Influencing factors indicating time delay in construction projects: impact of firm size and experience

Influencing factors that indicate the time delay vary from project to project and firm to firm. The aim of current study is to examine the impact of firm size and industry experience on influencing factors that indicate the time delay in the Pakistani construction contracting firms having varied sizes and industrial experiences. The data are collected through dissemination of the questionnaires in the targeted construction firms. A comparative analysis of these data is undertaken for firms of varied sizes and experiences by using Mann-Whitney U test. The results show that firms of varied sizes do not concur over several skilled labour and site operation related influencing factors, whereas firms of varied experiences are in disagreement over several financial management related influencing factors. Small firms need to overcome their weakness in site operation related issues, especially poor site supervision and management, and countering the weather conditions. Young firms need to overcome financial management weakness, including inaccurate estimation of time, variations in material prices, lack of cost planning and monitoring during pre-contract and post-contract phases. Government support is needed to retain the skilled labour in the country, particularly for younger and smaller firms that are more vulnerable to time delay due to lack of availability of skilled labours in market.