Effect of stakeholder collaborative management on off-site construction cost performance

Off-site construction (OSC) has been a hot issue in the construction industry. However, high cost was an important factor that hinders the OSC development. This study attempts to explore how stakeholder collaborative management and OSC cost performance relate to each other. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore and verify the quantitative indicators that measure stakeholder collaborative management and cost performance. Interaction frequency, emotional intensity, familiarity, and reciprocity were selected as the metrics to measure stakeholder collaborative management. Unilateral cost and production cost of precast components were used to depict OSC cost performance. Meanwhile, social network analysis (SNA) was adopted to obtain density, network centralization and centrality to estimate the network relationship. This study attained the adjacency matrix by a survey, and then developed an OSC collaborative project management primary framework (OSCCPMPF) through SNA to explore the evolution process of collaboration among stakeholders. Hypotheses were developed. Then, multiple case studies were conducted. This study found that stakeholder collaborative management positively affects cost performance. Meanwhile, cost performance was the most important driver for stakeholder collaborative management. Network relationship had a positive impact on cost performance. Additionally, differential strategies can be adopted to promote the OSC development. The findings are useful for setting up a benchmark framework for cost management and project management mode in OSC.