Novel Approach to Satisfying Stakeholders in Megaprojects: Balancing Mutual Values

Abstract

Stakeholder satisfaction in megaprojects has always been a critical concern in research and practice because of the dynamism, complexity, and uncertainty of the various relationships between the project and the stakeholder community. The most successful outcome for a megaproject would be achieved when it creates values fairly for stakeholder community to satisfy them. Therefore, because of the resource constraints, megaprojects should create value for stakeholders proportional to the value that they put into it. This article proposes a framework for priority setting in stakeholder engagement based on the balance of mutual value creation between the megaproject and stakeholder community. In this way, we developed an innovative and systematic approach by drawing on stakeholder theory, value creation theory, expectation disconfirmation theory, and fuzzy set theory while adopting from data envelopment analysis (DEA) concepts. This study contributes to the theory and practice of engineering management by examining stakeholder engagement to satisfy stakeholders fairly in megaprojects. Particularly, this study categorizes stakeholders based on the proportion of their salience to expectations to three main types: Modest, Fair, and Demanding. This typology will provide a road map for managers to prioritize the responses to stakeholders’ expectations. Finally, we applied the proposed approach for a real case of a megaconstruction project (MCP).