Factors affecting transaction costs in megaprojects: a qualitative comparative analysis

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing the transaction costs (TCs) in megaprojects to provide a basis for controlling project costs.Design/methodology/approachThis study selects six factors influencing the TCs in megaprojects from the perspective of TC theory and relational contract theory (RCT) through literature review. On the basis of crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), this study tests combined factors influencing the TCs and the interaction between them.FindingsResults show that in megaprojects, TCs are affected by combination factors. The combination of asset specificity, uncertainty, transaction frequency and trust and the combination of asset specificity, reputation and trust will control TCs in certain situations. In the configuration leading to high project TCs, the combination of environmental and behavioral uncertainties is a necessary condition.Originality/valueThis paper fills up the research gap in the field of megaproject TCs, and researchers can focus on this field in the future.

The Influence Mechanism of Strategic Partnership on Enterprise Performance: Exploring the Chain Mediating Role of Information Sharing and Supply Chain Flexibility

“…In a strategic partnership, close cooperation forms a high degree of understanding and trust, which can improve the willingness of enterprises to invest in the construction of information systems from the ideological level, encourage efforts to narrow gaps in information management, and improve the ability of information docking, thus providing technical support for information sharing [35,68,69]. Common interests brought by long-term cooperation can "bind" enterprises economically, help the supply chain establish sound "incentive-coordination-constraint" and risk prevention mechanisms, and fairly distribute additional benefits brought by information sharing, thus providing a perfect organizational guarantee for information sharing [61,70,71].…”

Transaction governance structure, institutional voids and transaction efficiency: An analysis of small and medium‐sized enterprises in emerging markets

“…The central tenet of TCT posits that entrepreneurs strive to maximise the benefits of interdependence by “ assigning transactions ( which vary in their attributes ) to governance structures ( with varying adaptive capacities and associated costs ) in a discriminating manner ” (Williamson, 1985, p.18). Furthermore, TCT contends that transactions are allocated to governance structures based on three essential qualities: asset specificity, uncertainty, and transaction frequency (Alaghehband et al, 2011; Cuypers et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2021). TCT is founded on the behavioural assumptions of bounded rationality (Luo & Chen, 2023) and opportunism (Grover & Malhotra, 2003; Qi et al, 2020).…”

“…The success of TGS depends on the ability of parties to trust one another, and equity governance structures can be effective in reducing opportunism and increasing trust. However, the effectiveness of governance structures depends on the specific attributes of transactions (Alaghehband et al, 2011; Cuypers et al, 2021; Wang et al, 2021).…”

Megaproject Management Research: The Status Quo and Future Directions

“…It can avoid the impalpable and arbitrary result. Therefore, the analysis showed that the identified papers could be categorized into five clusters: megaproject management in general [29,[116][117][118][119], megaproject sustainability [27,34,[120][121][122][123], megaproject governance [22,[124][125][126][127][128][129], megaproject investment and finance [44,48,92,[130][131][132], and megaproject risk management [95,112,[133][134][135][136]. When the topic of a paper was related to multiple clusters, the paper was classified into the most closely related cluster.…”