Research On Influencing Factors Of Flexible Terms In EPC Contract

With the development of social economy,the characteristics of large-scale,comprehensive,compound and diversified construction projects are gradually obvious,and EPC mode is favored.Correspondingly,EPC projects are highly uncertain.Injecting flexibility into the contract,although the more flexible contract terms can promote the cooperation of both parties to cope with uncertainty,the more flexible setting also provides convenience for the realization of partner opportunism.Therefore,it is necessary to analyze the influencing factors of EPC contract flexibility clauses,and inject appropriate flexibility into EPC contract clauses.According to China’s demand for building a credit system in engineering and construction industry,it is necessary to strengthen the credit cooperation between the contracting parties under EPC mode,promote mutual assistance and consultation,and reduce cooperation disputes.In this paper,firstly,the related literatures such as contract flexibility,EPC contract management and trust are reviewed,and it is clear that contract flexibility is to inject certain flexibility into contract terms and contract execution,so as to build a renegotiation framework and create conditions for risk re-sharing.The injection of flexibility into the contract depends on the good trust relationship between the two partners.However,there are few researches on flexible clauses in EPC contract,so this paper will further study the flexible clauses in EPC contract based on the existing research.Secondly,this article sorts out the terms of the domestic general contract model texts,and identifies the flexible clauses through the comparative analysis of the new and old two versions of the general contract model texts,and divides the influencing factors of flexible clauses into pre-influencing factors and core factors,Put forward that trust is the pre-influencing factor of the flexible clause of EPC contract.In addition,a practical case is used to further illustrate the manifestation of trust and core factors in practice,verifying the lack of trust as a prerequisite factor,and the flexible clauses and core factors cannot be guaranteed.Thirdly,the relative importance of the core factors of each flexible clause is evaluated by analytic hierarchy process.The relative weight value represents the relative importance of the core factors to the flexible clause,and the key point of negotiation when the flexible clause is agreed is the large weight value.Finally,on the basis of the existing research,consulting experts to divide the trust dimension,combining the characteristics of EPC mode and establishing a model according to the flexible clauses of EPC contract identified above,and determining the specific impact of the two dimensions of trust on the price adjustment clauses and other clauses of EPC contract through multiple linear regression,so as to provide reference for matching trust with flexible clauses of EPC contract.The innovation of this paper mainly lies in the division of flexible clauses in EPC contract,and divides trust into two dimensions to study its concrete influence on different flexible clauses,which enriches the research on flexible clauses in EPC contract.Finally,it puts forward some suggestions on injecting appropriate flexibility into EPC contract from two aspects of trust and core factors.The research in this paper has some theoretical and practical significance for promoting the application of EPC mode in China,reducing contract disputes,and promoting honest cooperation between both parties.