Making international expansion decision for construction enterprises with multiple criteria: a literature review approach

ABSTRACT Multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods have been instrumental in various fields of disciplines such as economics and engineering, including construction studies. In the later context, MCDM methodology has been adopted to unravel the decision-making problems as regards international expansion of construction enterprises (IECEs). This paper presents a literature review of the methodology designed as decision support system for IECE. A methodological literature search to collect and identify relevant articles was utilized in top tier Construction Management journals. This study performs content analysis based on problem oriented MCDM applications in IECE. Theoretically, MCDM techniques were used in five contexts of IECE problems: internationalization decision, country or market selection, entry mode selection, project selection or bidding decision and other related international expansion. The types and complexity of problems were dominated by risks in international projects. Both real and simulation data were used to execute and validate the proposed MCDM models. This paper also suggested a number of possible future studies in applying MCDM methods for supporting IECE decision.

[1]  Albert P.C. Chan,et al.  Review of research trend in international construction projects: a bibliometric analysis , 2016 .

[2]  Jerry R. Goolsby,et al.  FOREIGN MARKET INFORMATION PREFERENCES OF ESTABLISHED U.S. EXPORTERS , 1987 .

[3]  Guillermo A. Mendoza,et al.  Multi-criteria decision analysis in natural resource management: A critical review of methods and new modelling paradigms , 2006 .

[4]  David Arditi,et al.  Factors Affecting International Construction , 2005 .

[5]  A. Chan,et al.  Review of studies on the Critical Success Factors for Public–Private Partnership (PPP) projects from 1990 to 2013 , 2015 .

[6]  David L. Hawk,et al.  Conditions of Success: a platform for international construction development , 2006 .

[7]  Jyrki Kangas,et al.  Improving the quality of landscape ecological forest planning by utilising advanced decision-support tools , 2000 .

[8]  Seung Heon Han,et al.  Approaches for Making Risk-Based Go/No-Go Decision for International Projects , 2001 .

[9]  Seyed Hossein Iranmanesh,et al.  A comprehensive framework for project selection problem under uncertainty and real-world constraints , 2011, Comput. Ind. Eng..

[10]  Irem Dikmen,et al.  Risk assessment of international construction projects using the analytic network process , 2009 .

[11]  Daniel Jato-Espino,et al.  A review of application of multi-criteria decision making methods in construction , 2014 .

[12]  Seung Heon Han,et al.  Making a risk-based bid decision for overseas construction projects , 2001 .

[13]  Chuan Chen,et al.  Permanent versus Mobile Entry Decisions in International Construction Markets: Influence of Home Country– and Firm-Related Factors , 2011 .

[14]  Seung Heon Han,et al.  Multicriteria Financial Portfolio Risk Management for International Projects , 2004 .

[15]  E. Sadler‐Smith,et al.  The Role of Intuition in Strategic Decision Making , 2009 .

[16]  A. N. Guz,et al.  Scopus: A system for the evaluation of scientific journals , 2009 .

[17]  Ghada M. Gad,et al.  Analytical Framework for the Choice of Dispute Resolution Methods in International Construction Projects Based on Risk Factors , 2011 .

[18]  Naresh K. Malhotra,et al.  Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation , 1993 .

[19]  Kuo-Liang Lin,et al.  Human Resource Allocation for Remote Construction Projects , 2011 .

[20]  Seung Heon Han,et al.  A web-based integrated system for international project risk management , 2008 .

[21]  Pekka Korhonen,et al.  Multiple criteria decision support - A review , 1992 .

[22]  Shyi-Ming Chen,et al.  Handling multicriteria fuzzy decision-making problems based on vague set theory , 1994 .

[23]  Baabak Ashuri,et al.  Financial Valuation of Investments in International Construction Markets: Real-Options Approach for Market-Entry Decisions , 2013 .

[24]  Makarand Hastak,et al.  ICRAM-1: Model for International Construction Risk Assessment , 2000 .

[25]  Min-Yuan Cheng,et al.  Supporting international entry decisions for construction firms using fuzzy preference relations and cumulative prospect theory , 2011, Expert Syst. Appl..

[26]  Zhigang Jin,et al.  An entry mode decision-making model for the international expansion of construction enterprises , 2013 .

[27]  Irem Dikmen,et al.  A case-based decision support tool for bid mark-up estimation of international construction projects , 2007 .

[28]  Solomon Tesfamariam,et al.  A review of multi-criteria decision-making methods for infrastructure management , 2014 .

[29]  Beliz Ozorhon,et al.  Case-Based Reasoning Model for International Market Selection , 2006 .

[30]  Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas,et al.  Multi-criteria decision making in civil engineering. Part II – applications , 2015 .

[31]  Chau Kwong Wing,et al.  The ranking of construction management journals , 1997 .

[32]  Irem Dikmen,et al.  Using fuzzy risk assessment to rate cost overrun risk in international construction projects , 2007 .

[33]  Robert L. K. Tiong,et al.  A Fuzzy Decision Framework for Contractor Selection , 2005 .

[34]  Derya Eren Akyol,et al.  A MADM based decision support system for international contractor rating , 2014, J. Intell. Fuzzy Syst..

[35]  Seung Heon Han,et al.  Discriminant Analysis for Predicting Ranges of Cost Variance in International Construction Projects , 2008 .

[36]  Alex P. Alex,et al.  Modeling the Cost of Political Risk in International Construction Projects , 2000 .

[37]  Irem Dikmen,et al.  Neural Network Model to Support International Market Entry Decisions , 2004 .

[38]  Seung Heon Han,et al.  Predicting Profit Performance for Selecting Candidate International Construction Projects , 2007 .

[39]  Amm Liu,et al.  Research Methods for Construction (3rd ed.) , 2008 .

[40]  Masood Fooladi,et al.  A Comparison between Two Main Academic Literature Collections: Web of Science and Scopus Databases , 2013, ArXiv.

[41]  Mohammed Wanous,et al.  A neural network bid/no bid model: the case for contractors in Syria , 2003 .

[42]  David Arditi,et al.  International Expansion Decision for Construction Companies , 2005 .

[43]  Llewellyn Tang,et al.  An entropy-based SWOT evaluation process of critical success factors for international market entry: a case study of a medium-sized consulting company , 2012 .

[44]  Helvi Kyngäs,et al.  The qualitative content analysis process. , 2008, Journal of advanced nursing.

[45]  B Downe-Wamboldt,et al.  Content analysis: method, applications, and issues. , 1992, Health care for women international.

[46]  Rifat Sonmez,et al.  Quantitative Methodology for Determination of Cost Contingency in International Projects , 2007 .

[47]  Tarek Hegazy,et al.  Neural networks as tools in construction , 1991 .

[48]  Edwin H.W. Chan,et al.  MAUT-Based Dispute Resolution Selection Model Prototype for International Construction Projects , 2006 .