Modern Slavery in Projects: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

It is estimated that 40.3 million individuals are victims of modern slavery, including those exploited in projects. In project studies, there are growing research streams on topics, such as ethics, sustainability and fairness, yet modern slavery is vastly ignored. This article presents a systematic literature review on modern slavery. After summarizing the main forms and consequences of modern slavery, it focuses on construction projects explaining the structural conditions making construction projects prone to modern slavery, the kafala system, and what can be done to address modern slavery. Lastly, the article introduces propositions, a research agenda, and implications for practice

Project financing in nuclear new build, why not? The legal and regulatory barriers

This paper investigates the legal barriers to apply project finance for building nuclear power plants. Countries such as the UK, Turkey and emerging economies (i.e. Malaysia and Indonesia) are increasingly seeking to attract private investors for nuclear projects using project finance. This is an innovative approach, and until now the only cases registered are Hinckley Point C in the UK and Akkuyu in Turkey. This paper scrutinises the mismatches between the requirements of project finance and nuclear law. Nuclear law introduces specific requirements affecting the security interest of private lenders, hindering the bankability of nuclear projects on a non-recourse basis. The paper emphasises that the performance-based regulatory approach is more compatible with project finance compared to the prescriptive based one. Furthermore, the paper examines the gaps between nuclear and holistic energy law, looking at the financing of energy infrastructures. Improving nuclear law enables to apply project finance to nuclear power plants, facilitating their deployment. Consequently, nuclear law plays a central role in promoting sustainable energy mixes characterised by reduced carbon emissions

Local community engagement as a practice: an investigation of local community engagement issues and their impact on transport megaprojects' social value

Purpose: Transport megaprojects often struggle to offer social value (SV) that meets local communities' needs. This problem is embedded in how local communities' views are captured and incorporated into SV plans through local community engagement (LCE). By problematising the literature, this article aims to identify LCE issues and their impacts on SV plans at the front-end of transport megaprojects. Design/methodology/approach: The theoretical lens of the study is the practice theory developed by Schatzki (2016, 2005). The authors conceptualised LCE as a practice and conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with UK practitioners. The authors collected data in three steps from three types of practitioners involved in LCE practice and SV planning: project managers, LCE experts and SV experts. Findings: The authors identified 18 LCE issues with thematic analysis and clustered them into five themes. These issues impact LCE with five mechanisms. Findings show that a weak link between LCE and SV plans due to the issues reduces LCE to a tick-box exercise and presents a distorted view of local communities. This reduces SV plans to the bare minimum for project approval instead of offering relevant SV to local communities. Addressing the issues goes beyond changing the approach of project teams to engagement (from instrumental to normative) and requires changing the practices. Originality/value: For the first time, the study uses practice theory to conceptualise LCE as a practice, following the notion of project as practice. The study problematises the literature to address the under-represented link between LCE and SV plans

Digging in the megaproject's graveyard: Why do megaprojects die, and how to check their health?

The pressure to complete Infrastructure Megaprojects (IMs) is enormous; once started, IMs are commonly considered too costly to be stopped. Still, despite this widespread belief, several IMs are terminated during delivery/construction. Notwithstanding its empirical and theoretical relevance, few studies investigate IMs termination during delivery/construction. This paper aims to develop further the “reverse escalation of commitment” theory which sense-makes the termination of IMs. We take a critical confrontation of the existing literature addressing two questions: (1) Why are IMs terminated during delivery/construction? and (2) How does the project termination process occur in IMs? By analysing 30 unfinished IMs, we identified the six determinants for IMs termination, contributing to the development of reverse-escalation of commitment theory by providing a processual perspective of the four most common patterns leading to IMs termination. Finally, we provide a checklist for identifying key elements leading to IMs termination

Organisational forms in Megaprojects: Understanding the ‘Special purpose Entities’ An ontological analysis

Megaprojects are characterised by complexity, uncertainty and a long record of poor delivering. Most of them are delivered with organisational forms called ‘Special Purpose Entities’ (SPEs). Despite the key role played by SPEs there is a huge gap in the project management literature about SPEs and their links with project performances. This paper paves the way to this research stream by building the ontology of SPEs, which is critical since there is a vast misperception about ‘what are’ and ‘what do’ and ‘why are necessary’ the SPEs. In particular, there are three main domains of studies: Legal, Financial and Management (predominantly project management). In the project management domain the SPEs have the main purposes of establish partnerships and enable the project financing

What is wrong with the front-end of infrastructure megaprojects and how to fix it: A systematic literature review

The Front-End process plays an essential role in deriving infrastructure megaprojects' performance. However, Front-End issues often negatively impact the process, hindering the value of infrastructure for society. This paper aims to systemise knowledge and understanding of the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects, the main Front-End issues, and remedies for managing them. The paper leverages a Systematic Literature Review to address four research questions: What definition can appropriately describe the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects? What are the issues at the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects? What are the remedies for managing the issues at the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects? What are the connections between Front-End issues and the remedies for managing them? Following thematic analysis, iterative coding and group discussions, the paper develops a definition for the Front-End of infrastructure megaprojects based on five characteristics, identifies 44 Front-End issues, and connects these issues to six remedies through 17 links

Special Purpose Entities and their role in Megaprojects: a new focus for understanding megaproject behaviour

Special Purpose Entities, “SPE”, are legal joint ventures (usually a limited company of some type or a limited partnership) created to fulfil a specific objectives. The main two applications of SPE in project management are project partnering and project financing, particularly for the delivery (and sometimes operations) of megaprojects. SPEs receive little attention from project management researched beyond their treatment as a financial instrument or risk mitigation measure. We contend that the influence of SPEs on a project’s behaviour needs to be explored and understood far more holistically. We argue that SPE have a profound effect on project governance, the relationships between actors within the project and ultimately on the project success. This paper provides a bibliometric analysis to pave the way to this research stream by analysing the historical adoption of SPE in projects, the evolution of the SPE literature and the existing gaps for future researches

Deeds not words: Barriers and remedies for Small Modular nuclear Reactors

There is a growing interest in Small Modular nuclear Reactors (SMRs) driven mostly by the concerns in decarbonising the electricity and heat sectors. Despite the expected advantages of SMRs with respect to large reactors (e.g. construction schedule reduction, lower upfront investment per unit) and at least two decades of studies, investments in SMRs have been extremely limited. Leveraging a literature review, in-depth discussions, and a questionnaire survey, this paper aims to identify and rank general elements hindering SMR construction, specific licensing and regulatory elements affecting SMR construction, and elements favouring or hindering the reuse of SMR modules. The results show that financial and economic issues (including perceived investment risk, availability of cheaper technologies to generate electricity) are the main barriers for SMR construction. Government support for financing the first-of-a-kind and developing a supply chain could allow overcoming these barriers. Time, cost and risk of the licensing process are critical elements for SMR construction; therefore, policies should be in place to support stakeholders. The economic feasibility can hinder the opportunity of reusing SMR modules. Design and interface standardisation are the main enabling factors of reusing SMR modules. Further studies on SMR decommissioning through a "circular economy" lens are needed