Architectural service consulting strategic clusters and service quality performance in public procurement in Ghana

Purpose: There is seemingly lack of understanding of strategic attributes of architectural services firms and their performance dimensions in the wake of continuous poor service delivery in public procurement in Ghana. The study explores possible strategic groupings of Architectural service firms and their performance in public procurement in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a deductive questionnaire survey and the questionnaire was developed using Porter’s (1980) generic strategies and Prakash and Phadtare (2018) validated service quality scale for architects. The data was subsequently analysed using the k-means cluster analysis technique as it is suitable for identifying groupings that exhibit and share similar characteristics. Findings: The results revealed four strategic cluster in architectural services. It further revealed that, there is significant differences among the firms across the differentiation, cost leadership and focus strategic attributes and this also influenced their service quality performance on the six performance attributes. The attributes were quality of design, quality of project administration, quality of communication, quality of relationship, dependability quality and delivery quality performances. Originality/value: The understanding provided by the study can help architectural firms to pursue and legitimise strategic orientations that can optimise their performance of service quality in public procurement in Ghana. This can be aided by continuous analysis of their operating environment and make strategic decisions for their growth in public procurement markets in Ghana.