Relationship between project success and the success factors in public-private partnership projects : a structural equation model

The budgetary pressures, scarcity of resources, and incessant increases in the demand for public services have driven the Malaysian government to involve the private sector in the development of infrastructure through public–private partnership (PPP) projects. Despite the benefits of PPP projects in different regions, including Malaysia, various PPP endeavours are considered unsuccessful for many reasons. However, the evaluation of the success of these projects is not robust because the definition of the PPP project’s success based on its distinct nature is inadequate. Moreover, the reviewed literature has identified critical success factors (CSFs) for PPP projects, but the question remains whether these factors are real success factors. Thus, this study aimed to develop a robust definition of a PPP project success variable, to categorise the CSFs, and to examine the relationship between the CSF categories and the success of the PPP project. To achieve these objectives, this study adopted a mixed research method-specifically, an exploratory sequential research design. First, in implementing this method, interviews were conducted to develop the measurement items for the PPP project’s success. Second, the study conducted a survey to collect the data for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the newly developed PPP project success items and the principal component analysis (PCA) to categorise the CSFs. Third, the study conducted a second survey to examine the relationship between CSFs and PPP project success. The findings indicated that a PPP project’s success can be measured based on four dimensions: time, cost, objects, quality and stakeholders’ satisfaction. Moreover, the study considered quality and stakeholders as one dimension because of the quality phenomenon. The quality phenomenon explains that the delivery of quality services satisfies all the stakeholders. Furthermore, the CSFs were categorised into five groups that significantly affected the success of PPP projects.