A fuzzy synthetic evaluation analysis of operational management critical success factors for public-private partnership infrastructure projects
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the factor groupings of a set of 19 critical success factors (CSFs) associated with managing public-private partnership (PPP) projects at the operational stage and examine the most significant factor grouping using fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) technique.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopted a comprehensive review of the pertinent literature and an empirical questionnaire survey geared towards targeted international PPP experts. Survey responses were analysed using factor analysis and FSE modelling.
Findings
The results from factor analysis show five CSF groupings (CSFGs) for managing operational PPPs. These are proficient service delivery and adequate legal structures, simplified payment mechanism and consistent project monitoring, effective contract variations management, suitable stakeholder management mechanism and environmental health and safety control. The FSE modelling shows that “simplified payment mechanism and consistent project monitoring”, is the most critical CSFG. The operational management CSFs under this grouping are acceptable level of user fee charges, efficient and well-structured payment mechanism, consistent project performance monitoring and long-term demand for public facility.
Research limitations/implications
The major limitation lies in the low sample size that was used for analysis; however the years of research and/or industrial experience of respondents and the wide coverage of different cultural backgrounds (18 countries from five regions globally) contribute to the authenticity of the survey responses. Future research should adopt interviews and case study analysis to unravel CSFs in managing operational PPPs.
Originality/value
The findings of this study are considerably beneficial to both public authorities and private operators. They inform practitioners of the strategic procedures and measures to employ in optimising the operational performance of PPP projects. Further, the methodology employed allows project management experts to reliably select the operational management CSFs for their projects.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a PhD research project entitled “A best practice framework for PPP implementation for infrastructure development in Ghana” from which other papers have been produced with different objective/scope but sharing the same background and methodology. The research project described is fully supported by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme from the Research Grants Council (RGC) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. The authors wish to express their sincere gratitude to all PPP practitioners and researchers who participated in this research study.
Citation
Osei-Kyei, R., Chan, A.P.C. and Ameyaw, E.E. (2017), "A fuzzy synthetic evaluation analysis of operational management critical success factors for public-private partnership infrastructure projects", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 24 No. 7, pp. 2092-2112. https://doi.org/10.1108/BIJ-07-2016-0111
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited