PurposeThe aim of this study is to find the governance mechanism that matches the EPC project governance model as well as the performance criteria for measuring the quality governance of EPC projects so as to improve the level of quality of EPC project delivery.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth questionnaire survey of 199 EPC engineering practitioners and quality control units was conducted and the survey data was analysed using SPSS 24.0 software.FindingsThe results show that administrative governance, industry governance and internal project governance have direct effects on the quality governance performance of EPC projects. Administrative governance has a positive impact on the quality governance performance of EPC projects through industry governance and project internal governance.Research limitations/implicationsThis study enriches the research on engineering quality governance in the context of EPC projects, discusses how to improve the performance of EPC engineering quality governance and will provide certain reference and information for other EPC projects to establish an adapted engineering quality governance mechanism.Originality/valueThis paper exploratively proposes EPC administrative governance mode, industry governance mode and internal project governance mode and analyzes the logical relationship between them and EPC project quality governance performance and constructs a theoretical model influencing the improvement of EPC project quality governance performance.