Influence Of Relational Norms On PPP Performance

In recent years,China’s economic and social development has entered a new era,and related areas of deepening reform which has been pushed forward in an all~round way.The contradiction between the urgent demand of the people for public infrastructure and the relatively lagging infrastructure services is prominent.Also,the financial supply capacity and management and operation capacity of local governments are insufficient,which further accelerates the investment,construction and the reform of operation and maintenance public infrastructure model with the government as the main body.Therefore,the PPP becomes an important measure to improve Infrastructure Service in China.Relevant ministries and commissions and local governments have issued a series of policy guidance documents to vigorously promote the rapid development of PPP.Because the cooperative subject of PPP is relatively complex,the project implementers mainly include the government side and the social capital party,and the public,as the participants,is also the user at the same time.Specifically,the social capital party includes consultants,operation and maintenance enterprises,investigation,design,procurement,construction,supervision and other participants.PPP project participants have project management objectives based on their own interests.Under the traditional mode of excessive reliance on contract governance,the influence of relationship governance on project performance is often ignored,which is difficult to promote the close cooperation between project teams,and ultimately leads to the low level of PPP project performance.However,relationship governance can effectively improve the ability of project governance,improve the satisfaction of core stakeholders,and achieve a higher level of PPP project performance.This paper explores the impact mechanism between PPP project team relationship norms,team trust and project performance from the perspective of relationship governance.Except this,it provides theoretical support for safeguarding and improving project performance.On the basis of combing the literature on relationship management analysis,combined with the specific characteristics of PPP project,the relationship governance is divided into two parts: relationship norm and team trust.The relationship norms are divided into three dimensions: flexible norms,solidarity norms and information exchange.Trust is divided into two dimensions:computing trust and relationship trust.It constructs the relationship norm through the influence relationship of trust intermediary on project performance and the directinfluence model of relationship norm on project performance.What’s more,it uses the structural equation model(SEM)for empirical analysis.The results show that:(1)the relationship between flexible norms,unity norms,information exchange and trust dimensions under the relationship of normative norms is significantly positively correlated,especially the unity norms having a greater impact on trust.(2)Computational trust and relationship trust have a significant positive correlation with PPP project performance and have an equally important position.(3)Solidarity norms and information exchange have a significant positive direct impact on the performance of PPP projects,while the direct relationship between flexible norms and PPP project performance is not significant.(4)Through the unity norms and information exchange affecting the performance of PPP projects,team trust plays the role of partial intermediary;team trust plays a full intermediary role through flexible norms affecting the performance of PPP projects.Based on the above research conclusions,the following suggestions are proposed:firstly,it is important to strengthen the flexibility of the PPP project team,the solidarity norms and the soft elements of information exchange,as well as create a good project team relationship atmosphere to improve the performance level of PPP projects.Secondly,it is vital to establish a good team trust relationship from the initial emphasis on computing trust to the later development of relationship trust.