Criticality of Construction Industry Problems in Developing Countries: Analyzing Malaysian Projects

The problems facing the construction industry have hindered the progress and the development of this vital sector, particularly in developing countries. To investigate the salient issues, 23 widespread problems plaguing the global construction industry were first observed from a detailed literature review. A questionnaire was administered in Malaysia to solicit the viewpoints of 117 construction practitioners (clients, consultants, and contractors) to prioritize these problems appropriately according to the importance index, which also considered the frequency of occurrence and severity of the problems. The five most critical problems were ranked as follows: changes of design during construction, cost overruns, late completion, competitive tendering procedures, and late payment. Spearman's rank correlation tests affirmed the homogeneity of perceptions among the primary stakeholder groups. Next, a principal component analysis (PCA) manifested six major underlying dimensions of these problems, relating to a three-dimensional (3D) stigma, poor site coordination and management, incompetency of construction stakeholders, slow technology adoption, haphazard decision-making, and inefficient administrative processes. A comparison of the principal factors with other selected countries was performed for validation purposes. The results of this research can guide practitioners and researchers to focus on human- and management-related construction problems when devising strategic action plans to improve the construction industries of developing countries.