Desk-top review of leading journals in the areas of construction management and business
management, as well as recent government documents and industry guidelines, was undertaken to to
conceptualise and operationalize formal and informal governance mechanisms. The study primarily
draws on transaction-cost economics (e.g. Williamson 1979; Williamson 1991), relational contract
theory (Feinman 2000; Macneil 2000) and social psychology theory (e.g. Gulati 1995). Content
analysis of the literature was undertaken to identify key governance mechanisms. Content analysis is
a commonly used methodology in the social sciences area. It provides rich data through the
systematic and objective review of literature (Krippendorff 2004). NVivo 9, a qualitative data
analysis software package, was used to assist in this process.