Migliaccio, Giovanni CFernandez Angulo, Luis Rafael2019-05-022019-05-022019-05-022019FernandezAngulo_washington_0250O_19649.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/43606Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2019Numerous articles and reports have been published on the prime contracting models used under project delivery methods that range from traditional to innovative. These previous studies have identified contractual relationships among owners, lead designers, and general contractors, and have determined the principal characteristics of each contractual scheme. However, because specialty contractors have become increasingly involved in early projects phases and have begun to play a more critical role in accomplishing project objectives—especially on building projects—it has become necessary to widen the scope of this type of research beyond prime contracts, and to incorporate contractual relationships with specialty contractors. Evaluating the contractual relationships between general and specialty contractors can increase the industry’s understanding of how novel subcontracting approaches are changing the landscape of project delivery; and such an evaluation can uncover collaborative practices that are currently being generated and adopted in the industry. The objective of this research was to identify and describe new subcontracting models, owner involvement scenarios, and variations of models used across the United States. The study is built upon a previous pilot study that identified and evaluated subcontracting approaches used by contractors within Washington State. This paper identifies the properties of the subcontracting approaches currently used in the U.S., the differences among them, and the likelihood of their deployment by region. The research used two data collection instruments to obtain information from construction project participants about the subcontracting models studied, as well as the most common levels of owner involvement in each of the subcontracting practices. The study was divided into two stages: first, the authors conducted an online survey, which gathered information about participants’ common practices, profiles, and company size; second, the study conducted telephone interviews of a subset of subjects identified through the online survey. The interview questions focused on obtaining a greater understanding of the respondents’ familiarity with and use of the methods investigated, with particular emphasis on their advantages, disadvantages, and variations, and the extent of owner influence on each one. In addition, the participants were given the opportunity to further contribute to the research by describing any other new models they had used but that were outside the research scope.application/pdfen-USnoneGeneral ContractorsLower tiersNationwideSpecialty ContractorsSubcontracting practicesVariationsManagementDesignConstruction managementThesis