Effects Of The Organizational Justice On Subcontractors' Long Term Cooperation: Based On Social Exchange Theory

Cooperation between subcontractor and general contractor provides the foundation for the successful delivery of every construction project.However,normally considered as a traditional sector,the construction industry has attracted much criticism for its adversarial relationships between general contractors and subcontractors.In many construction projects,the general contractor plays the role of project coordinator,while the subcontractor conducts most of the actual work.In particular,due to the intense level of competition in the construction market,general contractors prefer to choose the subcontractors with whom they have previously worked to form a long cooperative relationship.Through literature review,it is found that organizational justice has a significant effect on cooperative intentions.Consequently,the objectives of this research are following:(1)Examining the different effects of distributive justice?procedural justice and interactional justice on long term cooperation;(2)Examining the effects of three different dimensions of organizational justice on relationship value;(3)through introducing an important construct-relationship value-to examine the inner mechanism behind relationships between different dimensions of justice perception and long term cooperation.At the beginning of this study,a model is built and nine hypotheses were put forward based on social exchange theory(SET)to examine the relationship between justice perception,relationship value and subcontractor long term cooperation(LTC).Then based on literature review,nine hypotheses were put forward and a questionnaire was developed and distributed.This study targeted the subcontractors as the questionnaire respondents.The data,which is collected from 122 project professionals through structured questionnaire survey,is analyzed by SmartPLS 2.0.Results shows that only distributive justice and interactional justice positively affect LTC,while procedural justice does not have a significant effect on LTC.To examine the inner mechanism between justice perception and the long-term cooperation,the author also analysis the mediation effects of relationship value.And results show that relationship value from the general contractor partially mediates such effects.As for relationship value for the general contractor,results demonstrate that only interactional justice plays positive effect on relationship value for general contractor.And relationship value from the general contractor also mediates such effects.Theoretically,this study focuses on the cooperative willingness in the future enrich the literatures on long term cooperation and relationship value.And this study provides a new perspective to examine the internal mechanism by introducing an important variable,relationship value,in relationship marketing.In management,the findings could help general contractors understand how their behaviors affect subcontractor LTC,thus providing practical implications for subcontracting management.Additionally,major findings of this research are discussed,limitations are also provided in the study as well as the directions for further research.