Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Project and Construction Management Conference 2024, İstanbul, Türkiye, 6 - 08 Temmuz 2024, ss.480-489
As a key driver of global economic growth, the construction industry accounts for 13% of the world economy and spends around $10 trillion annually. To succeed in this competitive industry, companies must innovate products, materials and delivery systems. Technological advances and project complexities require flexible relationships between multiple stakeholders. While traditional bilateral agreements are often challenged, standard multilateral agreements face cultural challenges. In addition, over-specification of contracts can lead to trust and communication problems. In multi-participant collaborative construction projects, in addition to the elaboration of contracts, stakeholders' goodwill, belief in the success of the project, willingness to work together, information sharing, and communication should be strengthened by a relational contract. The aim of the study is to enhance collaboration, promote stakeholder alignment, improve project performance, reduce disputes and achieve sustainability goals in construction projects by utilizing relational contracts. For this purpose, the SCOPUS database was searched using 12 keywords related to relational contracts. The identified studies were mapped through bibliometric analysis using VOSviewer to map the concepts potentially related to relational contracts in the literature. The resulting maps are classified according to potentially related clusters to comprehensively perceive and use relational contracts. The analysis highlights the different dimensions of relational contracts and reveals the links between trust and organizational commitment as well as project speed and quality. The psychological contract concept is linked to construction projects and change management, suggesting potential benefits for the construction industry. Keywords such as “transaction cost” and “procurement” align with broader concepts such as agency theory and teamwork, and illustrate how relational terms can lead to financial gains. Overall, integrating relational concepts into contracts can improve project performance and minimize disputes more effectively than relying solely on rigid and penalizing contract structures.