**2. Research methodology**

*Risk Management in Construction Projects*

assess risks in their studies.

effectively and efficiently.

feedback received on actual outcomes and risks emerged, carrying out identification, analysis and response generation steps repetitively throughout the life cycle of a project to ensure that the project objectives are met [7]. Briefly, a traditional risk management process consists of risk identification, risk analysis or assessment, risk

The initial step of risk management is risk identification. Risk identification is the process of identifying individual project risks as well as sources of overall project risk and documenting their characteristics [2]. Although it is difficult to define and measure, it is very important to identify potential risks as early as possible. In order to manage risks properly, risk identification should be performed along with the project's initiation stage. Construction companies usually benefit from risk checklists [9, 10] and risk breakdown structures [9, 11, 12] for the identification. Risk analysis/assessment is the process that focuses on evaluating and seeking the likelihood in which potential risks in the risk identification stage may occur [13] and it is implemented by two approaches: qualitative risk analysis and quantitative risk analysis. In qualitative risk analysis process, the main focuses are rating and prioritizing individual project risks for further analysis or action by assessing their probability of occurrence and severity of consequence/impact as well as other characteristics [2, 14]. On the other hand, quantitative risk analysis process focuses on numerically analyzing the combined effect of identified individual project risks and other sources of uncertainty on overall project objectives [2]. Researchers employed Delphi [15–17], AHP/fuzzy AHP [10, 17–23] and Monte Carlo simulation [24–26] to

Risk response process consists of developing options, selecting strategies and agreeing on actions to address overall project risk exposure, as well as to treat individual project risks, and finally implementing agreed-upon risk response plans [2]. Dealing with negative consequences, risk response is also referred to as risk mitigation, risk elimination, risk prevention and risk reduction [8]. Appropriate risk response strategies must be selected to reduce risk exposure once the risks have been identified and analyzed [27]. Researchers widely agree that the selection of risk response strategy is an important issue in project risk management [28–30].

Risk monitoring and control process is the process of monitoring the implementation of agreed-upon risk response plans, tracking identified risks, identifying and analyzing new risks and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project [2]. This step ensures that all information generated by risk management process is captured, used and maintained throughout the construction period [31]. The subject of risk management in construction projects has been increasingly studying since the 1980s. Most of these studies have focused on how risks are identified or analyzed/assessed in different countries such as Australia [32, 33], China [23, 34, 35], Ghana [36], Hong Kong [37, 38], India [39, 40], Indonesia [41, 42], Italy [43], Korea [44], Malaysia [31, 45], Mexico [46], New Zealand [47, 48], Nigeria [49, 50], Poland [51], Singapore [52, 53], Spain [54], Sri Lanka [55], Tanzania [56], the United Kingdom [57, 58], the United States of America [59, 60], Vietnam [61, 62] and Zambia [63]. These studies mostly used survey/interviews or case studies. Additionally, researchers proposed that various theoretical and mathematical models are also proposed for managing risks

While literature is rich in papers addressing risk management in construction projects, few papers have researched what has already been presented. Edwards and Bowen's [64] research is one of the exceptional studies which analytically reviews the construction risk literature over the period from 1960 to 1997. Given that two decades have passed since then, it is appropriate to review the progress in risk

These strategies are avoiding, reducing or accepting project risks.

response or mitigation and risk monitoring and control [2, 8].

**72**

To review the risk management literature comprehensively, a twofold procedure was adopted in this study. At first, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify the key scientific contributions in the risk management domain. The findings of the review, then, were statistically synthesized through a meta-analytical approach which is an associated procedure of systematic literature review.

Systematic literature review adopts a replicable, scientific and transparent process that aims to minimize bias through exhaustive literature searches of published studies [65]. On the other hand, meta-analysis helps to analyse these studies by interrelating focused areas and identifying emerging or neglected themes [66].

In this regard, this study has been organized in two stages represented in **Figure 1**.

#### **2.1 Stage 1: systematic literature review**

The first stage concentrates on searching for relevant papers using scientific databases, namely, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Elsevier, Emerald and Taylor & Francis. From these databases, relevant papers were searched in the following construction and built environment-related journals: Automation in Construction (AC), International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), Journal

**Figure 1.** *Stages of the systematic literature review.*

of Cleaner Production (JCP), Architectural Engineering and Design Management (AEDM), Construction Management and Economics (CME), International Journal of Construction Education and Research (JCER), International Journal of Construction Management (IJCM), Journal of Civil Engineering and Management (CEM), Journal of Construction Engineering and Management (JCEM), Journal of Management in Engineering (JME), Journal of Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution in Engineering and Construction (LADR), Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice (PEEP), Journal of Architectural Engineering (JAE), Engineering Construction and Architectural Management (ECAM), Construction Innovation (CI), Journal of Financial Management of Property (JFMP), Facilities (F), Built Environment Project and Asset Management (BEPAM), Journal of Facilities Management (JFM), International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation (JBPA) and Management Decision (MD).

The keywords for searching were designated as "risk management" and "construction projects," and these keywords were searched in title/abstract/keyword fields of the selected journals in the time period between 1980 and 2018. At this point, a total of 471 papers, excluding book reviews, forums and editorials, were retrieved for further analysis. Eventually, 247 papers were considered as the most relevant to the research aim and were subject to a detailed review.
