Benefits Formulation in Construction Projects: An Exploratory Study through a Social Sustainability Perspective

Abstract

Extant project management literature suggests that project benefits management (PBM) can facilitate social sustainability (SS) through benefits formulation for a wider set of project stakeholders. However, empirical evidence regarding the actual extent of SS considerations in benefits formulation is lacking, especially from large developing economies like India. To fill this gap, a SS-centric analysis of PBM plans of 80 construction projects has been conducted using content analysis to identify the benefits targeted at the internal and external stakeholders, viz., workers and project-affected community. The analysis reveals much higher occurrences of benefits for the affected community compared to those relating to the workers. The project proponents have highlighted the social relevance of projects mostly through ‘trickle down benefits’ – that may possibly accrue to the affected communities due to project investment – as compared to ‘co-created benefits’ – that empower the affected communities but require a deeper understanding of their needs and aspirations. ‘Local employment’ and ‘local business and economic growth’ are the most common benefits across projects. Three areas of improvement have been suggested in the benefits formulation process from a SS perspective – mandating worker-specific benefits, more focus on co-created benefits and specifying numeric measures of benefits along with timelines, to facilitate assessment of actual benefits realization during project implementation and operation phases. This study contributes to research literature on sustainable project management. Its findings offer useful implications for researchers, policymakers and project proponent organizations.

The customer perception of project value scale: development and validation

“…It uses proxies for value perception of specifically related variables that are context-dependent, such as information quality and economic utility (Hasselblad, 2022). However, the benefit approach is mainly focused on the organisational side of the value proposed (Goel et al , 2020). Tian et al (2022) argued that even when non-financial benefits are considered, their measurement from the customer perspective is eclipsed by other concerns, such as a balanced scorecard change in customer impact or stakeholder impact.…”

Using secondary data in research on social sustainability in construction project management: a transition from “interview society” to “project-as-practice”

“…Cohen's kappa) for coding reliability (see, for details, Tangpong, 2011). Goel et al (2020c) and Montalbán-Domingo et al (2018) used content analysis to study social sustainability considerations in project feasibility study reports and tender documents respectively. Goel et al ’s (2020c) study collected and analyzed multiple reports pertaining to the period 2007 to 2018 to identify temporal patterns in the inclusion of social sustainability considerations.…”

“…Accordingly, documents like project business case, feasibility study reports, benefits management plans and impact assessment reports, which underpin project selection decisions, could be analyzed from a social sustainability perspective (see, e.g. Dey, 2001; Goel et al , 2020b, c; Shen et al , 2010). These documents are often publicly available for large and mega projects that are undertaken by public agencies and have the most significant social impacts.…”