Project system vulnerability to political risks in international construction projects : the case of Chinese contractors

This study aims to explore the variables affecting the project system vulnerability to political risks in international construction projects. A questionnaire survey was conducted and 138 responses were received from both academia and industry. The exploratory factor analysis was then adopted to uncover the relationships among these variables. The results showed that three exposure factors (i.e., attribute-based exposure, strategy-based exposure, and transaction-based exposure) and three capacity factors (i.e., core competitive capacity, relative bargain capacity, and integrate adaptive capacity) were believed to be the significant underlying factors for the project system vulnerability to political risks. Also, case studies were conducted and the results indicated that the emergent framework was suitable and tractable for application in the future. This study provides a method for measuring the project system vulnerability to political risks; thus, international construction enterprises can decrease their risk exposure and enhance their capacity for dealing with political risks in international construction projects.