STRATEGIC ALLIANCE IMPLEMENTATION STATUS AND IMPACT ON PROJECT PERFORMANCE

Strategic alliance is a proactive management process that integrates and optimizes value-added services of each party to best achieve business objectives of all parties within the relationship. Under the current competitive global environment, strategic alliance can produce a "Win-Win" situation and thus change paradigm that has resided in the construction industry. While many studies revealed the significance of alliance relationship in the industry, its impact on project performance has rarely been analyzed. Using the data obtained from 661 construction projects in the Construction Industry Institute database (359 projects from 38 owners and 302 projects from 29 contractors), this study first diagnoses the implementation status of strategic alliance at both project and company levels. Then, its impact on project performance is quantified and discussed. The descriptive analysis performed in this study revealed that an average of 79% of owner companies and 69% of contractor companies have ever implemented strategic alliance into at least one of their projects. However, both owner and contractor companies did not always use the strategy for all or their projects. Only 33% and 30% of projects reported by owners and contractors have been completed under alliance relationship, respectively. Analyzing the alliance impact on project performance, this study also establishes that strategic alliance positively affects project performance of both owners and contractors while owners should consider and control the level of its use for their projects. Recognizing and understanding the benefits from strategic alliance will be a starting point to produce mutual success among project participants, ultimately allowing the construction industry to go forward to a sustainable industry that transfers success from one project to the other.