A Construction Subcontractor Selection Model

In today’s construction market, subcontractors execute significant portions of construction work. Subcontractors lessen resource requirements faced by general contractors and provide specialized expertise to construction projects. The reliance of general contractors on subcontractors to execute major portions of construction work makes the success of construction projects highly susceptible to the performance of these subcontracting organizations. As a result, subcontractors' selection decisions are of crucial importance to general contractors bearing in mind that such decisions are exercised by general contractors multiple times in every single project. Existing models of subcontractors' selection do not result in one holistic view for subcontractor evaluation. This paper contributes a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model to guide general contractors in their subcontractor selection decisions. The proposed DEA approach addresses the limitation associated with existing models and results in one holistic view for subcontractor evaluation.