Purpose: While the literature on Early contractor involvement (ECI) examines a wide range of aspects, there is limited research on the motives that drive clients to adopt ECI. This paper takes a step back and seeks to answer when the preferred timing is for ECI, when seen in context with the motives behind.

Design/methodology/approach: The research methodology involved literature studies and collecting questionnaires from industry professionals during three workshops. To ensure unbiased answers, the survey was designed to be completely anonymous and was answered individually. Time, cost, and innovation were assessed as the three motives for ECI for twenty main pre-construction activities by using a Likert-scale.

Findings: Findings show that the motive that scored highest is cost, followed by time and thereafter innovation. The most beneficial time for involvement was identified to be the end of the Concept development sub-phase and the Detailed designing sub-phase. This finding is somewhat contradictory to the literature, which advocates for earlier timing, especially during the brief development.

Originality: The findings in this paper imply a more conservative approach to ECI with timing being closer to the traditional project delivery methods. This can be explained by contextual factors public owners have to handle due to political, regulatory and funding constraints. The later involvement observed in this study does not necessarily contradict the principles of ECI, but on a general note, the later timing for involvement coincidence with the timing consultants often prefer the contractor to be involved in.

Keywords: Early contractor involvement, client, pre-construction phase, motives

This dataset contains a compilation of survey responses used in the study, along with their subsequent analysis.

SPSS, 29