【正文】 畢業(yè)論文外文文獻(xiàn)翻譯 Risk and Price in the Bidding Process of Contractors Samuel Laryea1 and Will Hughes2 【 Abstract】 Formal and analytical risk models prescribe how risk should be incorporated into construction bids. However, the actual process of how contractors and their clients negotiate and agree to price is plex and not clearly articulated in the literature. With participant observation, the entire tender process was shadowed in two leading . construction firms. This was pared with propositions in analytical models, and significant differences were found. A total of 670 h of work observed in both firms revealed three stages of the bidding process. Bidding activities were categorized and their extent estimated as deskwork (32%), calculations (19%), meetings (14%), documents (13%), offdays (11%), conversations (7%), correspondence (3%), and travel (1%). Risk allowances of 1–2% were priced in some bids, and three tiers of risk apportionment in bids were identified. However, priced risks may be excluded from the final bid to enhance petitiveness. Although risk apportionment affects a contractor’s pricing strategy, other plex microeconomic factors also affect price. Instead of including pricing contingencies, risk was priced primarily through contractual rather than price mechanisms to reflect mercial imperatives. These findings explain why some assumptions underpinning analytical models may not be sustainable in practice and why what actually happens in practice is important for those who seek to model the pricing of construction bids. 【 Keywords 】 Bidding。 Contractors。 Participant observation。 Risk apportionment。 United Kingdom Introduction Formal and analytical risk models that contractors can incorporate into the bidding process for the purpose of allocating risk contingencies have proliferated in recent years [., a fuzzy set model by Zeng et al. (2020)。 a fuzzy logicbased artificial neural work model by Liu and Ling 1 (2020)。 a fuzzy set model by Paek et al. (1993)。 a fuzzy set model by Tah et al. (1993)。 and an influence diagrammingbased technique by AlBahar and Crandall (1990)]. However, several empirical studies of contractors have shown that they are rarely used in practice [seven contractors in the United Kingdom studied by Tah et al. (1994)。 30 in the United Kingdom studied by Akintoye and MacLeod (1997)。 12 in the United States studied by Smith and Bohn (1999)。 84 in the United Kingdom studied by Akintoye and Fitzgerald (2020)。 38 in Hong Kong studied by Wong and Hui (2020)。 and 60 in Hong Kong studied by Chan and Au (2020)]. This paper will demonstrate that th relationship between risk and price in the process used by contractors to calculate their bids for construction work is not articulated sufficiently in the literature although it is summarized in Laryea and Hughes (2020). Most analytical risk models proposed by academic researchers have sought to prescribe how risk should be included in a bidding price. However, the actual process of how contractors and their clients negotiate and agree on price is plex and not clearly documented in most of the literature. As explained in a construction contracts textbook by Murdoch and Hughes (2020, p. 128), many contracts for construction work are created by the process of tender, which often involves some form of market petition that clients use to obtain the lowest price from contractors. The fact that the pricing of work occurs in the tender process means that first, a basic understanding of the whole tender process used by contractors to arrive at a bidding price is needed. Second, a basic understanding of how and in what circumstances price is influenced by the apportionment of risk is needed. However, little empirical research exists about the process used by contractors to put together a bidding price, as shown in Appendix I. Without a precise understanding of how contractors price a bid and account for risks in reality, it would be difficult to conceptualize analytical models for approaching risk response in the way that it normally happens in practice. Risk assessment should have a serious influence on a contractor’s pricing strategy, but other factors also affect price. The price clients are willing to pay for construction work depends not only on their available resources, but also on what other sellers (., contractors) in the market are willing to offer for the same product. (See the microeconomic theory of the behavior of individual petitive markets in Lipsey 1979, p. 93.) 2 A bidding price may be dependent on the market or petitive environment in which it takes place. Brook (2020) explains that bidding often involves two processes. First, estimating is the stage in which the actual project costs are considered. This process may depend on the level of expertise in a contractor’s estimating department. Second, adjudication is the stage in which the directors of a firm take a mercial view of the estimated cost in the context of the firm’s particular circumstan