Strategies for successful stakeholder analysis and stakeholder engagement in PPP projects

Many countries around the world are in search of new means to engage the private sector in managing and financing infrastructure through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). However, most of the PPPs have faced issues during design and concession periods. When considering these issues stakeholder management (SM) related issues can be considered as one of the main reasons for failure. PPPs involve many stakeholders whose interests might not be in agreement, leading to conflicting objectives. In such situations SM has a high level of importance to avoid the conflicts and to achieve the success of projects. Therefore, this paper concentrates on identifying the most critical strategies for successful stakeholder analysis (SA) and stakeholder engagement (SE) in PPP projects. Initially, the strategies for successful SA and SE were investigated via extensive review of literature. As most of the identified strategies were for general construction projects, 19 semi structured interviews were conducted to further validate the strategies. After the validation exercise the 341 participants in the questionnaire survey findings confirmed that all the strategies are critical in PPP project success. "Have a good understanding of each other's objectives" and "Clear and timely information distribution to general community" have become the most critical strategies. Further, the comparative study highlighted that most of the strategies have become critical for the economic infrastructure projects when compared with the social infrastructure. As such, this study highlighted the necessity of paying more attention to the SM concerns in economic infrastructure projects.