Social Legitimacy Challenges in Toll Road PPP Programs: Analysis of the Colombian and Chilean Cases

Abstract

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programs have been developed widely for more than 30 years across the world. The continuity of these programs depends on an adequate balance of three-dimensional sustainability (i.e., economic, environmental, and social). Nevertheless, social sustainability has been demonstrated as being fragile because of the challenges to achieving the intended social legitimacy in PPP programs. This study aims to understand key challenges in achieving social legitimacy in road PPP programs by analyzing contractual clauses, legal frameworks, and stakeholders' interviews of two toll road PPP programs in Chile and Colombia. Three key challenges to social legitimacy were found: social involvement issues, distrust between impacted and responsible stakeholders, and lack of social criteria within toll tariff policy. Findings reveal that it is required to move beyond current consultation mechanisms and thoroughly involve the impacted groups as a relevant stakeholder typology in order to maximize value creation in user-pay PPP programs. In line with that, this study exposes that the claim of previous research for developing relational governance between the public and the private sectors is not enough for overcoming governance limitations and addressing social legitimacy in user-pay PPPs. It is also necessary to enhance relational governance in a triadic approach. This study contributes to the PPP body of knowledge by redirecting the discussion from overall legitimacy to social legitimacy challenges and by including the impacted stakeholders in the analysis of PPP governance mechanisms.

Crisis Driven Literature in PPPs: A Network Analysis

“…However, they have faced significant challenges in accessing information due to a lack of transparency of PPP financial data [27]. Future research avenues should focus on increasing alternative sources of payment as a strategy, for example, to face the need for increased capacity of health infrastructure or to compensate for the underperformance of revenues in user-pay PPPs [12]. Future research efforts may explore alternatives for reducing demand volatility in social infrastructure such as diversifying the business within PPPs and developing mixed-used buildings linked to transportation developments.…”

“…Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) programs are a suitable solution for the government's budget restrictions, the private sector's needs for sustainable long-term revenues, and the social sector's requirements for employment and public facilities supply. PPPs programs allow for solving the needs of responsible stakeholders (i.e., the public and private sector) and impacted stakeholders (i.e., social sector) [12].…”

Environmental Impact Assessment Effectiveness in Public–Private Partnerships: Study on the Colombian Toll Road Program

“…This could reduce environmental risks that may increase long-term uncertainty (Faith-Ell and Arts 2009;Faubert et al 2010). Simultaneously, impacted stakeholders, such as local communities, ethnic minorities, and users, may be incorporated through the consultation processes conducted either by the public or the private parties (Castelblanco et al 2022c;Reeves 2013;Rojas et al 2020).…”

How Can Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling Public–Private Partnership Projects Performance Compensate during the Operation Period? A Two-Stage Perspective of Recycling and Remanufacturing

“…Reasons for establishing a compensation mechanism for PPP projects [20,[35][36][37] Compensation link between construction period and operation period of PPP projects [38,39] The importance of the compensation mechanism during the operation period of PPP projects [40,41] Recyclingremanufacturing two-stage performance Performance management theory [42] Performance evaluation of PPP project operation period [43][44][45] Two-stage performance research of recycling and remanufacturing [25,46,47]…”

“…However, their research is still limited to the impact of certain factors (such as the size of cash flow) on compensation during the entire operation stage [40]. Or research has been conducted on some common compensation measures and compensation models [41]. The compensation mechanism during the operation period has not been not clearly disclosed.…”