The Impact of Renegotiations on Public Values in Public–Private Partnerships: A Delphi Survey in China

Abstract

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) have been accused of importing practices and norms from the private sector that could conflict with core public values (e.g., accountability, transparency, responsiveness, responsibility, and quality). Some scholars believe that PPP renegotiations can enhance public values through ex post adaptation, interference, and monitoring, while others emphasize that PPP renegotiations incentivize opportunistic behaviors on the part of governments and other stakeholders. Focusing on China’s PPPs, this study investigates how the renegotiation of PPP projects impacts public values in infrastructure service delivery through a Delphi survey. Two rounds of Delphi survey questionnaires were conducted with 14 PPP experts in China. The result shows that, in general, renegotiations can safeguard or even strengthen public values in PPPs, although sometimes at the expense of managerial values. Government-led renegotiations are more likely to increase public values than contractor-led renegotiations. This study contributes to the extant literature on PPPs by shifting research concerns from managerial values to public values, and from ex ante planning to ex post renegotiation. Practitioners can derive benefits from renegotiations by paying attention to their positive impact on public values.