Impact of external environment and risk management on resilience and success in Ethiopian construction projects: A PLS-SEM/IPMA study

This research examines external environmental factors and risk management practices to explore how they affect resilience and success in construction projects in Ethiopia's fast-developing construction industry, using quantitative surveys of 192 professionals and modelling techniques. The research adopted an integrated research methodology of Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), Importance-Performance Map Analysis (IPMA), and descriptive statistics to systematically analyse/assess the complexities between the external environment, risk management practices, resilience, and project success. It is found that external risks, as exemplified by low inflation, economic stability and legal certainty, favour resilience and then project success. Similarly, in line with effective risk management practices such as communication, knowledge and integration of risk management and resource allocation help increase resilience. The research provides a contribution by identifying the significance and relevance of best practices to buffer the effects of external shocks and improve risk management practices, as well as be resilient to develop sustainably in the construction industry in Ethiopia.