The effect of critical success factors on project success in Public-Private Partnership projects: A case study of highway projects in Iran

Abstract

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) has been promoted as an alternative procurement method to provide public services. In recent years, several studies have been carried out in order to identify and assess the critical success factors (CSFs) of PPP projects. However, the interrelation between success criteria (SC) and CSFs in PPP projects has not received attention from researchers. To fill this gap, this paper intended to evaluate the effects of CSFs on the success of PPP projects using PLS-SEM. To this end, SC were monitored throughout construction, operation, and final transfer stages, whereas CSFs were taken into account during the procurement stage of the PPP project. Then, based on an opinion survey in Iran, the effects of CSFs on the success of PPP projects were evaluated based on the developed PLS-SEM model. Moreover, in order to validate the proposed model, two national highway projects in Iran were studied in detail. The results confirmed the effect of CSF on project success and showed that private sector capability has a direct effect on project success during the construction period and government capability is very effective during the project operation stage. In addition, investigating the case studies with respect to the introduced model indicated that a transparent bidding process, risk allocation, and good partnering are among the CSFs in PPP projects in developing countries.