Community stakeholders’ online engagement in infrastructure projects: a theory-testing single-case study

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.