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1. Introduction
Most developing countries have been experiencing economic growth over the last decades. For instance, Ghana, a developing country in Sub-Saharan Africa has been experiencing a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of about 7 per cent, on the average, between 2010 and 2017 (Ghana Statistical Service, 2018). The construction industry remains a very important industry for developing countries, as the industry is responsible for providing critical infrastructure for major economic and social developments in these countries. As a result, the contribution of the construction industry to the GDP of most developing countries is relatively significant. For example, in Ghana, the contribution of the construction industry to the overall GDP between 2010 and 2017 has been about 12 per cent on the average (Ghana Statistical Service, 2018). Therefore, since most developing countries spend relatively significant portions of their GDPs on construction projects in the construction industry, it is important that the performance of projects in the industry is paid attention to in order to ensure efficient use of the tax payer’s money. Especially, in developing countries where there are fiscal challenges, this call becomes even more urgent. Similar to the other industries, the construction industry has key measures of performance. One of such performance measures, especially for projects in the industry, is cost. This is because every client or construction project sponsor would like to have the construction project completed within a specified or agreed upon budget. Cost is one of the three key performance criteria in the project management literature. Apart from cost, other performance criteria for projects are time and quality. These performance criteria (cost, time and quality) are referred to as the iron triangle (Atkinson, 1999). Generally, these performance criteria consider the performance of the project, particularly construction projects, in the immediate or short term. This is because, a project completing within or on budget, on time and to the specified quality does not necessarily mean that it would meet the client or construction project sponsor’s needs or satisfaction in the medium to long term. Clients or construction project sponsors may have other requirements or needs (in the medium to long term) for which the project is thought of. Other performance measures other than cost, time and quality may be necessary to...