Exploring the configurational effects of contractual and relational governance mechanisms on stakeholder collaboration in prefabricated building projects

Purpose Prefabricated building projects (PBPs) require multiple stakeholder collaboration due to the strong linkages between the design, production and installment of the precast components. Current contractual governance fails to foster a trusting environment for stakeholder collaboration, leading to conflicts of interest, cost overrun and delays in project schedules. Previous studies revealed that terminating shortcomings in contractual governance can be mitigated by implementing relational governance mechanisms. This study aims to explore the configurational effects of contractual and relational governance mechanisms on stakeholder collaboration in PBPs and identifies the practical configurational conditions to achieve high stakeholder collaboration. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 39 experts through semi-structured interviews and analyzed to explore the configuration effects on stakeholder collaboration in PBPs through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Findings Our study reveals that stakeholder collaboration requires configurational conditions of multiple governance elements (i.e. historical working experience and risk-sharing, reward, selection, authorization, trust, commitment and communication mechanisms). Four equivalent configurational strategies were identified for achieving high stakeholder collaboration in PBPs. These included three configurational strategies dominated by relational governance mechanisms and one configurational strategy complementary to contractual and relational governance mechanisms. The configurations dominated by relational governance mechanisms were developed with communication mechanisms and historical working experiences as core conditions; the configurational strategy with complementary contractual and relational governance mechanisms was centered on risk-sharing, reward and trust mechanisms as core conditions. Originality/value Our study enriches the literature on the antecedents of stakeholder collaboration in the PBPs by testing the significance of the relational governance mechanism, which expands the implications of relational contract theory. It also expands the implications of stakeholder theory in PBPs by exploring the asymmetric causal relationship between project contractual governance and stakeholder collaboration. Meanwhile, this study recommends countermeasures for managers to improve stakeholder collaboration by providing four practical configurational conditions in PBPs.