Communication performance challenges in PPP projects: cases of Ghana and South Africa

Abstract

Purpose The need to gain theoretical and practical understanding into the communication performance challenges in public private partnership (PPP) projects is considered as a precursor to effective communication strategies, management, planning and improvement in PPP models in both developed and developing countries. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of communication performance challenges in PPP projects. Design/methodology/approach By adopting a deductive research design, a questionnaire survey of participants in the communication network of PPP projects in two countries (Ghana and South Africa) was conducted. The responses were analyzed using mean scores, Kendall’s concordance and Mann–Whitney U test. Findings The results revealed communication performance challenges that are unique to PPP project environment. Additionally, there were other typologies of communication challenges such as untimeliness, distortions and protocols that were frequently experienced in Ghana and not in South Africa. Also the emergence of misunderstanding affirmed that indeed this is a communication problem that is common and not peculiar to any project context or country. Practical implications With communication challenges and information asymmetries as notable challenges in PPP coupled with suggestions that effective communication is central to success of PPP projects and management, the insight into the communication performance challenges given by this study could be very useful to effective planning and strategies towards communication in construction project delivery in PPP and thus underline the importance of deriving mechanisms and protocols that suit PPP project environments. Originality/value These findings can be a precursor for developing bespoke communication systems, tools, protocols and communication behaviours to facilitate information flow aimed at overcoming information asymmetries and ultimately improving the quality of communication actions, tasks and outcomes in PPP project delivery.

Mainstreaming sustainable development goals in Ghana’s energy sector within the framework of public–private partnerships: challenges, opportunities and strategies

“…The study agrees with literature (Kwofie et al, 2019) that, to establish the role of PPPs in the implementation of the SDGs. The study recommends the scope of this study to be extended to other industries such as the mining and quarrying sector among others in the energy value chain.…”

“…In Ghana, the PPP ideology began since the early 1990s, the private sector has been actively involved with public service delivery since (Agarchand and Laishram, 2017). However, the private sector's participation has mainly been the management of public service in the waste, energy, telecommunication and sanitation sectors (Kwofie et al, 2019). Hitherto, physical public infrastructures such as roads, railways, power plants, airports, bridges and public hospitals have private investors' participation been relatively low before the 1990s, but on a contrary, this is no more the case in recent times (Simshauser et al, 2016).…”

“…During the past couple of decades, the public-private partnership (PPP) concept has gained ground globally mostly realized in developing countries (Kwofie et al, 2019;Osei-Kyei and Chan, 2017) One key approach to achieving sustainable development is by the formation of partnerships and alliances between public and private institutions to synergize for a larger and inclusive impact on people and communities (S anchez et al, 2020).…”

Reliability-Based Decision Support Framework for Major Changes to Social Infrastructure PPP Contracts

“…One of the benefits from social PPPs is enhancing people's well-being by the early provision of new facilities [34]. To better achieve potential social PPPs benefits, improved communications among stakeholders is essential [35,36]. The mismatch between the contracts being managed remotely from the end-user makes integrated communication more difficult, particularly when the contracts focus on technical and economic concerns [37][38][39], risk analysis [40][41][42] and benefits as compared to traditional procurement [43,44].…”

Public-Private Partnership Decision Making Based on Correlation Coefficients of Single-Valued Neutrosophic Hesitant Fuzzy Sets

“…Furthermore, the authors employed a PPP transportation project to show the concession period determination process. Kwofie et al (2019) researched the nature of communication performance challenges in PPP projects. Using the deductive research design, the authors analysed the communication network of PPP projects in Ghana and South Africa and concluded that the communication challenges and information asymmetries are notable challenges.…”