Management And Assessment Of Stakeholder-Related Risks In Construction:An Integration Of Risk And Stakeholder Elements

This dissertation aims to establish management framework and assessment model for stakeholder-related risks in construction projects,from a perspective of integrating key elements of stakeholder theory and risk management and assessment.Following the research path from testing the current literature to proposing management framework to developing assessment model,the research content of this dissertation includes three main parts:(a)connection and integration modes between risk management and stakeholder management through systematic literature review,(b)management framework for stakeholder-related risks based on Freeman’s(1984)landmark work Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach,and(c)assessment of stakeholder-related risks by considering the attributes of stakeholders.A systematic literature review was first conducted to identify how risk management and stakeholder management can connect,and to justify that integration of risk and stakeholder management was feasible and can promote the effectiveness of both risk management and stakeholder management in the management process domain and the management outcome domain.Based on the identified connection modes between risk and stakeholder management,this dissertaion further suggests future directions that enable integrating risk and stakeholder management to benefit their management process and/or management outcome.This sheds lights on the management of stakeholder-related risks in the way that integrating the key elements in stakeholder management can enhance the effectiveness of stakeholder-related risks.Based on this demonstration of the feasibility and benefit of integrating risk and stakeholder management,this dissertation then proposes a strategic management framework for stakeholder-related risks,mainly drawing on Freeman’s(1984)landmark work Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach.This framework includes four aspects: rational level,process level,transaction level,and monitoring,for each of which key issues related to the management of stakeholder-related risks are discussed.Two principles of this strategic management were also pointed out,including client project strategy and concern for ethic and social risks.Risk assessment is the core phase of risk management,this dissertation proposes that stakeholder attributes(stakeholder salience,stakeholder project position)will increase or decrease criticality of the risk posed by them.This hypothesis was supported by theoretical deduction based on stakeholder theory,social exchange theory,economic perspective,etc.and a questionnaire survey on Chinese contractors.Considering this theoretical and empirical support to the influence of stakeholder attributes on the criticality of stakeholder-related risks,a stakeholder-related risk assessment model is established,in which risk criticality is determined by two dimensions.The first is the risk attribute index(RA),which is related solely to the risk attributes(i.e.,probability and impact).The second is the stakeholder attribute index(SA),which is related solely to the specific attributes of a stakeholder in a given project,including stakeholder salience(i.e.,power,legitimacy,and urgency)and stakeholder project position.By adopting a mixed methods research design combining both qualitative and quantitative research methods,this dissertation,overall,demonstrates the feasibility and benefit of stakeholder and risk management integration,and establishes a stakeholder-based risk management framework and a risk assessment model integrating the attributes of stakeholders and the risk itself.This dissertation provides new thinking and methods for the management and assessment of stakeholder-related risks in construction projects,in both theoretical and practice aspects,by incorporating key elements of stakeholder theory into the field of project risk management.