Stakeholder Management in Mega Construction Projects: Unveiling Importance and interrelationship of Critical Success Factors

Abstract

The number of mega construction projects has been increasing worldwide, including in Ethiopia. However, the complexity of these projects has made managing stakeholders, minimizing conflicts, and achieving success more challenging. As a result, successful stakeholder management has become increasingly critical in the construction of mega projects. While some studies have explored critical success factors in such projects, they often lack consideration of the interrelationships between these factors. It is important to assess whether less critical factors may influence the criticality of more significant ones. This study aims to identify, prioritize, and develop a hierarchical structure of critical success factors and their interrelationships for mega construction projects. A total of 37 factors were selected from a literature review and pilot studies. These factors were analyzed using an Analytic Hierarchy Process survey, which resulted in identifying the top 16 in rank out of the original 37 factors. These top 16 factors were then used as input for an Interpretative Structural Modeling survey, distributed to professionals, who had responded in the first stage and involved in mega construction projects. The integrated method of Analytic Hierarchy Process and Interpretative Structural Modeling was conducted using Expert Choice and ISM software to analyze the data. The results show that timely decisionmaking by the client, risk attitude/willingness to take risks, risk identification and allocation, the ability to make timely decisions, and the client's knowledge about the project are the most important critical success factors. The findings also indicate a strong interrelation between these factors, with design complexity, the project manager's experience with similar projects, leadership abilities, and the contractor's experience in similar projects being the most influential. Considering the combined effects, the contractor's experience with similar projects, cost management without compromising quality, and risk identification and allocation are the most critical factors with strong influence and importance. The finding of this research would help construction practitioners in understanding critical success factors and to improve Stakeholder management practices in mega construction project.