The institutional context of PPPs: the roles of institutions, organizations, and individual actors

This chapter offers a synopsis of the theoretical frameworks that this book uses to analyze the effect of the institutional context on the initiation and implementation of PPPs. It begins by discussing the multifarious definitions of PPPs and proposes a working definition of PPPs that this book adopts throughout. It also underscores extant PPP literature's over-emphasis on CSFs as essential requirements for successful implementation of PPPs. The chapter then presents a short analysis of the evolution of neo-institutional theory from a prior focus on isomorphism into increasing attention to actors' individual agency and argued that studies that use neo-institutional theory to analyze PPP projects should be aligned with the recent developments in neo-institutional theory. The chapter challenges the assertion within the extant PPP literature that external institutional pressures as well PPP-enabling organizational fields are sufficient to drive governments' adoption of infrastructure PPPs, and, instead, emphasizes paying more attention to how deeply rooted institutions drive the actions and strategies of individual and organizational actors in affecting outcomes of initiating or implementing PPPs. The chapter notes that the empirical context in which PPPs are currently explored is largely centered around the Anglo-Saxon context which predominates PPP debates. The chapter suggests exploring the under-studied context of the oil-rich Gulf-Cooperation Council states where the main rationale for adopting PPPs such as seeking private finance for funding infrastructure projects does not exist, and where a long history of private delivery of public projects does not exist either.