7392 P.Xu et al.Energy Policy 39(2011)7389-7398 accidents or the government's favorable or unfavorable legislation and academic researchers are carried out,which identifies the can affect the project in all phases of a project (Dimitrios,2009). nominated success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER in hotel Project type and size underline some factors that are important to buildings.Secondly,questionnaire survey is conducted to collect success.Capability of project manager and team members influ- data from various groups of experts for analyzing the significance ences project success.The contracting factors contain contract of the nominated success factors using the five-point Likert scale. type,contract award method,and tasks and risk allocation. Finally,CSFs are extracted according to the importance of each Equitable risk allocation dictates both the content and the type factor and are analyzed using SPSS to find out the underlining of the contract(Gordon,1994:Diekmann and Girard,1995;Chan relationships of the CSFs. and Yu,2005).Project management factors are related to the communication,planning,monitoring and control,and project organization to facilitate effective coordination throughout the 3.1.In-depth interview project life(Chua et al.,1999). Kellen(2003)and Flanagan (2005)argue that critical success In order to identify success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER factors need to be identified in order to provide focus for in hotel buildings,a series of semi-structured interviews with performance management and measurement.Haktanir and 17 professionals was conducted.Nine of the professionals were Harris (2005)support their views and have highlighted the engineering managers from hotels,five were project managers from discernible link between critical success factors,industry context contractor organizations,and three were academic researchers. and performance measurement.Critical success factors (CSFs) As the interviewees were senior personnel who could provide should be discussed in the context of performance measurement. diverse and rich information on EPC,the interviews were purpose- This research focus on the sustainability of BEER projects and fully not structured to encourage free flow of ideas.The interviews sustainable development strategy should be considered when were focused on 4 issues:(1)feature of good retrofit projects organizing the EPC mechanism.Although,most categories of (projects process and output).(2)understanding sustainable devel- critical success factors for general construction projects may suit opment theory,(3)problems in EPC process,and(4)EPC projects the EPC projects,some specific success factors and their impor- organization.Questions were open-ended and interviewees were tance under each category will be changed.For example,because encouraged to add any details that they considered relevant. more organizations are involved with an existing building and The interviews were conducted between April and July 2010. new technologies are introduced,external environment and Each interview lasted from 1 to 2 h and the interviews were tape project characteristics have greater influence to the success and recorded and fully transcribed.After using the Qualitative Data performance of energy efficiency projects.The most critical Analysis (QDA)method to analyze the collected information element for success in an EPC project is developing a mutually and previous literature review,28 performance indicators were beneficial contract for both the owner and the ESCO.Human identified,which is presented in Table 1. related factors and organizational factors indeed have impact on the project result.Besides these factors,some special issues require more effort to consider the characteristics of EPC project. Table 1 There is not much research studying the CSF for EPC or retrofit Selected success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER in hotel buildings projects.Sanvido and Riggs(1991)concluded 10 success factors for retrofit project management:project team characteristics, Groups Factors team member characteristics,contracting.information manage External factors Economic environment ment,planning,communications,time management,space man- Social environment agement,management of working environment,and resources/ Policy support support.Zhang et al.(2008)identified four categories of CSF for Nature environment EPC in China:external factors,internal technology factors,inter- Available technology nal management factors,and internal financing factors.The Project-self factors Hotel operation status financing package and arrangement is a key task in EPC project, Project complexity which alone can affect success of a project.Besides,partnership Building age Site and location limitation between client and ESCO will be a fundamental ingredient for Tourism season and operating time limitation project success as good partnership help create a situation Leadership and team Cients'awareness of to ePC conducive to the success of performance contracting (Yik and factors Organizing skill of leader Lee,2004).Davies and Chan(2001)also indicate that partnership Team members'technical background is one of the key ingredients for performance contracting success. Communication skill In China,statistical data about energy consumption is lacking and Sustainable Clients'and ESCOs'awareness of to Sustainable hotel energy consumption varies from one building to another development factors Development (SD)theory and thus reference standards for measuring energy performance Sustainable development strategy planning could be problematic.After retrofit,measurement and verification Control mechanism of sustainable development (M&V)is concerned with quantifying the result of retrofit project. strategy The purpose of M&V is to verify that the predicted and contrac- Financing factors Available financing market tually specified energy savings are being achieved and to account Awareness of financing institute to EPC Credit of ESCOs and clients for any changes to the energy retrofit (Guide to EPC,2000).In Project nnancial status summary,this part of review provides an outline for selecting Contracting factors Savings share nominated success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER projects. Task and risk allocation Partnership factors Trust 3.Research methodology Effective coordination Project process factors Develop appropriate organization structure Project objectives control mechanism In order to achieve the objectives of this study,firstly. Accurate M&V literature review and in-depth interview with industry expertsaccidents or the government’s favorable or unfavorable legislation can affect the project in all phases of a project (Dimitrios, 2009). Project type and size underline some factors that are important to success. Capability of project manager and team members influ￾ences project success. The contracting factors contain contract type, contract award method, and tasks and risk allocation. Equitable risk allocation dictates both the content and the type of the contract (Gordon, 1994; Diekmann and Girard, 1995; Chan and Yu, 2005). Project management factors are related to the communication, planning, monitoring and control, and project organization to facilitate effective coordination throughout the project life (Chua et al., 1999). Kellen (2003) and Flanagan (2005) argue that critical success factors need to be identified in order to provide focus for performance management and measurement. Haktanir and Harris (2005) support their views and have highlighted the discernible link between critical success factors, industry context and performance measurement. Critical success factors (CSFs) should be discussed in the context of performance measurement. This research focus on the sustainability of BEER projects and sustainable development strategy should be considered when organizing the EPC mechanism. Although, most categories of critical success factors for general construction projects may suit the EPC projects, some specific success factors and their impor￾tance under each category will be changed. For example, because more organizations are involved with an existing building and new technologies are introduced, external environment and project characteristics have greater influence to the success and performance of energy efficiency projects. The most critical element for success in an EPC project is developing a mutually beneficial contract for both the owner and the ESCO. Human related factors and organizational factors indeed have impact on the project result. Besides these factors, some special issues require more effort to consider the characteristics of EPC project. There is not much research studying the CSF for EPC or retrofit projects. Sanvido and Riggs (1991) concluded 10 success factors for retrofit project management: project team characteristics, team member characteristics, contracting, information manage￾ment, planning, communications, time management, space man￾agement, management of working environment, and resources/ support. Zhang et al. (2008) identified four categories of CSF for EPC in China: external factors, internal technology factors, inter￾nal management factors, and internal financing factors. The financing package and arrangement is a key task in EPC project, which alone can affect success of a project. Besides, partnership between client and ESCO will be a fundamental ingredient for project success as good partnership help create a situation conducive to the success of performance contracting (Yik and Lee, 2004). Davies and Chan (2001) also indicate that partnership is one of the key ingredients for performance contracting success. In China, statistical data about energy consumption is lacking and hotel energy consumption varies from one building to another and thus reference standards for measuring energy performance could be problematic. After retrofit, measurement and verification (M&V) is concerned with quantifying the result of retrofit project. The purpose of M&V is to verify that the predicted and contrac￾tually specified energy savings are being achieved and to account for any changes to the energy retrofit (Guide to EPC, 2000). In summary, this part of review provides an outline for selecting nominated success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER projects. 3. Research methodology In order to achieve the objectives of this study, firstly, literature review and in-depth interview with industry experts and academic researchers are carried out, which identifies the nominated success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER in hotel buildings. Secondly, questionnaire survey is conducted to collect data from various groups of experts for analyzing the significance of the nominated success factors using the five-point Likert scale. Finally, CSFs are extracted according to the importance of each factor and are analyzed using SPSS to find out the underlining relationships of the CSFs. 3.1. In-depth interview In order to identify success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER in hotel buildings, a series of semi-structured interviews with 17 professionals was conducted. Nine of the professionals were engineering managers from hotels, five were project managers from contractor organizations, and three were academic researchers. As the interviewees were senior personnel who could provide diverse and rich information on EPC, the interviews were purpose￾fully not structured to encourage free flow of ideas. The interviews were focused on 4 issues: (1) feature of good retrofit projects (projects process and output), (2) understanding sustainable devel￾opment theory, (3) problems in EPC process, and (4) EPC projects organization. Questions were open-ended and interviewees were encouraged to add any details that they considered relevant. The interviews were conducted between April and July 2010. Each interview lasted from 1 to 2 h and the interviews were tape recorded and fully transcribed. After using the Qualitative Data Analysis (QDA) method to analyze the collected information and previous literature review, 28 performance indicators were identified, which is presented in Table 1. Table 1 Selected success factors of EPC for sustainable BEER in hotel buildings. Groups Factors External factors Economic environment Social environment Policy support Nature environment Available technology Project-self factors Hotel operation status Project complexity Building age Site and location limitation Tourism season and operating time limitation Leadership and team factors Clients’ awareness of to EPC Organizing skill of leader Team members’ technical background Communication skill Sustainable development factors Clients’ and ESCOs’ awareness of to Sustainable Development (SD) theory Sustainable development strategy planning Control mechanism of sustainable development strategy Financing factors Available financing market Awareness of financing institute to EPC Credit of ESCOs and clients Project financial status Contracting factors Savings share Task and risk allocation Partnership factors Trust Effective coordination Project process factors Develop appropriate organization structure Project objectives control mechanism Accurate M&V 7392 P. Xu et al. / Energy Policy 39 (2011) 7389–7398