Same tune, different songs? Understanding public acceptance of mega construction projects: A comparative case study

Abstract

Mega construction projects (MCPs) play an indispensable role in the process of urbanization and urban sustainable development, while their planning often faces challenges due to diverse public opinion. Therefore, strategies to improve public acceptance of MCP's are essential during planning and development stages of such projects. Drawing on the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this research investigated the determinants of public acceptance of MCPs. A comparative case study was conducted on two MCPs (Guanshan substation and Stage II of Metro Line 8) in Wuhan city, China, with 450 and 640 responses, respectively to a face-to-face questionnaire survey. Adopting Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) for hypothesis testing, the results showed differences between the acceptance levels of these two MCPs among the public. Moreover, the influencing pathways found to be different between the projects. This study revealed self-efficacy having no direct effect on public acceptance while perceived risks to have a significant direct effect on MCP with more perceived benefits. Hence, the mediating roles of different perceived benefit-risk on public acceptance were identified in this study. This research enriches the understanding of how internal and external factors affect public acceptance and highlights the multi-faceted roles of perceived benefit-risk from the different MCPs perspective. Therefore, the policy design for the development of MCPs should be with a view to developing “one project type, one policy” that are better suited to local conditions. In addition, scientific and appropriate communication tools are necessary to gain public support in future.