Kumaraswamy and Matthews (2000) examined the potential of partnering principles for subcontractor selection and
improvements in overall project outcomes. Based on twenty separate debriefing interviews with both successful and
unsuccessful subcontractors, the research revealed that partnering approach results in at least 10% cost reduction in the tender price and increases the cost, time and quality performances in the project. While the importance of artnerships between the contractors and subcontractors has been elicited as one of the most important subcontractor selection criteria, the research did not provide any insights on the owners' perceptions in the main contractors' selection process. In a separate study in Hong Kong, Cheng and Li (2004) investigated the independent influence of a range of contractor selection criteria based on Analytical Network Process (ANP). Adopting an Analytical Hierarchy Model from Fong and Choi (2000) and incorporating expert opinions of five construction professionals, a total of nine key criteria namely, tender price, financial capability, past performance, past experience, resources, current workload, past
relationship and safety management were used to rank the selected contractors based on their relative overall weights.
While the ANP model advances a theoretical basis for incorporating interdependent influences among the criteria and sub-criteria in the modelling hierarchy, the research is considered incomplete due to its inability in establishing the criticality of the criteria and their links to the successful outcomes in projects (Fong and Choi, 2000).