Opportunistic Behavior Governance in PPP Projects: An Analysis Based on Trust Networks

Abstract

Stakeholders of PPP projects may induce opportunistic behaviors in long-term cooperation. Existing studies emphasized the inhibitory effect of trust on opportunistic behaviors, but most of them simplified the trust relationship into a two-subject perspective. From the perspective of social network analysis, this research constructs a network-level trust relationship between the stakeholders of PPP projects. The index analysis of the trust network shows that the PPP project stakeholders have obvious centrality and there are structural holes in the networks. From the perspective of the stakeholder alliance, different forms of alliances differ in the degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality of the trust network. On this basis, the analysis results of different trust network indicators match the corresponding preventive measures of opportunistic behavior, and this research provides comprehensive suggestions for project management.