Balasubramani, M; Mahalingam, A and Scott, W R (2020) Imitation and adaptation: Lessons from a case study of a metro rail project in India. Construction Management and Economics, 38(4), pp. 364-382. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Oversight arrangements which articulate technical, contractual and organizational decisions in a project domain constitute project governance. In the light of rapid globalization and an increasing number of complex, pluralistic and heterogeneous projects, the need for contingent project governance arrangements which bridge both stability and temporality of project decisions is emphasized in the literature. Nevertheless, inadequate attention has been paid to study how these governance arrangements are actually set up on contemporary projects. We use a combination of institutions-based and practice-based lenses to develop arguments on how governance arrangements are initially selected and replicated or revised, thereby leading to the emergence of order in project governance structures. We gather empirical evidence by qualitatively studying the shaping of project governance structures in a metro rail project in India. Our data show how the project promoters drew from the Delhi Metro’s governance structures to make technical, contractual and organizational decisions in the Chennai Metro, and then contested or stabilized these structures within the project field through situated interactions. Consequently, we identify 11 underlying mechanisms of sustenance and change of governance arrangements and project norms. By bridging both generic and contextual governance perspectives, the study underlines the role of situated “governing” in (re)creating governance structures.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | contingent governance; institutions; practice-based view of governance; project governance; project shaping |
| Index terms: | emergence, governance, adaptation, railway construction, promoter, norms, temporality, interaction, case study, India, stability, globalization, evidence |
| Subjects: | systems engineering, sociology, Geography, civil engineering, business, evaluation and assessment methods, economic factors, structural engineering, data collection methods, behavioral psychology, user focus |
| Topics: | Stakeholder Management, International Construction, Engineering Principles, Design Practice, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Governance, Geographical Context |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCEA |
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