| The transformation of Chinese society and the rapid development of economy are making the domestic construction market change dramatically.While the rapid change brings progress,it also brings a series of uncertainties to the project.Based on the theory of transaction costs,uncertainty is an important factor in choosing project governance methods.On the one hand,after the full implementation of bidding system in China,contractual governance has become a formal governance mode that contractors attach importance to and rely on;on the other hand,based on the special social and cultural background of China,guanxi governance as an informal governance mode also plays an increasingly important role in project activities.For domestic contractors,how the uncertainty will affect these two governance methods,and how to promote the contractual governance with the help of guanxi governance under the uncertainty of the project are not only a practical issue that must be considered,but also an important prerequisite to improve the efficiency of project governance.Therefore,this study starts from the uncertainty of the project,analyzes the impact of uncertainty on guanxi governance and contractual governance,explores how uncertainty affects contractual governance through guanxi governance,and provides strategic suggestions for contractors to better carry out project governance.This study comprehensively adopts the research methods of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis.Based on the grounded theory,nine domestic contractor enterprises were interviewed in depth,and the Nvivo11 software was used to analyze the interview cases.The uncertainty of the project was divided into two categories:the uncertainty of project environment and the uncertainty of project participants,guanxi governance consists of four elements: trust,communication,cooperation,and reciprocity,contractual governance consists of three elements:contract clarity,contract completeness,and contract execution.In the quantitative analysis section,198 valid questionnaires were collected by snowballing,and the PLS-SEM method was used to carry out empirical research on the data.The results show that : first,project environmental uncertainty has a significant positive impact on both guanxi governance and contractual governance;second,project participant uncertainty has a significant negative impact on both guanxi governance and contractual governance;third,guanxi governance will promote contractual governance;finally,guanxi governance has mediation effect in the impact of both project environmental uncertainty and project participant uncertainty on contractual governance.The main contributions of this research are: First,the relationship between project uncertainty and project governance is verified,which is an important supplement to the research of project uncertainty and project governance;Second,this study considers the unique cultural background of China,verifies the positive promotion effect of guanxi governance on contractual governance,and complements the research on the relationship between relational governance and contractual governance;Third,this study finds the mediation role of guanxi governance between project uncertainty and contractual governance,expands and deepens the understanding of existing research on the impact of project uncertainty on governance methods;Fourth,the research method of grounded theory is combined with the research method of case analysis,which provides a reference research method for the relevant research in this field. |
