Hindrances to enterprise risk management in construction firms : an organizational learning perspective

In recent years, holding a holistic view of risk management has become the trend in various industries. In this trend, enterprise risk management (ERM) has been viewed as the fundamental paradigm and has attracted the attention from the academics and practitioners worldwide. Implementing ERM in construction firms is inevitably associated with organizational learning. The objectives of this study are to (1) identify the critical hindrances to ERM in Chinese construction firms (CCFs) and (2) analyze them in tandem with theories of organizational learning. To achieve these objectives, a total of 36 hindrances to ERM and 12 hindrances to organizational learning were identified through a literature review, and a questionnaire survey was performed with 119 respondents from 119 CCFs in the global construction market. The results indicated that 20 hindrances were deemed critical, among which “insufficient resources (e.g. time, money, people, etc.)”, “lack of a formalized ERM process”, and “lack of internal knowledge, skills and expertise” were the top three hindrances. In addition, the critical hindrances to ERM were interpreted from the perspective of organizational learning, and the 12 hindrances to organizational learning were linked to the critical hindrances to ERM. This study presents the theoretical rationale behind the critical hindrances to ERM implementation and contributes to the literature through interpreting ERM implementation from an organizational learning perspective.