Does opportunism always reduce stakeholder satisfaction in public-private partnership (PPP) projects? A theory of benign opportunism

Abstract

Regarded as a troublesome source of ‘behavioral’ uncertainty in transactions, opportunism has drawn wide scholarly attention with an almost unanimous argument that opportunism is detrimental to performance outcomes. However, recent advancements also highlight the bright side of opportunism and especially when combined with the particularities of project context, which further requests a critical revisiting of the role of opportunism for project-related outcomes. With the aim of addressing the nuanced understanding of opportunism in projects, we conduct survey-based quantitative research to investigate the relationship between opportunism and stakeholder satisfaction in public-private partnerships (PPP). The research findings suggest that passive opportunism under new circumstances by a private party (OPNP) is positively related to stakeholder satisfaction. Our research findings shed light on the project governance literature by challenging the conventional wisdom on opportunism outcomes in PPP projects.