Analyzing Barrier Factors due to Overseas Construction Market Environment Changes: Focused on Korean Construction Companies

Recently, the global construction market environment is affected by various factors that have an impact on the overseas construction contract costs. Also, the Korean overseas construction cost has been in the decline since 2015. It was generally assumed that the decline was due to the decreased number of projects in the Middle East region, a region where major contracts are based in for Korean construction companies. However, the major cause was the incapability of Korean construction companies in coping with the changing environment of the overseas construction market which ultimately lead to their weakened competitiveness. As such, this research utilizes DEMATEL technique in order to analyze the causal relationship between the factors of the global construction market environment change, and to identify a sustainable method to acquire competitiveness for Korean construction companies. Based on the analysis results, priority factors in which Korean construction companies must consider were extracted, which were “changes in the overseas contracting method from simple contracting to finance-accompanied method” and “intensified contracting competition between companies in developed and emerging nations”.