The Impact of Contractor–Client Network Structure on Building Project Quality

Contractor–client network is temporary within a project, yet nested within a long-term network on a recurrent basis. While studies found that network constrains and motivates actors’ behaviors, little is known about how the contractor-client network structure influences the project quality. The findings derived from the manufacturing sector might not straightly applicable to the building project context due to the one-off cooperation nature. Therefore, this article aims to investigate how the contractor–client network structure [i.e., network closeness centrality (NC), network strength (NS), and network disparity (ND)] influences building project quality. We analyze a unique dataset of 268 contractors with 1334 building projects from Singapore's government authority. It is found that contractor's network strength and ND (i.e., deviation in both NC and strength) have positive impacts on building project quality, whereas NC does not. When clients have strong project quality record, the positive impact of network strength and ND will be alleviated and reinforced, respectively. This article contributes to quality management in temporary organizing context by adding an enduring dimension of the network effect.