Measuring Project Governance of Mega Infrastructure in China: A Scale Development Study

This study builds a measurement framework of project governance for mega-infrastructure considering the institutional situation of mega-infrastructure projects in China, including contractual governance, relational governance, and governmental governance. The factors of governmental governance are identified by the method of grounded theory with six cases of megaprojects, and the measures of project governance for mega-infrastructure are refined by expert interviews. The 235 questionnaires are collected, and exploratory factor analysis is used to identify six factors of the governance mechanism for mega-infrastructure projects. The scales are developed, and reliability and validity tests are conducted. Results indicate that (1) the governmental governance mechanism includes government decision, government supervision, and government coordination. (2) The three-dimensional framework of project governance is established as “contractual–relational–governmental” in the field of mega-infrastructure. (3) The measurement scales of project governance are developed and validated for mega-infrastructure, including government regulation, government coordination, risk sharing, revenue distribution, relationship maintenance, and cultural development. This research contributes to (a) the state of the knowledge by gaining a holistic and comprehensive understanding of project governance in mega-infrastructure in China, and (b) the state of the practice by providing a tool for measuring project governance in mega-infrastructure.

Is the construction site a safer place under the USACE or local government guidelines? The case of Afghanistan

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to assess the safety level of construction sites in Afghanistan following the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) safety practices and compare this with other construction sites in Afghanistan that follow local government safety guidelines. The USACE oversees and funds many infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, and these projects are supposed to follow the same standards implemented in the USA, including safety standards. The local government of Afghanistan also funds infrastructure projects in Afghanistan; however, these do not follow USACE best practices. This research explores the question of whether the USACE standards provide a safer construction site. The effect of the USACE standards on safety practices in construction projects is also investigated in the Afghanistan construction industry.Design/methodology/approachA literature review and other safety checklists were used to develop a safety checklist containing 104 items (questions) in 17 categories. Subsequently, the checklist was used to assess the safety performance of 57 construction projects (25 USACE projects, and 32 governmental projects). Utilizing quantitative analysis, the Spearman rank correlation coefficient (Rho) and Mann–Whitney tests were carried out for correlation and statistical disparity between USACE and governmental projects.FindingsThe safety performance level of Afghan government projects was found to be poor in relation to other developing countries, while in USACE projects it was excellent. In addition, fire prevention, safety administration, PPE, heavy equipment, and handling and storage of materials for all types of contractors were the most overlooked aspects of Afghan Government projects.Practical implicationsThe findings clearly demonstrate the deficiencies in construction sites observed during this study and also support the adoption of USACE standards in Afghanistan projects.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the safety of construction sites in Afghanistan. The study also demonstrates the benefits of adopting international standards (USACE) to improve the safety of construction sites in a developing country such as Afghanistan. The findings provide evidence of the safety of the Afghanistan construction industry compared to other developing countries. These findings will contribute to the Afghan Government's efforts to track injury statistics.

Crowdfunding for Infrastructure Project Financing

Infrastructure plays a pivotal role in national development. However, financing infrastructure projects becomes a major hurdle as it is often considered unbankable, high risk, and requires a long payback period. The use of crowdfunding as an alternative source for infrastructure project financing is flourishing, especially in European and American countries. In contrast, the utilization of crowdfunding for such purposes in Asian countries is very limited. Hence, this study reviews four crowdfunding platforms in Europe and America that have successfully raised capital for infrastructure projects which are Oneplanetcrowd, Convergence Finance, Citizenergy, and Infrashares. Learning from best practices of those platforms, policies, and regulations, the study proposes four crowdfunding business models to be implemented in Asian countries including (1) blended finance, (2) cross-border citizen funding, (3) commercial infrastructure financing, and (4) within country crowdfunding.