Research on the Industry Acceptance and Promotion Path of Interim Payment in Civil Engineering Projects

The problems of interim payment in civil engineering projects are still very prominent. However, the current research on the problems is insufficient. In addition, Chinese enterprises rarely use interim payment but mostly use completion settlement, resulting in poor contract performance, more disputes, and low control of the construction payment process. Once China fulfills allWTOcommitments in the future, the scope of open contracting of civil engineering projects will be expanded shortly, and the payment problems in China will have an impact on enterprisesworldwide. Thus the payment problems should be paid attention to and solved as soon as possible. The Chinese government has issued policy documents to comprehensively implement the interim payment. This study aims to measure the industry acceptance of interim payment and to identify the critical reasons that hinder its implementation. This study first established an acceptance model based on the technology acceptance model. Then this study identified 25 factors influencing the acceptance of the interim payment through literature review and expert interviews. By using a structural equation model and conducting a questionnaire survey, this study validated the hypotheses with 131 valid responses. The results showed that private investment projects have a higher acceptance of the interim payment than government investment projects. However, the overall acceptance is not high. The critical reasons that hinder the implementation of the interim payment are that it is not easy to learn and use, and the newbenefit distribution mechanism has not been formed. Therefore, government authorities should enhance policy support, promote training, and promote the formation of a new benefit distribution mechanism. The results contribute to the body of knowledge on cost control and provide practical suggestions for improving the acceptance of the interim payment.