A Study On The Influence Of Construction Project Critical Success Factors On Project Performance

Construction projects are the carriers of national fixed asset investment. The improving of project management has significant positive impacts on promoting economic growth and safeguarding long-term prosperity and stability of the national economy. Clear identification of critical success factors of construction projects is beneficial for project managers to manage aimfully, whereas further understanding of the internal relations of critical success factors and their impacts on the project performance, will help project managers make reasonable resources allocation and make appropriate plans according to specific project objectives. In the first part of this thesis, 62 critical success factors were identified through literature analysis from three aspects, which are participants'characteristics, project characteristics, and environmental characteristics; then, the initial identified critical success factors were screened by expert discussion; and further refinement and validation were conducted by the use of factor analysis on project data collected by questionnaire survey. In the second part of this thesis, 12 project success criteria and 51 performance indicators were identified through Balanced Scorecard method on the basis of abundant literature analysis; then, the evaluation of each performance indicator was carried out through questionnaire survey. In the last part of this thesis, the model of critical success factors'impacts on project performance was constructed by the use of Structural Equation Model (SEM). Variable design was conducted based on the research results of the first two part of this thesis. 44 critical success factors (divided into 10 categories) and 8 indicators were selected as variables of the model. The research hypothesis of critical success factors'impacts on project performance were validated through analysis of the data acquired by 108 complete and valid questionnaires; and then a detailed evaluation and modification were carried out according to outputs of data analysis by AMOS; finally, on the basis of the ultimate modified model, this thesis make a thorough discussion about the relationship between critical success factors and project performance.