Abstract
Summary The total cost of a project consists of the sum of its production costs and its transaction costs. Project transaction costs are the costs of running the project and these are commonly split into pre-contract transaction costs and post-contract transaction costs. Pre-contract transaction costs refer to the costs before the contract with a contractor is signed. For clients, these costs include the costs associated with preparing feasibility studies, preparing tender documentation and evaluating bids, while contractors have similar costs when preparing their bid to the client. Post-contract transaction costs refer to the cost of monitoring, administrating, and controlling the project during its execution. This also includes potential costs from disputes and litigation. However, little is known about the size of such project transaction costs and how they are related to the level of collaboration between a client and its contractor(s). The objective of this thesis is to address this research gap and increase the understanding of how project transaction costs can be optimised through better collaboration and how this can contribute to improved performance in future projects. The thesis combines the research field of project transaction cost with the research field of the collaborative relationship between a client and its contractor. The thesis addresses the following research questions: • RQ I: What is the magnitude of transaction costs in construction projects? • RQ II: What is the relationship between transaction costs and clientcontractor collaboration in projects? • RQ III: How can connecting the research field of project transaction costs with the research field of client-contractor collaboration contribute to improved performance in future projects? This thesis consists of two parts. Part 1 consists of an overview of the conducted research and synthesizes the theoretical background and main findings. Part 2 consists of four scientific papers that are based on two different data sets. The first data set is qualitative and contains 38 interviews that were conducted by the author of this thesis with project managers from different industries in Norway. The second data set is quantitative and contains data from Norwegian construction projects registered in a common database through the Nordic 10-10 Programme for benchmarking, which uses the 10-10 tool that has been developed by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) in the United States. The key contribution from Paper 1 is that it establishes the connection between project transaction costs and client-contractor collaboration. The key contribution from Paper 2 is that it establishes the relationship between clientcontractor collaboration and the quality of the project deliverables. The key contribution from Paper 3 is the introduction of the Collaboration Compass, which is a tool that project managers can apply to identify which specific mechanisms are most relevant to use for a project based on characteristics of the specific project. The key contribution from Paper 4 is that it quantifies the size of transaction costs in construction projects.