Risks in the Hungarian Construction Industry: Interpretations, Evaluations and Patterns

In the construction industry, risk assessment and evaluation of actors vary by their size, market position and their roles in the production process. Actors detect exogenous and endogenous processes differently; dissimilarities can be found in the observation, response, speed, in the forethought and the degree and ability of having influence on the processes, in leader or follower behaviors. Even in this heterogeneity, certain regularities and correspondences can be observed, drawing new patterns. We suppose that the explanation and treatment of risks mainly differ by the size and market position of the actors. Based on this hypothesis, we were interested in risk explanations and risk management experience of Hungarian construction companies, in order to identify different patterns, typologies, risk management techniques and learning processes on this field. We used interviews as a method for qualitative research. We focused on contractors, but to get more precise consequences, we also made interviews with different actors of construction projects such as lenders, insurers and investors. The relations of theoretical knowledge and observed phenomena are also discussed in the study which investigates exclusively into the results of the survey.