Bid/No-bid decisions in the international construction industry: A comparison between theoretical and practical perspectives

Bid/no-bid decisions in international construction markets are considered difficult, being characterized by its uncertainties and complexities, especially in today's competitive market. Some authors claim that many companies still utilize tools and methods that are fragmented, incomplete and rudimentary based on "personal intuition" or "previous-experience-based" (Han & Diekmann 2001a/b). On the other hand, other authors emphasize that most of the bidding models found in the literature ?remained in academic circles and did not find their way into the practical world' (Wanous et al, 2000). The focus of this work is to make a contribution towards the reduction of the gap between theoretical and practical bidding decision models and contribute to the development of models that could satisfactorily support bidding decisions for international construction projects. An investigation of practical bid/no-bid decision models is performed combined with an evaluation of the degree of applicability of theoretical models in practice. An important contribution can be done not only to the academic field but also to managerial one if future research focuses on the improvement of practical models.