272 Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development (2018) Volume 2 Issue 2. DOI: 10.24294/jipd.v2i2.156 Original article Pathways to project delivery success and failure in Indian road public–private partnership projects Nitish Goenka 1 , Michael Garvin 2 and Vinod Vasudevan 3 * 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, UP, India 2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA 3 Department of Civil Engineering, University of Alaska Anchorage, Anchorage, AK, USA ABSTRACT This study examines conditions that impact public–private partnership (PPP) delivery success or failure in the roadways sector in India using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). QCA is well suited for problems where multiple factors combine to create pathways leading to an outcome. Past investigations have compared PPP and non-PPP project delivery performance, but this study examines performance within PPPs by uncovering a set of conditions that combine to infuence the success or failure road PPP project delivery in India. Based on data from 21 cases, pathways explaining project delivery success or failure were identifed. Specifcally, PPPs with high concessionaire equity investment and low regional industrial activity led to project delivery success. Projects with lower concessionaire equity investment and low reliance on toll revenue and with either (a) high project technical complexity or (b) high regional industrial activity led to project delivery failure. The pathways identifed did not have coverage values that they were extremely strong. Coverage strength was hindered by lack of access to information on additional conditions that could be confgurationally important. Further, certain characteristics of the Indian market limit generalization. Identifcation of the combinations of conditions leading to PPP project delivery success or failure improves knowledge of the impacts of structure and characteristics of these complex arrangements. This study is one of the frst studies to use fuzzy QCA to understand project delivery success/failure in road PPP projects. Moreover, this study takes into account factors specifc to a sector and delivery mode to explain project delivery performance. Keywords: public–private partnership; evaluation of public–private partnership; qualitative comparative analysis; project delivery performance 1. Introduction Projects procured through public–private partnerships (PPPs) are perceived to fare better in terms of project delivery performance compared to traditionally procured projects (Yescombe 2007). Several international studies contrasting PPP and conventional projects indicate that PPP projects have higher degrees of cost and time certainty. For ARTICLE INFO Received: January 4, 2018 Accepted: July 22, 2018 Available online: November 7 2018 *CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Vinod Vasudevan, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, and Virginia Tech, USA. E-mail: vvasudevan@alaska.edu CITATION Goenka N, Vasudevan V, Garvin M (2018). “Pathways to project delivery success and failure in Indian road public–private partnership projects.” Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 2(2): 272-285. doi: 10.24294/jipd.v2i2.156 COPYRIGHT Copyright © 2018 by authors(s). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY- NC 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/