Barriers of Public Sector Financing for Construction Projects in Isfahan Province Using a Multi-Criteria Approach

Objective: By public-private partnerships, the overflow of resources and innovation goes from the private sector to the public sector, and, consequently, the public sector could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its services. Despite the attractiveness of public-private partnerships, there are many barriers to their implementation. The aim of this study is to investigate the barriers of public sector financing for construction projects in Isfahan province using a multi-criteria approach. Method: The statistical population includes all managers and experts who have the necessary expertise, experience, and knowledge in the field of public sector financing. Due to the uncertainty of the exact size of the statistical population, using the theoretical saturation, the sample size was determined to be 40. Thus, we distributed 40 questionnaires among 20 organizations active in construction projects in the Isfahan province. The measurement instrument of this study was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by experts. The TOPSIS method was applied to answer the research questions. Results: The results show 66 barriers in 5 categories. The findings also show that public-private partnership contracts with the least barriers are service contracts, lease agreements, management contracts, construction, operation, transfer, concession, and joint ventures, respectively