A Conceptual Framework for Modeling Social Risk Tolerance for PPP Projects: An Empirical Case of China

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are a useful approach that allows the public sector to collaborate with private investors in financing, implementing, and operating public sector facilities. Over the past few decades, the occurrence of social risks and the vulnerability of PPP projects to these risks have caused numerous project failures. While practitioners claim to manage the social risks of PPP projects, little effort has been made to explore the proper ways of doing this. In this study, we present a social risk tolerance (SRT) concept and propose a model to quantify the tolerance of PPP projects to social risks. One hundred and twenty-three PPP projects were collected from China for model validation. The results indicate a positive relationship between SRT values and project size and that the SRT has diminishing marginal values. This paper presents a new concept in PPP research and provides an appropriate approach for managing the social risks of PPP projects. The research findings can help both the public and private sectors understand the social risks associated with PPP projects and determine effective countermeasures to control these risks.

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