Knowledge transfer of joint venture contractors in foreign funded water sector construction project

Abstract

The economy of a country highly depends on its investments in the construction industry. The construction industry has been widely described as a very competitive industry (Shen and Cheung 2017). In this context capacity development of the local contractors is utmost important for long term sustainability. In Sri Lanka, the involvement of foreign contractors to undertake large scale construction projects has increased recently. One of the major benefits offered by the involvement of foreign contractors in construction projects is the “Knowledge Transfer” (Bandara 2014). The most favourable collaboration type between local and foreign contractors in terms of knowledge transfer is Joint Venture (JV). However, the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer under JV is moderately discussed in past studies. Hence it is important to undertake a comprehensive study to analyse in Sri Lankan construction industry. The main objectives of this research are (i) to identify the global knowledge transferring and critical knowledge areas which contribute to the knowledge transfer under ICJVs in water sector projects, (ii) to analyse the degree of knowledge and to determine the knowledge gaps between the local and foreign contractors in water sector projects, (iii) to analyse success and failures of knowledge transfer under past ICJVs and (iv) to recommend best practices to remedy the knowledge gaps through enforcing/enhancing the existing ICJV mechanism. The scope of the study is limited to water sector construction projects only. The research is based on literature review and data collected through Unstructured/Structured interviews and questionnaire survey among the professionals. The data were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The main findings of the study are, local contractors lacked in all the considered Project Management and Contract Management knowledge areas compared to the foreign contractors and knowledge transfer in past ICJV water projects was very low. Amend the existing JV mechanism, introduction of contractual provisions in the contract documents, introduction of Government policies and effective involvement of donor funding agencies are within the recommendations for the knowledge transfer process to be successful.