Identifying Critical Influencing Factors of the Value Creation of Urban Rail Transit PPP Projects in China

Value creation is the primary motivation for public-private cooperation. The development of urban rail transit (URT) projects requires heavy investment and abundant construction and management experience. Thus, public-private partnership (PPP) is usually adopted in URT project development to benefit the public and private sectors. However, with the high-quality development of PPP projects, the value creation of URT PPP projects is not only about achieving basic project objectives but also relying on partner synergy to achieve value-added. Based on the extended connotation of value creation, this study intends to systematically identify the influencing factors of value creation of URT PPP projects in China. The grounded theory approach was adopted to deduce the influencing factors of value creation through analyzing the various types of articles related to Chinese URT PPP projects. Resources complementarity among stakeholders, cooperation environment, and partnership synergy were identified as the main influencing factors. Meanwhile, a theoretical model that described how these influencing factors combined to promote value creation during public-private sectors cooperation of URT projects was established. This research helps broaden the understanding of how public and private sectors should cooperate and collaborate in URT projects to realize value maximization and promote the sustainable development of URT PPP projects and provides a model for further empirical examination.