Exploring social impacts of urban rail transit PPP projects: Towards dynamic social change from the stakeholder perspective

Abstract

While the adoption of public–private partnerships (PPPs) in urban rail transit (URT) has increased in popularity in the past few decades, the participation of private sectors in such developments has generated new effects on society. However, prior studies have prioritised the economic and environmental impacts of URT-PPPs, but lacks a systematic address of its social impacts. Uncovering the evolutionary path of social impacts is critical for project success and societal sustainability. The present study therefore explores the effects of URT-PPPs based on social impact and stakeholder management theories. A conceptual model is proposed and social impacts of URT-PPPs are carried out by studying social change and the satisfaction of stakeholders in URT-PPPs. A social change processes and stakeholders integrated approach helps identify 37 indicators for SIA according to 15 appeals of four major stakeholders (government, end-users, nearby residents and private sectors), which are further examined using a structured questionnaire survey. The varimax rotation used in the factor analysis extracts 26 key indicators, which represents three major social impacts by mixed processes of geographical and economic changes, institutional and sociocultural changes, as well as demographical, resource and environmental changes. Meanwhile, the proposed conceptual model is also verified using a structural equation model, which further demonstrates the dynamic mechanism and evolutionary path of social impacts led by URT-PPPs. This study offered a way to uncover and understand how projects like URT-PPPs generate social impacts, which could help to conduct SIA or strategy selections.