Abstract
Adopting a holistic approach in the review of the public-private partnership (PPP) literature published since 2008 by incorporating scientometric analysis and further systematic analysis, this study aims to provide the big picture of the state-of-the-art research in PPP by addressing major issues and suggesting research trends in PPP. Following a three-step research methodology, this study started from a bibliometric analysis with science mapping to provide the state-of-the-art information on PPP research keywords, scholars, journal articles, institutions, and countries. A further systematic review was also conducted to identify future research directions of PPP in project management. The review of the existing literature in PPP revealed that there had been insufficient systematic approach in summarizing the research topics and proposing new research trends in PPP-related project management. It was further indicated that sustainability and innovation in PPP could be further studied, such as integrating building information modeling with PPP. Factors related to barriers in PPP implementation would continue growing. Future research directions in PPP were also proposed following the systematic review, for example, comparative studies of PPP practice between developing and developed countries. The current study provides a comprehensive approach by integrating bibliometric analysis, science mapping, and qualitative analysis in the latest PPP research. It reveals the contemporary research themes in PPP and provides directions for near-future directions of PPP research in project management.
Highlights
Public-private partnership (PPP) refers to the procurement approach where the project is executed with a broader span of contractual relationships between the public and private sectors to provide an asset and/or a service [1]
Reading through the abstract of these selected journal articles, those with PPP in the abstract or keywords but falling out of the scope of project management were excluded to narrow down the search scope
PPP was mentioned in the abstract, it was not the focus of the research. erefore, journal articles such as Whyte and Lobo [45] was removed from the reference list
Summary
Public-private partnership (PPP) refers to the procurement approach where the project is executed with a broader span of contractual relationships between the public and private sectors to provide an asset and/or a service [1]. PPP is believed to provide benefits to the public sector, private sector, and consumers by involving the participation of the government and the private financing initiatives [4]. PPP-based research has aroused wide interests in recent decades [6, 7]. Both developing and developed countries have actively been inviting private sectors to be involved in constructing infrastructure projects [8, 9]
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