Megaprojects: What’s the Purpose?

Abstract

A powerful new conceptual understanding of a ‘megaproject’ as a purposeful form of organizing capital production is emerging. The theory, which is nascent, offers novel insights as to why delays, cost overruns and scope creep are so widespread in capitalintensive, project-based enterprises, and what we can do about it. Further, it sheds light on how these social technologies achieve their purpose of creating both economic returns and societal gains, and distributing value in a way that stakeholders that affect or are affected by the capital investment see as fair. This essay identifies implications to our understanding of the bundle of resources that needs to be assembled to progress with capital production, organizational boundaries and governance, stakeholder claims, and performance. I conclude by emphasizing how the purpose of a project is contextsensitive, and linking the insights on why megaprojects behave the way they do to wider debates on the role of stakeholders in strategic management and value creation.