Risk factors influencing construction supply chain management in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The construction industry in Saudi Arabia faces numerous supply chain risks due to the complexity of operations, involvement of multiple stakeholders, reliance on imported materials, and fluctuating material costs. While numerous studies have identified and ranked construction risks, few have focused on the Saudi context to produce a validated hierarchy of risks. This study provides a systematic assessment of construction supply chain risks in the Saudi context by integrating an extensive literature review, expert consultation, and a quantitative survey methodology. Initially, 50 risk factors were identified through literature and refined to 23 critical risks through input from six subject matter experts (SMEs). A structured questionnaire was then distributed to 112 industry professionals, and the data were analyzed using the Relative Importance Index (RII) and Risk Index (RI) to prioritize risks based on their probability and impact. Using RII and a derived Risk Index (RI), the study prioritizes the most influential risks, identifying financial instability (RI = 0.432), supplier delivery failure (RI = 0.397), demand fluctuations (RI = 0.386), and single sourcing (RI = 0.386) as the top threats to construction supply chain performance in Saudi Arabia. Reliability testing produced a strong Cronbach’s alpha of 0.87, and a significant positive correlation between probability and impact scores (ρ = 0.6156, P = 0.0008) confirmed the coherence of the risk structure. The study contributes to construction supply chain management literature by extending the application of RII in the Gulf region and offers practical insights for project managers and policymakers to develop targeted mitigation strategies. These findings support the formulation of more resilient supply chain frameworks for large-scale infrastructure development.