Lehtinen, J and Aaltonen, K (2024) Community stakeholders' online engagement in infrastructure projects: a theory-testing single-case study. Construction Management and Economics, 42(8), pp. 758-786. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Social media platforms have become common for engaging community stakeholders online in infrastructure projects. While online engagement can play a meaningful role in an infrastructure project’s value creation and distribution, limited empirical evidence exists on how infrastructure project organizations' social media communication contributes to community stakeholders' online engagement. This study applied uses and gratifications theory to examine the impact of infrastructure project organizations' social media communication on community stakeholders' online engagement. A mixed methods, theory-testing embedded case study was conducted, using social media messages from the project’s official Facebook pages as the primary data. Data were analyzed through generalized linear models, supplemented by qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews and project documents. The findings indicate that the project organization engaged the community stakeholders online through communication that disseminated timely information of the project’s value creation or included entertaining content. However, communication aimed at initiating dialogue, building relationships, and negotiating value creation terms did not engage the community stakeholders online. The study contributes to construction project management research as one of the first studies to empirically shed light on what kind of social media communication engages community stakeholders online, paving the way for future stakeholder engagement and sustainability practices in infrastructure project settings.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | community; infrastructure project; social media; stakeholder engagement; interview; document analysis; social media posts |
| Index terms: | document analysis, case study, mixed method, platform, testing, infrastructure project, stakeholder engagement, social media, construction project management, project organization, paving, interview, value creation, documents, negotiating, qualitative analysis, evidence |
| Subjects: | conflict resolution, transportation engineering, infrastructure and transport systems, economic development, project management theory and practice, digital design, professional development, organizational theory, technology adoption, professional practice, data science, research design and methodology, evaluation and assessment methods, data collection methods, community and social dimensions |
| Topics: | Sustainability, Stakeholder Management, Information Management, Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Project Management, Digital Applications |
| 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