Assessing stakeholder satisfaction in PPP transport projects in developing countries: evidence from Vietnam

PurposePublic-Private Partnership (PPP) model still contains the obstacle in partnership, which can lead to different satisfaction between project participants. Therefore, project managers need to consider stakeholder satisfaction to ensure success in PPP implementation. However, this problem is limited in the previous studies in developing countries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate stakeholder satisfaction of PPP transport projects in developing countries.Design/methodology/approachA total of 15 satisfaction factors were identified and four main groupings were introduced by a review of the literature and expert interview rounds, including satisfaction of general public, satisfaction of private sector, satisfaction of government and satisfaction of end-users. A PPP expressway project in Vietnam was used to illustrate for this analysis. Data were collected through a questionnaire survey with 31 validated responses. The fuzzy synthetic evaluation method was then applied to evaluate satisfaction index for the stakeholder satisfaction of PPP transport projects in Vietnam as a developing country.FindingsThe analyzed result showed that the project participants are basically satisfied with gained outcomes of the experimental project with the satisfaction index = 3.46. Specifically, the general public expressed that they are “satisfied” with satisfaction index = 4.08. Meanwhile, end-users, government and private sector are “basically satisfied” with the project outcome (the satisfaction index of 3.31, 3.16 and 3.04, respectively).Originality/valueThis study provides more depth understanding of the satisfaction factor with transport infrastructure service in developing countries through PPP procurement. In addition, the decision-makers might utilize this evaluation model for rating the stakeholder satisfaction of real PPP projects to ensure project success.

Escaping Social Injustices: Changemaking Escape Rooms for Human Rights in the Literature Classroom

Escape rooms have been used in STEM classrooms, but there is little evidence of successful implementation of escape rooms in humanities courses in higher learning. This paper examines the experience of adapting escape rooms for the education setting in literature. To do so, two new components in the learning process were incorporated: (a) students are required to create their own escape rooms, thus increasing the stakes and the level of ownership; they are not only responsible for their own learning, but they also need to teach others; and, (b) students are required to explore a human rights violation or social injustices in their escape rooms, making civic engagement an end goal of the project. Participants in their escape room come out of the experience learning something about social change and being called to action.

FORMATION OF SKILLS OF EFFECTIVE COOPERATION OF PARTICIPANTS DURING IMPLEMENTATION OF STEM-PROJECTS

The article is devoted to the analysis of the formation of skills of cooperation of participants of STEM-projects and the disclosure of the features of effective cooperation in order to implement an effective and high-quality STEM-project. In the era of digitalization of all spheres of life, young people need live communication and active interaction. The purpose of the article is to clarify the features of educational cooperation during the implementation of STEM-projects through the prism of personal development of each participant, analysis of ways to develop skills of effective cooperation in the implementation of STEM-projects. Applied research methods: theoretical analysis of literature sources; methods of analysis, synthesis to determine the categories of cooperation of STEM-project participants; methods of generalization and systematization in order to form their own views on the formation of skills of effective cooperation through the implementation of STEM-projects. That is why the article focuses on the educational cooperation of each participant during the implementation of STEM-projects through personal development. The specifics of the formation of student skills through cooperation in four aspects are revealed: cooperation between students; teaching; apprenticeship and teaching; apprenticeship, teaching and professionals. The development of technological skills is relevant both in professional activities and in school life. That is why the article focuses on cooperation through digital technologies. The positive aspects of the above-out cooperation are systematized and the negative ones are emphasized. The prospect of further research is the formation of technological skills and abilities of effective cooperation of students through the implementation of STEM-projects by distance learning.

Vocational Rehabilitation Professionals’ Perceptions of Facilitators and Barriers to Return to Work: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

This is a qualitative descriptive study of professionals’ perceptions of facilitators and barriers for returning to work for women on long-term sick leave due to musculoskeletal pain and/or common mental disorder who participated in a vocational rehabilitation project. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 purposefully selected professionals from the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, the Swedish Public Employment Service, the health care services, and the municipal services. The interviews were analyzed with a manifest content analysis. The main facilitators were the close cooperation between the professionals and the individual support that was offered to the project participants. The main barriers were differences among the stakeholders’ missions and goals, limitation in project duration and within the labor market, and the project participants’ personal factors. These results emphasize the importance of cooperation between the professionals from the various stakeholders and focus on the individual’s resources and needs. The study highlights the value of including health care professionals in vocational rehabilitation to benefit from their specific knowledge of the target group and their strengths and needs. Moreover, the study highlights the need to incorporate collaboration with employers and align with the local labor market in the development of vocational rehabilitation interventions.

Environment-Friendly Energy Research in Norway

The Research Council of Norway established the Centres for Environment-Friendly Energy Research in 2009. These are long-term national centres that are meant to integrate academics with industries, private companies, regulating bodies, governmental organisations, and research institutes, to trigger a clean-energy transition and pursue environmental innovations. Increasingly, addressing energy issues through the integration of technological and Social Sciences and Humanities disciplines has become expected in these Centres. This chapter draws from interviews with the project participants and fieldwork to demonstrate how different academics and professionals experienced these interdisciplinary collaborations, including what consequences and dynamics such collaborations generated. We round up by interpreting the findings along with the traits of interdisciplinarity that have been emerging in this book.

THE DETERMINANTS OF POSITIVE CREATIVE ADAPTATION OF YOUTH IN THE POLISH-CZECH BORDERLAND

The purpose of this text is to showcase creativity in action, creativity that has been directed to fostering mutual understanding and cooperation in a culturally diverse environment – in a region that has seen ethnic conflict. The text is devoted to the analysis of the work of two interrelated organisations – the Borderland Foundation, Poland and the Center for Borderland Arts, Cultures and Nations, Poland – which for decades have been working innovatively on a complex history, together with the local community. This is a history that includes nationally and religiously diverse groups. Experiences with the local community have provided the inspiration for the Borderland Foundation and the Centre for Borderland Arts, Cultures and Nations for further creative work in art, education and history focussed on the phenomenon of borderland identity. The text is based on an analysis of both institutions’ websites, as well as interviews with their team members and project participants.

Collaborative Evolution Mechanism of PMC Project Organizational Management System from the Perspective of Organizational Conflict

Limited by traditional construction project management ideas and systems, the implementation of the PMC model in China still has serious problems such as opposition and frequent conflicts. How to reveal the causes of organizational conflicts and explore the key mechanism of the implementation of the PMC model from the system perspective are urgent problems to be solved. Based on the idea of engineering system view, this paper abstracts the PMC project participants with self-organizing characteristics of the organizational management system, in which the internal structure is closely related, and defines the connotation of synergy and synergistic evolution of the PMC project organizational management system. Using the Cucker–Smale model to describe the group movement, the hierarchical system and the acceleration efficiency function of the project legal person’s free will are constructed, and the structure, movement, and development law of the system itself are emphasized to simulate the ordered evolution trend of PMC project organizational management system and reveal the intrinsic causes of conflicts in PMC project and the key mechanisms of the PMC model application. The results show that first, the intensity of information communication between PMC subjects has a significant positive contribution to the orderliness of the organizational management system; second, too much acceleration of the project legal person’s free will causes group chaos in the system, while too little slows down the group stabilization time, which has a negative impact on cost and schedule; third, the more the organizational structure of PMC contractors tends to the whole-process integrated control, the more it can drive the group to gather in an orderly manner and form a synergistic control mode combining self-organization and other organizations; and fourth, the implementation of the PMC model should focus on eliminating the traditional institutional and conceptual barriers, forming a project management model with integrated control of the whole process of the PMC project contractor and effective macro supervision of the project legal person. The research results of this paper revealed the intrinsic causes of conflicts in PMC projects and the key mechanisms of PMC model application; it can help solve the confrontational situation of PMC project participants, promote the development of the PMC model, and give full play to the investment benefits.

Factors Influencing Participant Satisfaction with Free/Libre and Open Source Software Projects

<p>The purpose of this research was to identify factors that affect participants’ satisfaction with their experience of a free/libre open source software (FLOSS) project. The research built on existing models of user satisfaction from the information systems literature, and also incorporated two characteristics of FLOSS projects first identified by Ye, Nakakoji, Yamamoto, and Kishida (2005), product openness and process openness. The central research question it answered was, What factors influence participant satisfaction with a free/libre and open source application software project? Richard Stallman’s reasons for setting up the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation arose from his frustration at being forced to be a passive user of software used for a Xerox printer. These suggest that being able to be an active participant in a FLOSS project is one factor that should be examined, and therefore the first sub-question this project answers is, What types of contributions do participants make to free/libre and open source software projects? Several studies have shown that the extent of participation in a FLOSS project varies from individual to individual, and this variation leads to the second sub-question, Do the factors that influence satisfaction vary for different types of participation? If so, in what way? A preliminary conceptual model of factors affecting participant satisfaction was developed, reflecting the key concepts identified in the literature. The main theoretical goal of this research was to test the model using empirical data. The research used a sequential, mixed methods approach. The first, qualitative stage involved reviewing documents from selected projects and interviewing a purposive sample of FLOSS project participants. The second, quantitative stage involved an online survey of FLOSS project participants, and the data gathered were used to test the conceptual model. The results of the first stage showed that participation in FLOSS projects was a more complex construct than previously reported in the literature. Seven distinct categories of activities were identified: • use; • interaction with code; • supporting the community; • outreach; • sponsorship; • management; and • governance. Four attributes that modified these categories were also identified: organisational focus, role formality, remuneration, and time commitment. Data from 154 responses to the online survey were used to test the model using stepwise multiple regression, which determined the effect of each of the variables on overall participant satisfaction. Moderated regression analysis was used to test the effects of three potential moderating variables. The results showed that that perceived system complexity had the largest effect, decreasing satisfaction if respondents perceived that the software was complex, while project openness and perceived developer communication quality accounted for the most variance in satisfaction. The main theoretical contribution of this research lies in its extension of satisfaction studies to FLOSS communities, showing that communication and openness are more important than in conventional software projects. Its practical contribution will help people involved in the management and governance of FLOSS projects to identify ways of increasing their participants’ satisfaction, which may in turn encourage them to contribute more.</p>

Factors Influencing Participant Satisfaction with Free/Libre and Open Source Software Projects

<p>The purpose of this research was to identify factors that affect participants’ satisfaction with their experience of a free/libre open source software (FLOSS) project. The research built on existing models of user satisfaction from the information systems literature, and also incorporated two characteristics of FLOSS projects first identified by Ye, Nakakoji, Yamamoto, and Kishida (2005), product openness and process openness. The central research question it answered was, What factors influence participant satisfaction with a free/libre and open source application software project? Richard Stallman’s reasons for setting up the GNU project and the Free Software Foundation arose from his frustration at being forced to be a passive user of software used for a Xerox printer. These suggest that being able to be an active participant in a FLOSS project is one factor that should be examined, and therefore the first sub-question this project answers is, What types of contributions do participants make to free/libre and open source software projects? Several studies have shown that the extent of participation in a FLOSS project varies from individual to individual, and this variation leads to the second sub-question, Do the factors that influence satisfaction vary for different types of participation? If so, in what way? A preliminary conceptual model of factors affecting participant satisfaction was developed, reflecting the key concepts identified in the literature. The main theoretical goal of this research was to test the model using empirical data. The research used a sequential, mixed methods approach. The first, qualitative stage involved reviewing documents from selected projects and interviewing a purposive sample of FLOSS project participants. The second, quantitative stage involved an online survey of FLOSS project participants, and the data gathered were used to test the conceptual model. The results of the first stage showed that participation in FLOSS projects was a more complex construct than previously reported in the literature. Seven distinct categories of activities were identified: • use; • interaction with code; • supporting the community; • outreach; • sponsorship; • management; and • governance. Four attributes that modified these categories were also identified: organisational focus, role formality, remuneration, and time commitment. Data from 154 responses to the online survey were used to test the model using stepwise multiple regression, which determined the effect of each of the variables on overall participant satisfaction. Moderated regression analysis was used to test the effects of three potential moderating variables. The results showed that that perceived system complexity had the largest effect, decreasing satisfaction if respondents perceived that the software was complex, while project openness and perceived developer communication quality accounted for the most variance in satisfaction. The main theoretical contribution of this research lies in its extension of satisfaction studies to FLOSS communities, showing that communication and openness are more important than in conventional software projects. Its practical contribution will help people involved in the management and governance of FLOSS projects to identify ways of increasing their participants’ satisfaction, which may in turn encourage them to contribute more.</p>

Reducing information asymmetry and building trust in projects using blockchain technology

The success of every construction project is highly dependent on effective communication and trust between key project participants. It is assumed that all participants in the project will work smoothly together to complete the project. Nevertheless, according to the principal-agent theory, there is information asymmetry between project participants because they also have their own self-interests. Information asymmetry is the situation in which one of the two parties is better informed than the other. Due to complexity of construction projects and the number of participants involved, implementation of blockchain technology would reduce information asymmetry. This paper provides a framework for implementation of blockchain technology in construction projects so as to reduce information asymmetry and enhance trust between project participants. Blockchain technology ensures that all project participants have access to all the information exchanged between them over the duration of the project, and thus helps in developing a more trustful relationship between them.