TOTAL RISK INDEX FOR ASSESSING RISK LEVELS OF OVERSEAS CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS

International construction projects typically manifest difficult, complex, and varied types of risk exposures; because of this, there is a need for accurate evaluation of risk-integrated performances during the timeframe of project execution. Given the financial crisis currently affecting the world economy recession, risk management has become a more crucial part for the success of international project management. However, the majority of risk management approaches, particularly for overseas projects, are focused primarily on simple forms of checklists, formalization of risk variables affecting project performance for a specific phase, or more complicated computational methods that restricting practical utilization in real-world projects; moreover, these methods lack the conceptual basis to broadly visualize the level of risk over all phases of a project. This study suggests an efficient, yet simple risk-integrated total index to successfully assess the risk levels of overseas construction projects. To this end, this paper first investigates the life cycles and key processes of decision-making for a given project and then derives formulas to represent the total risk index (TRI) along the key decision-making processes. In addition, the study examines the relationships between TRI and performance levels based on the analysis of 126 real-world project samples. Validations using the proposed TRI showed a high correlation to project performance, signifying the usefulness of the proposed approach for construction firms when investigating the level of risks and key areas for management focus.