research
Once the shovel hits the ground
- Publication date
- 10 September 2015
- Publisher
- Abstract
Much attention is being paid to the planning of public-private
partnership (PPP) infrastructure projects. The subsequent
implementation phase – when the contract has been signed
and the project ‘starts rolling’ – has received less attention.
However, sound agreements and good intentions in project
planning can easily fail in project implementation. Implementing
PPP infrastructure projects is complex, but what does this
complexity entail? How are projects managed, and how do
public and private partners cooperate in implementation? What
are effective management strategies to achieve satisfactory
outcomes? This is the fi rst set of questions addressed in
this thesis. Importantly, the complexity of PPP infrastructure
development imposes requirements on the evaluation methods that can
be applied for studying these questions. Evaluation methods that ignore
complexity do not create a realistic understanding of PPP implementation
processes, with the consequence that evaluations tell us little about what
works and what does not, in which contexts, and why. This hampers learning
from evaluations. What are the requirements for a complexity-informed
evaluation method? And how does qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)
meet these requirements? This is the second set of questions addressed in
this thesis.