Incentives in the Chinese Construction Industry

Incentives have been increasingly applied to align the objectives of participants in the delivery of construction projects. However, little research has been undertaken to systematically study the use of such incentives. This paper reports the findings of an empirical survey of the Chinese construction industry on: the need to apply incentives; frequency of the usage of incentives; how the incentive schemes are decided; and their effectiveness in application. The incentive schemes of the Three Gorges Project is also studied, from which an incentive matrix is presented that has measures tied not only to the final results but also extended to the whole construction process to facilitate providing early warnings, obtain continuous improvement, and ultimately achieve satisfactory project results for participants. It is recommended that future studies be encouraged to develop incentives according to project features such as project type, delivery system, project risk, and participants’ needs and their experience, enabling incentives to be applied broadly by participants to improve the efficiency of project delivery.