Value conflicts between local government and private sector in stock public-private partnership projects

Abstract

Purpose The complexity caused by conflicting values of stakeholders is a critical issue influencing the performance and sustainability of stock public–private partnership (SPPP) projects, which is a special type of public–private partnership (PPP) project in China. The purpose of this paper is to focus on value conflicts between local government and private sector, which are two major stakeholders in SPPP projects, and investigate exchange rules to resolve value conflicts. Design/methodology/approach Using a mixed method approach, 55 semi-structured interviews were conducted for 15 stakeholders involved in a representative SPPP project. Social network analysis was then adopted to outline the value conflict network based on data drawn from focus group discussions. Finally, 24 value conflicts between local government and private sector were analyzed through another 13 semi-structured interviews in an abductive approach. Findings Results show that value conflicts between local government and private sector are dynamic and intertwined within and across three project phases, based on which six exchange rules, rationality, Altruism, power consistency, competition, group gain and reciprocity, are identified. Two sets of situational factors which potentially influence exchange rules adopted by the two parties are revealed, namely, urgency and professionality for local government and short-term interests and long-term interests for private sector. A summary of paired exchange rules is provided to predict if value conflicts between the two major stakeholders will be resolved or not. Research limitations/implications Theoretical implications are twofold. First, the results provide a contribution to PPP project management by investigating value conflicts between local government and private sector, which deepen the understanding on the unique characteristics of SPPP projects. Second, the findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social exchange theory by suggesting a summary of condition-based and pair-based exchange rules. Originality/value One strength of the study is in the concentrated analysis of a single case which allows for a deep understanding of value complexity between local government and private sector in SPPP projects from a dynamic and networked perspective. A guideline is provided for both parties when a value conflict is found hard to resolve. Besides, this study is also among the first that addresses value issues in SPPP projects.

Dynamics of stakeholder engagement in mega transport infrastructure projects

“…During the execution of the projects, needs of the stakeholders might change and/or new needs might be raised that oppose with their first requirements. Furthermore, addition to these, part of the parties may ask to take back their beliefs on some issues as the project execution goes on (Lankoski et al , 2016; Smyth et al , 2018; Zhu et al , 2019).…”

“…Planners can have a flexible plan by the engagement of different parties such that the project working environment and the factors influencing the targeted outcome can be analyzed thoroughly offering various design alternatives with different disagreement scenarios and their probable answers (Buchan and Yates, 2019). The key role of stakeholders in a specific project is directly related to the power they hold within the group such that power is an effective tool to achieve good effect on the project outcomes using strengths related to society and politics (Mojtahedi and Oo, 2017), power always have higher impact whereas other resources might collapse (Zhu et al , 2019). Stakeholders’ benefits and requirements are highly interrelated in the sense of creating value within a structure where each group supply resources or show their effects by the means of exchanging real and/or mutual items (Sachs and Riihli, 2011).…”

Systematic analysis of PPP research in construction journals: from 2009 to 2019

“…Social Network Analysis is a quantitative analysis method, which is often adopted to analyze positionality. Zhu et al (2019) used social network analysis to outline the value conflict network and analyze value conflicts between local government and private sector.…”

Exploring the missing link between top management team characteristics and megaproject performance

“…(Brookes et al, 2017;Hu et al, 2018). As a result, many TMT members are also government officials (Zhu et al, 2019). For example, the mayor of London is one of TMT members in the 2012 Olympic park project (Lundrigan et al, 2015), the vice governor of Guangdong province is one of TMT members of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (Hu et al, 2018).…”