Development of Framework to Enhance Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) Project Success Through Sustainable Stakeholder Relationships; Case of Unsolicited PPP Projects

Abstract

Infrastructure plays an essential role in the economic development of a country. Hence, the prevailing global infrastructure gap has succeeded in promoting the adoption of the PPP concept for construction projects due to its tremendous advantages in terms of risk-sharing, creativity, innovation, and public sector budgetary constraints. This enormous interest of the governments towards the PPP emphasises the requirement of more investigations on the successful implementation of PPP construction projects. Accordingly, many researchers have been identified that stakeholder opposition results in many failures in PPP project performances. However, limited studies have been focused related to successful stakeholder management in PPP projects worldwide. Therefore, there is a need for an in-depth investigation of stakeholders and their relationships in PPP projects to facilitate sustainable relationships to improve project success. A qualitative survey strategy was adopted to achieve the established objectives of this study. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews which were conducted under two rounds. Interviews were conducted with thirty responders per each round which totalled to sixty interviews with construction experts. Finally, these data were analysed using content analysis technique and social network analysis technique. Findings of this research indicate that the government, contractor, consultant, and end-users are the essential stakeholders in PPP projects. Social network diagrams developed under categories of contractual, financial, information exchange and performance incentive relationships provide clear visual on stakeholder relationships in PPP projects. Furthermore, success factors of stakeholder relationships were identified to improve stakeholder management in PPP projects, and strategies were suggested to minimise existing barriers and maximise facilitators in achieving those success factors. Moreover, the developed conceptual framework provides an approach to be followed by industrial practitioners to achieve sustainable stakeholder relationships in PPP construction projects in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Public-Private Partnerships, Stakeholders, Stakeholder relationships, Critical success factors, Strategies