Zhang, S and Leiringer, R (2016) Owner project capabilities in infrastructure projects: Unpacking commercial capabilities. In: Chan, P W and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 32nd Annual ARCOM Conference, 5-7 September 2016, Manchester, UK.
Abstract
The critical roles of social and economic infrastructure are well understood; and the many contemporary pressures put on the scarce resources available, such as citizens' rising expectations, ageing infrastructure, urbanization, and sustainability are well rehearsed. What has received significantly less systematic research attention is the role of government bodies (public sectors) in the project execution and delivery through which they acquire infrastructure assets. This paper draws on ongoing case study research, which seeks to partially rectify this imbalance by investigating how the public sector organisations charged with the definition and delivery of large infrastructure projects are structured and resourced, and how they undertake the definition and delivery of the projects they promote; and what effect this has on the project outcomes and asset delivery. This paper locates its contribution in the theoretical literature on organisational capabilities and its roots in the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm. We take as our point of departure the emerging literature on client side project capabilities for infrastructure development—termed owner project capabilities, which refer to the dynamic capabilities that are required by public sector clients/owners to develop infrastructure assets and deliver public services. More specifically, based on an extensive literature review, we unpack the owner project capabilities needed to develop and maintain commercial interfaces with the project-based firms which supply the human and material resources—which we dub commercial capabilities. Examples of such capabilities include, but are not restricted to, packaging capabilities, contracting capabilities, and relational capabilities. This paper indicates how these capabilities are systemic and uses empirical data to illustrate how they are developed and deployed across organisations. The conclusions lay bare the importance of rejecting the notion of project management as a best practice toolkit, which is always applicable, to instead direct attention to which capabilities should be deployed.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | infrastructure projects; public sector client; owner project capabilities; commercial capabilities |
| Index terms: | literature review, case study, project-based firm, infrastructure development, public sector organization, owner, public sector, toolkit, resource-based view, public-sector client, project management, public services, urbanization, dynamic capability, infrastructure project, project outcome, large infrastructure project, best practice |
| Subjects: | software systems, management, data collection methods, organization, data analysis and analytics, urban planning, infrastructure engineering, sociology, administrative law, infrastructure and transport systems, project management theory and practice, business, project completion |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Organizational Design, Stakeholder Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Legal Issues, Governance, Project Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here