning, 65(1): 127–159. https://doi.org/10.1111/lang.12115.
Lo, F., Mahoney, J. and Tan, D. (2011). The relationship between locationbound advantages and international strategy: An empirical investigation. International Journal of Strategic Change Management, 3(4): 281–301. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSCM.2011.044941.
Low, S. and Jiang, H. (2003). Internationalization of Chinese construction enterprises. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 129(6): 589–598. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2003)129:6(589).
Low, S., Jiang, P. and Leong, C. (2004). A comparative study of top British and Chinese international contractors in the global market. Construction Management and Economics, 22(7): 717–731. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000202780.
Lu, W., Liu, A., Rowlinson, S. and Poon, S. (2013). Sharpening competitive edge through procurement innovation: Perspectives from Chinese international construction companies. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 7(4): 347–351. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000614.
Lu, W., Shen, L. and Yam, M. (2006). Critical success factors for competitiveness of contractors: China study. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 3(2): 972–982. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)07339364(2008)134:12(972).
Manyika, J., Chui, M., Bughin, J., Dobbs, R., Bisson, P. and Mars, A. (2013). Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business and the global economy. Available at: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/disruptive_technologies [Accessed on 17 February 2017].
Morse, J. (2003). Principles of mixed methods and multimethod research design. In A. Tashakkori and C. Teddlie (eds.), Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research. London: SAGE Publications, 189–208.
Mwangi, D. (2011). Competitiveness between local, EU and Chinese firms in Kenya. MSc diss. Copenhagen Business School.
Noon, M. (2007). The fatal flaws of diversity and the business case for ethnic minorities. Work, Employment and Society, 21(4): 773–784. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017007082886.
Onwuegbuzie, A. and Teddlie, C. (2003). A framework for analyzing data in mixed methods research. In A. Tashakkori and C. Teddlie (eds.), Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research. London: SAGE Publications, 351– 384.
Pan, N. and Lee, M. (2017). Enhancing construction companies' marketing strategies: The construction industry in Taiwan. The International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 10(1): 143–164.
Pheng, L., Shang, G. and Foong, W. (2016). Enhancing construction productivity through organizational learning in the Singapore construction industry. International Journal of Construction Project Management, 8(1): 71–89.
Rumelt, R.P. (2003). What in the world is competitive advantage? Working Paper No. 2003-105. The Anderson School, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Sullivan, G. and Artino, A. (2013). Analyzing and interpreting data from Likerttype scales. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, 5(4): 541–542. https://doi.org/10.4300/JGME-5-4-18.
Survey Monkey (2017). Homepage. Available at: https://pt.surveymonkey.com/ [Accessed on 19 September 2017].
TiMetric (2018). Homepage. Available at: https://www.timetric.com/ [Accessed on 8 January 2018].
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2017). The top 250 international contractors. ENR: Engineering News-Record, 5(1): 33–52.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2016). The top 250 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 40(1): 37–58.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2015). The top 250 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 16(1): 33–57.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2014). The top 250 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 7(1): 1–20.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2013). The top 250 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 45(1): 1–20.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2012). The top 225 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 124(1): 1–19.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2011). The top 225 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 13(1): 45–66.
Tulacz, G. and Reina, P. (2010). The top 225 international contractors. ENR: Engineering NewsRecord, 32(1): 44–66. Turner, A. (2003). Sampling Strategies. New York: Statistics Division, United Nation Secretariat. Available at: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/meetings/egm/Sampling_1203/docs/no_2.pdf[Accessed on 17 March 2018].
Williams, C. (2007). Research methods. Journal of Business and Economic Research, 5(3): 65–72. https://doi.org/10.19030/jber.v5i3.2532.
Yang, K. and Banamah, A. (2014). Quota sampling as an alternative to probability sampling?: An experimental study. Sociological Research Online, 19(1): 29– 49. https://doi.org/10.5153/sro.3199.