Talking past each other: Institutional complexity in public projects

Abstract

Large-scale public projects often experience delays and cost overruns, in part because they require extensive coordination between numerous organizations, both private and public. In this paper, we draw on the perspective of new institutionalism to explore differences between stakeholders in large-scale projects. We develop a topic modeling approach based on a state-of-the-art computational text analysis technique and apply it to a set of transcripts from parliamentary select committee hearings in the United Kingdom to uncover cultural-cognitive differences that reflect a variety of institutional logics. The application of this technique to four different projects reveals significant institutional differences between groups of actors. We argue that greater awareness of these institutional differences may support attempts to understand why large-scale projects experience such significant management challenges and how such challenges could be addressed. We use data for the period 2000–2019 from two different sectors, defence, and public transport.