Factors affecting effectiveness and efficiency of analyzing stakeholders' needs at the briefing stage of public private partnership projects

Abstract

The briefing stage is of utmost importance to public private partnership (PPP) projects as it conveys the major message regarding what stakeholders need. However, stakeholders' needs are not often stated clearly at the briefing stage. In considering this, the current paper aimed at analyzing the key stakeholders' needs that should be known by project participants. Eighteen factors related to stakeholders' needs were identified based on literature and interviews. The importance of these factors was rated using a questionnaire survey in Hong Kong. Also, it was expected that some background variables should be taken into account when rating these factors. Therefore, other than using simple rating methods, a custom-made weighted ranking method was developed, which could enable an estimation of the weighted importance of stakeholder-related factors. In this research, four background variables were identified and their effects on the aspects such as type and nature of a PPP project, role in a PPP project, and experience working in a PPP project were examined. In order to group the factors, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted and four dimensions were extracted. The relationship of these dimensions with the four background variables were then tested by means of either t-test or ANOVA. Results indicate that the four background variables were important in ranking the aspects. After incorporating the effect of the four background variables, the weighted importance of the 18 factors was analyzed with the weighted ranking method. Finally, discussion about the rank order of the factors is provided.