Trust and Project Success: A Twofold Perspective between Owners and Contractors

This research examines the role and nature of the influential relationship between trust and project success in construction projects by using structural equation modeling (SEM) and a large-scale questionnaire survey. Such a relationship is investigated based on three key components: six antecedents of trust as independent variables (reputation, competence, integrity, communication, reciprocity, and contract), two types of trust as mediating variables (calculative and relative trust), and project success as a dependent variable. The results differentiate and compare the perceptions of trust for both owners and contractors in terms of their priority for antecedents of trust, the influential mechanism that connects trust with project success, and the numerical relationship between calculative trust and relational trust. For both parties, relational trust generates a higher impact on project success than calculative trust, but contractors perceived the relationship between relational trust and calculative trust as being linear while owners believed such a relationship is a quadratic function. This research provides new evidence to support the development of trust theory in the construction industry, and it can also help construction practitioners and policymakers to better understand the development and management of trust in the construction industry.