Factors contributing to successful public private partnership projects: Comparing Hong Kong with Australia and the United Kingdom

Purpose – With the increasing interest in public private partnership (PPP), there is a need to investigate the factors contributing to successful delivery of PPP projects. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the perceptions of respondents from Hong Kong, Australia and the UK on the importance of 18 such factors. Design/methodology/approach – An empirical questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong and Australia. The survey respondents were asked to rate 18 factors which contribute to delivering successful PPP projects. Findings – The findings from this survey were further compared with the results achieved by a previous researcher in a similar survey conducted in the UK. The comparison showed that amongst the top five success factors ranked by Hong Kong respondents, three were also ranked highly by the Australians and British. These success factors included: “Commitment and responsibility of public and private sectors”; “Strong and good private consortium”; and “Appropriate risk allocation and risk sharing”. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are certain common critical success factors for conducting PPP projects, irrespective of the geographical locations. Originality/value – The findings presented in this paper have highlighted the most significant critical success factors which may be applicable to all jurisdictions, and also those which are specifically for Hong Kong and Australia. It is believed that the participants of future PPP projects can use these findings to maximize the success of conducting similar projects.