Research On The Influence Of Contract Governance And Relationship Governance On Contractor’s Performance Behavior

Along with the gradual integration,complexity and large-scale of engineering projects,the project management objective gradually changes from achieving the basic performance of the contract to realizing the value-added of engineering projects.As one of the most important subjects of project construction management,motivating contractors to improve their performance behavior is crucial to improve project performance and achieve project management goals.How to promote positive performance of contractors through project governance is a key issue to improve project performance.Traditional project governance has the problem of "emphasis on contract,light on relationship" and "emphasis on interest,light on process",which shows that the owner and the contractor pay too much attention to the control role of the contract and neglect the importance of relationship governance,thus leading to the repeated opportunistic behavior of the contractor.This has led to the frequent occurrence of opportunistic behavior by contractors.The existing studies on project governance are limited,lacking in-depth analysis and verification of the inner connection between project governance and performance behavior,and the "black box" between the two needs to be explored.To this end,this study investigates the impact of contract governance and relationship governance on contractor performance behavior,and uses literature analysis,multiple case studies and empirical statistical research methods to analyze theoretically and test empirically the impact of project governance on contractor performance behavior.The main contents and results of the study are as follows:(1)It explores the influence path of contract governance and relationship governance on the performance of the contractor.Using a multi-case study approach,we analyzed the typical events in the four cases according to the logic of "governance mechanism-psychological perception-behavior" and explored the interconnections among the factors.The results show that:the correlation factor between the two is expressed as justice perception;contract governance and relationship governance influence the contractor’s performance behavior through institutional regulation and communication interaction respectively;contract governance and relationship governance influence the contractor’s justice perception by affecting the allocation of results,response procedures,and the rationality of the interaction;and the contractor’s justice perception influences its performance behavior based on fair reciprocity.(2)It reveals the influence of contract governance and relationship governance on the performance of contractors.Based on the existing theoretical foundation and qualitative research results,a theoretical model of the influence of contractual and relational governance on the performance behavior of contractors was constructed.The relationship hypothesis between contract governance,relationship governance,contractor’s perception of justice,and contractor’s performance behavior is proposed,and the questionnaire data are analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analysis methods to test and discuss the research hypothesis.The results indicate that both contract governance and relationship governance significantly and positively affect the positive performance behavior of contractors and significantly and negatively affect the opportunistic behavior of contractors;the highest likelihood of positive contractor performance,the lowest likelihood of opportunistic contractor behavior,and the highest perception of contractor justice when using a project governance mechanism with strong contractual relationships;lower likelihood of opportunistic behavior by contractors and higher perception of justice by contractors with a strong contractual project governance mechanism compared to a strong relationship-based project governance mechanism;justice perception mediates between contract governance,relationship governance,and contract and relationship governance matching governance mechanisms and contractor performance behavior.There are 27 figures,34 tables and 197 references in this paper.