In-depth Review of Partnering Research Trends in Construction Journals

Significant literature has been dedicated to research on partnering in construction, and a plethora of underlying theories and industrial practices on partnering application have been reported. The aim is to analyze and summarize the research trend of partnering research from leading construction-related journals. Keywords identified on the subject based on prior experience were constructed into search strings. Articles found utilizing this search string were reviewed according to their relevant subject theme as identified in the narrative coding sections and synthesized into relevant themes. The review shows that research on development and application of partnering is becoming moderately mature as exemplified by a decreasing amount of published papers after 2007, on the other hand, research on trust; feasibility; advantages; inducements of implementation and barriers to implementation is emerging. This critical overview establishes a solid reference platform for researchers to seek further research opportunities in non-mature areas.