Study On The Effect Of Contract Flexibility On Contract Performance Of Engineering Projects

Building on the incomplete contract theory,justice theory as well as and relational contract theory,and from the point of view of dealing with project uncertainty,the study defined variable ’contract performance’ as a satisfaction for performing the contract.And another core variable ‘contract flexibility’,the flexibility of the contract,which is divided into two main dimensions of ‘contract term flexibility’ and ’contract execution flexibility’.‘Justice perception’ had been dvided into three dimensions,which are the perception of distributive justice,the perception of procedural justice and the perception of interactive justice.In this study,a structural model of relationship between ‘contract flexibility’,‘justice perception’ and ‘contract performance’ was constructed.In total 246 effective sample data were gathered from the questionnaire inquiry of contract practitioners in the field of engineering project.The model was tested by several scientific methods such as correlation analysis,descriptive statistical analysis,hierarchical regression analysis,and results showed that,(1)Project contract flexibility had a direct and positive impact on contract performance.Justice perception had a direct positive impact on performance;meanwhile,contract term flexibility and contract execution flexibility both had a direct positive impact on justice perception.(2)Project contract flexibility had a direct impact on contract performance,in addition to that,contract flexibility had an impact on contract performance via the intermediating role of justice perception.The study had discussed the effect path of the engineering project contract flexibility on contract performance.Meanwhile,it had revealed the mechanism of influencing process of path Contract Flexibility-Justice Perception-Contract Performance in the engineering projects.Furthermore,this study is bringing its practical value for engineering project management.To make the improvement of owner and the contractor’s cooperative relationship,and then bring the virtuous cycle for the win-win cooperation and the promotion and profit of the project.