Evaluating the Suitability of Using International Market Analyses to Characterize the Global Construction Industry

The global construction industry is composed of both international and domestic markets. Predicting the future of these markets has been a topic of much research because the impact is important for construction executives and economic leaders alike. Previous research has primarily focused on analyzing the international construction market, tacitly assuming that the global construction market can be understood by analyzing the international market independently of its domestic counterpart. This study seeks to validate this assumption by examining the correlation between frequently used market metrics, including the international ratio (IR), Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI), and concentration ratio (CR5). The findings of this study show that these metrics are weakly correlated at the global level, indicating that perhaps the international market data is less appropriate for making predictions about the global construction market than previously assumed. Moreover, there is evidence to suggest that a more suitable data set, which incorporates both international and domestic markets, should be used in future construction globalization research. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.