Search results

This study aims to explore how institutional quality impacts private capital participation in large-scale infrastructure development, particularly in public–private partnership (PPP) projects, aiming to enhance incentives for private sector involvement.

Building on new institutional theory, a triangular theoretical framework was constructed to analyze the high participation of private capital in PPP projects, focusing on seven key institutional factors. Data from 1,319 PPP projects across 36 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries from 2015 to 2020 were then analyzed using a combination of necessary condition analysis (NCA) and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to evaluate the combined impact and interactions of these factors.

Results indicate that high private capital participation does not hinge on a single institutional quality factor but results from the synergistic influence of multiple factors. The paths leading to high private capital participation can be categorized as regulatory-led, normative-cognitive synergistic, regulatory-normative synergistic and institutional failure-led. Among these, regulatory quality plays a central role in the regulatory-led; the synergy between political stability and voice and accountability is pivotal in the normative-cognitive synergistic, and the rule of law, in combination with voice and accountability, is essential to the regulatory-normative synergistic.

This research systematically examines the multidimensional impact of institutional quality, revealing how different institutional factors interact to influence private capital’s willingness to participate and behavior. It enriches applied research in institutional economics within PPP projects and provides a new theoretical perspective and methodological framework to the scholarly community.

As a pillar of integrated digital delivery (IDD), building information modeling demonstrates the tremendous potential to enhance productivity for the architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry worldwide. However, the implementation of digital solutions presents numerous challenges related to its adoption and implementation. Distinguishing a comprehensive set of critical factors can facilitate the construction professionals to execute their strategies in a properly planned manner, thus augmenting the possibilities of successfully implementing BIM in their organization. This study aims to identify critical success factors (CSFs) for BIM adoption and implementation in Singapore.

This study adopted structured empirical questionnaire survey. Relevant data were collected from the various stakeholders in Singapore AEC industry through an online survey questionnaire. Furthermore, data analysis was done using SPSS Statistics software in order to identify the key factors (KFs) based on which the CSFs were derived for BIM adoption and implementation during the construction phase.

From a set of 45 influencing factors, 35 KFs were derived after performing ranking analysis, from which a set of 26 CSFs were finally obtained based on the factor analysis methodology.

This study has identified the CSFs of BIM adoption in Singapore, as well as in the builders' perspective on how to enhance the digitalization in construction projects.

The Build‐Operate‐Transfer (BOT) model of development of privatized infrastructure projects is implemented through the award of a concession to a private sector consortium which will finance, build and operate the facility. In a competitive BOT tender, the selection of the successful consortium does not depend on the lowest tolls offered by the tenderer. Rather, it is dependent on the ability of the promoter to provide the most competitive package of distinctive winning elements in its proposal during the final negotiations. The promoter must fully understand the government's needs and concerns and be able to address them through the right package of the winning elements. In this paper, these elements are developed from sub‐factors of the critical success factors of technical solution advantage, financial package differentiation and differentiation in guarantees.

Negative perceptions of political risk can prevent capital from being committed to support cross‐border investment. Information about risks that impact infra‐structure projects is often vague, imprecise, subjective, or ambiguous. Political risks in developing countries also often lack meaningful historical and numerical data. A novel fuzzy set approach for quantifying qualitative information on risks (QQIR) in structured finance transactions that bridges the gap between qualitative and quantitative risk assessment methods has been developed. The QQIR Method is validated empirically through the results of an international survey to determine the impact of perceived political risk on Asian infrastructure projects. The impact is measured by the effect on financial project criteria. The impact was assessed across 14 Asian countries and 14 infrastructure sectors. The survey findings are validated by triangulation of three data sets and employing non‐parametric statistics. The validation shows that in 77.5% of all observations the QQIR Method produces mean results that are within 0.85 standard deviations of the absolute values, without elimination of any seemingly unusual or unreasonable responses or data. The validation also shows that with increasing perceived risks, the costs of equity investment, debt finance, and insurance also increase. The QQIR Method is thus a valid tool to quantify perceptions on risks. In this case it has been applied to political risks, but the Method is generic and may be applied to any problem set in which perceptions can be structured and assessed with opinions.

The paper aims to provide insight into the opportunities and impact of political risks in China and selected Asian countries on opportunities in infrastructure projects under public‐private partnership (PPP) schemes.

The impact of political risks on PPPs was investigated through an international survey among senior staff of international lenders, investors, insurers, and legal and financial advisors from the public and private sector. The surveyed political risk categories base on the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency Convention and literature review. They comprise six categories: currency inconvertibility and transfer restriction, expropriation, breach of contract, political violence, legal, regulatory and bureaucratic risks, and non‐governmental action risks. The survey evaluation uses fuzzy sets and non‐parametric statistics.

The findings comprise rankings of political risk factors within China and Asian countries as well as rankings of these countries with respect to the risk categories and rankings of future PPP opportunities over time. Also, survey comments are discussed.

The survey response rate is relatively low with 29 respondents. This is attributed to the specialized nature of the survey questions and topic area. It also indicates that political risks are little understood and paid attention to, though significant in impact. Owing to the chosen evaluation methods for small sample sizes, the results are robust and show high correlations with market data.

The results provide insight into the impact of political risks and the perceived magnitude of each risk category. It supports decision makers prioritizing and analyzing country risks.

The value and originality is in the use of a fuzzy‐coded survey scale to quantify perceptions on single political risk factors across China and Asian countries with focus on PPP infrastructure projects. The paper demonstrated that robust results from small sample sizes can be derived with the employed methods.

The purpose of this study is to identify and to assess specific political risks associated with Indonesia's public private partnership (PPP) power projects and their generally available mitigating measures, based on the perception of the main stakeholders (government, investors, lenders and insurers).

The approach taken is: a comprehensive literature review to identify an initial list of specific political risks associated with Indonesia's PPP power projects and generally available mitigating measures for these risks; unstructured interviews and discussions to gather recent issues related to the study and to filter the risks and project measures identified at previous step; and finally a survey conducted with questionnaires in order to evaluate the risks and their allocation, to suggest corresponding mitigating measures.

The study identified that the political risk perception for Indonesian power projects is still relatively high, due to its legal and regulatory risk and breach of contract risk. Viable government support is also desired by most of the players instead of having political risk insurance as the risk mitigation strategy.

The study has identified a political risk mitigation strategy for infrastructure investment in the Indonesian power sector. Based on that, this study contributes as a scientific exercise in measuring the political risks perception of all stakeholders, which can be useful for all involved parties to mitigate this type of risk successfully.

Based on the Chinese government's increased public‐private partnership (PPP) experience in the last decade, they have made a lot of efforts to improve the investment environment. This paper hence aims to conduct a more up‐to‐date evaluation of the potential risks in China's PPP projects.

As part of a comprehensive research looking at implementing PPP, a two‐round Delphi survey was conducted with experienced practitioners to identify the key risks that could be encountered in China's PPP projects. The probability of occurrence and severity of the consequence for the selected risks were derived from the surveys and used to calculate their relative risk significance index score.

The results showed that the top ten risks identified according to their risk significance index score are: government's intervention; poor political decision making; financial risk; government's reliability; market demand change; corruption; subjective evaluation; interest rate change; immature juristic system; and inflation. Further analysis was conducted on these risks so that the possible consequence, the most impacted parties, and the preferred allocation are discussed. Recommendations on commercial principles or contract terms between the Chinese government and private consortium are also provided.

These up‐to‐date findings concerning the probability and consequence of key risks would provide a valuable reference for private investors who are planning to invest in infrastructure projects in China.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of Huawei's leadership role in the Internet Protocol Multi‐media Subsystem (IMS) international standards effort while it developed its own proprietary Softswitch solution. This strategy of leading the standards bodies, developing proprietary standards, and being the low‐cost provider is helping Huawei to become the number one telecom company in the world.

For this case study over 20 industry experts, both outside of Huawei and within were interviewed, and web resources utilized. The big challenge was the nebulous name IMS which combined technical standards with a vision for the future of the telecommunications.

It is a common assumption that China is a copier of technology and not one of the world's leaders in terms of technical innovation. China's Huawei Technologies Company Ltd (Huáwei Jíshu Youxiàn Gongsi) is rapidly becoming one of the world's largest telecom manufacturers and one of the key innovators in the telecom field. For example, Huawei is the world's largest supplier of Softswitch products, the software‐based solution that is the backbone for VoIP switching and is also being used in mixed Public Stitched Telephone Networks (PSTN) and VoIP networks. Huawei also plays a leading role in the standards committees for developing Next Generation Network (NGN) solutions and in 2008 Huawei had 300 engineers working on international standard committee bodies. One of the core technologies of NGN is a group of standards grouped together under the title of IMS that makes possible multimedia solutions across a wide number of platforms: cell phone (both GSM and CDMA), landlines, and television. Ultimately, most carriers have continued to invest in the old Time Division Multiplexing technology and have not stepped up to either IMS or proprietary technology. Huawei's foray into IMS demonstrated that though it is a low‐cost provider, it can be counted on to provide a pathway to the most advanced telecommunication capabilities if the customer decides they need them.

China is now a leader in the development of global telecommunications standards.

The originality in this paper is its thesis that Huawei's ability to be at the forefront of standards while being the low‐cost provider is critical to Huawei's ability to become the number one telecommunications manufacturer in the world.

Foreign exchange risk might exist in any situation where a business' operations can be affected by changes in exchange rates. The objectives of the present paper, are therefore to identify the current state‐of‐practice in managing foreign exchange exposure.

To present a wide perspective the analysis includes questionnaire surveys regarding foreign exchange exposure in three different sectors. The three sectors are: international special purpose companies engaged in project financing; large‐scale international construction companies; and highly export‐oriented small and medium‐sized enterprises, all based in Singapore.

The analysis demonstrates that all three sectors are exposed to a degree of foreign exchange risk. The paper also demonstrates that foreign exchange exposure is not as very well managed as it might be.

The three sectors might have different needs in protecting their cash flow from foreign exchange exposure but the analysis could help them learn from one another in identifying common trends and drawing universal conclusions where appropriate.

To improve on the presently identified state‐of‐practice, various foreign exchange risk mitigation techniques more commonly used, their perceived effectiveness, and factors of concern in using them, are discussed.