Developing a project success index for public-private partnership projects in developing countries

In recent years, public-private partnership (PPP) projects' success has become an important issue for both practice and research because of the growing number of developing countries adopting the PPP policy. However, success means different things to different stakeholders, and most essentially success is an abstract conception. This paper therefore develops a pragmatic model to quantify the success of PPP projects in developing countries using a fuzzy synthetic evaluation method. The project success index model developed consists of three major critical success criteria groupings for PPP projects in developing countries; these include local development and disputes reduction, profit, cost, and technical specifications. Practitioners in developing countries can use the success index equation to determine the success levels of their projects in a more practical and objective manner. Additionally, the evaluation model makes it possible to compare the success levels of different PPP projects on the same basis for benchmarking purposes.