Exploring the causes of contract disputes and their social network relationships in the megaprojects: a case of Jinan Airport Project

Contract disputes hinder the successful delivery of megaprojects. This study aims to identify crucial contract disputes and causes for dealing with contract disputes problems and improving megaproject performance. 107 contract dispute-related documents were collected and analyzed using a mixed method of text mining and social network analysis. Text mining was used to sort out emerging contract disputes and causes. Social network analysis was used to identify crucial contract disputes and causes by analyzing their network relationships. Our study obtained 12 contract disputes and 10 corresponding causes in the megaproject context. The results show that payment dispute is the most prevalent contract dispute in megaprojects. Our study also found that payment dispute and settlement dispute have high degree of centrality; incomplete survey and design content and unclear contract terms are critical causes as the bridging roles in the relationship network of causes in megaprojects. This study expands the literature on the identification of contract disputes and corresponding causes in megaprojects. Meanwhile, it provides practical guidance for project managers on designing contract items and dealing with contract disputes in megaprojects.