Examining the Project Success Antecedents of Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Public Infrastructure Works of Zambia

Infrastructure development has long been considered a catalytic factor in a country's economic development. Zambia has experienced a deficit in infrastructure that has prevented developmental and economic growth. For far too long now, policy makers have aimed at reducing the national debt, and find a better financing method for infrastructure projects, and have now turned to Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to finance these projects. However, the problem of PPPs has been that of poorly implemented critical success factors that have led to deprived financing of infrastructure, budget constraints, inefficiencies in managing infrastructure on the side of the public sector, and poor public spending poor public spending and inefficiencies in managing infrastructure on the public sector side. This study examined the influence of PPP success antecedents on actual PPP project success. A quantitative research design was employed with data collected using a structured questionnaire from a sample of 90 PPP practitioners drawn from both the public and private sector organisations. Data collected was analysed using correlation and hierarchical regression models. The findings indicate that the institutional theory and the Human capital theories are applicable in the Zambian context. Further, favourable business environment factors, reliable concessionaire consortium factors, sound financial factors and economic viability and appropriate risk allocation factors are significant determinants with a combined large effect size of (0.917) and a coefficient of determination of 82.8%. More so, finds revealed that the largest predictors of actual PPP project success in Lusaka are sound financial factors, economic viability and appropriate risk allocation factors.