Research On The Matching Of Management Control Mechanism And The Combination Of Task Characteristics:evidence From Chinese International Construction Contractors

With the continuous expansion of the policy of opening up,China’s construction contracting industry has developed rapidly,and the volume of foreign contracting business has grown steadily.At the same time,these enterprises are faced with the difficult problem of choosing which control mechanism can achieve effective control over overseas project departments.At present,scholars have mainly identified the influencing factors of control mechanisms from subject characteristics and transaction characteristics,while there are fewer studies on the influence of task characteristics on control mechanisms,and most of them only focus on the influence of single task characteristics on the control mechanism.However,control mechanisms act on tasks performed by overseas project departments,which may have multiple task characteristics at the same time and will jointly determine the choice of control mechanisms.Therefore,this study investigates how different combinations of task characteristics can be matched with the control mechanism from the perspective of grouping,to achieve effective control of the overseas project department.This study first identified five task characteristics and three control mechanisms,and a total of 277 valid questionnaires were collected utilizing a questionnaire survey.The data were analyzed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis(fs QCA),and the study found that there are three types of groupings that employ social control: tasks that are simultaneously high in interdependence and task familiarity;tasks that are simultaneously high in analyzability,interdependence,and complexity;and tasks that are simultaneously high in analyzability,familiarity,complexity,and criticality.Three types of groupings use outcome control: tasks that are simultaneously high in analyzability,interdependence,complexity,and criticality;tasks that are simultaneously high in analyzability,familiarity,complexity,and criticality;and tasks that are simultaneously high in interdependence,familiarity,and criticality.Three types of groupings use behavioral control: tasks that are simultaneously high in analyzability,interdependence,and familiarity;tasks that are simultaneously high in interdependence,familiarity,and criticality;and tasks that are simultaneously high in analyzability,high in complexity,and high in criticality.This study investigates the matching of different combinations of task characteristics and control mechanisms from a grouping perspective,expanding a single task characteristic to a combination of multiple task characteristics and enriching the study of the influencing factors of control mechanisms in terms of task characteristics.In addition,this study gives what control mechanisms can achieve the control objectives under different combinations of task characteristics,which will provide a reference for China’s foreign contracting enterprises in selecting control mechanisms.