Risk management for strategic planning of electronic commerce application in Chinese construction firms

Due to the growing idea that the technical innovation of electronic commerce can be enormous source of advantages, Chinese construction firms tend to make investments in electronic commerce. Because of large investment, high technical skills, numerous participants in the development of electronic commerce, Chinese construction firms are exposed to various risks. Therefore, the way how to test the feasibility and refine the reliability of electronic commerce projects is crucial for decision makers, in terms of risk management. Besides, being particular characteristics of electronic commerce application, inflexibility and invisibility trigger intense attention to managing risks, especially in the planning phase of a project's life cycle. The exploration of effective and efficient performance of risk management for strategic planning of electronic commerce application in Chinese construction firms is the theme of this paper. In this study, the first goal is to develop a suitable risk management framework with a step-by-step procedure for managing all sources of uncertainty in the Planning phase of electronic commerce application. The second goal is to explore the practical guideline within the systematic risk management framework in order to acquire best practice and principles that Chinese construction firms are encouraged to follow according to the contents of their electronic commerce projects, instead of rules and regulation requiring strict compliance.