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This study explores how to improve knowledge transfer and value creation between communities and local governments involved and affected by major infrastructure projects.
Overview
Most public infrastructure and construction projects delivery in the UK in the last years have underperformed their initial goals. This low performance underscores the challenge of engaging different stakeholders' needs and expectations and developing socially sustainable projects that fully understand and address local communities and regional needs for growth. Funded by The British Academy Leverhulme scheme, this research project 'Improving the dialogue and knowledge transfer between local authorities and firms in sustainable megaprojects', explores how to improve knowledge transfer and value creation between communities and local governments involved and affected by major infrastructure projects.
The research project investigates two megaprojects which recorded interesting and divergent local dynamics: HS2 and Tideway. Using qualitative methods, we attempt to understand the views of a wide stakeholder group for each one (e.g., both from the perspective of project organizations and local authorities), by involving people who have knowledge about such dynamics and/or had an influence on the project’s planning, delivery, and management. We therefore study how construction firms and local authorities can effectively engage and include communities in order to achieve better value creation and social impact. The findings will contribute to our understanding of how organizations, particularly project-based organizations, can work together with local governments to improve and foster social sustainability in construction megaprojects.
This study aims to:
Improve local community inclusion in construction megaprojects by investigating the knowledge transfer and value creation process between project-based organisations and local authorities affected by such projects. In other words, to understand how project organisations can improve knowledge transfer from projects to local authorities and, as such, improving the way their community is engaged and value is distributed.
Projects
- HS2
- Tideway
Impact
The insights that this research project will offer are twofold. Firstly, it will provide tangible governance processes aimed at improving project management practices and quality in local governments and the way their community is engaged. They will be captured in Action Plans for both Heads of Projects of organisations and Local Government representatives that is or has been, impacted by construction megaprojects. Secondly, it will shed light on understanding how to foster project management participatory practices in response to the social sustainability and value creation challenges of megaprojects. In addition, our findings may contribute to the theorization of the role of local governments, and the ways in which the quality of their governance can be enhanced through the actions of project-based organizations.
Outputs
The research aims to have the following outputs:
- Project intermediate and final reports
- Two journal articles
- Two conference outputs
- Research webinar
Finally, the project will present two practitioner executive summaries, one to be shared with project organizations, and the other with the local authorities involved in the project or that are being affected by them.
Funder
- Publications
Di Maddaloni, F., Sabini, L. 2022. Very important, yet very neglected: Where do local communities stand when considering social sustainability in major construction projects?. International Journal of Project Management 40 (7), 778-797.
Davis, K., Pinto, J.K., Di Maddaloni, F. 2021. Chapter II: Assessing the value and benefits of major infrastructure projects. Routledge handbook of planning and management of global strategic infrastructure projects, 1st edition, Routledge, London and New York.
Di Maddaloni, F., Derakhshan, R. 2019. A leap from negative to positive bond. A step towards project sustainability. Administrative Sciences 9 (41), 1-19.
Di Maddaloni, F., Davis, K. 2018. Project Manager’s perception of the local communities’ stakeholder in megaprojects. An empirical investigation in the UK. International Journal of Project Management 36, 542-565.
Di Maddaloni, F., Davis, K. 2017. The influence of local community stakeholders in megaprojects: rethinking their inclusiveness to improve project performance. International Journal of Project Management 35 (8), 1537-1556.
- People
Dr Francesco Di Maddaloni
Lead investigator
Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCLProfessor Jacqueline Glass
Co-investigator
Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCLDr Armando Castro
Co-investigator
Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCLProfessor Riccardo Vecchiato
Co-investigator
Kingston Business SchoolDr Luigi Mosca
Research assistant
Imperial College London- Events and Conferences
- 9th International Megaprojects “Theory Meets Practice” Workshop: University of Sydney – 3-4 April 2023
- 23rd European Academy of Management (EURAM): Trinity College Dublin – 14-16 June 2023
- 39TH European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS): Cagliari – 6-8 July 2023
- UCL Focus Group Event: The Bartlett at UCL, July 2023
