Why Do Megaprojects Underperform? A Systematic Literature Review of the Causes of Poor Performance and Strategies for Improving Project Outcomes
Contributors
- Ayesha Nazish Butt Lecturer, Department of Management Sciences, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Sadia Bint Raza Lecturer, Department of Management Sciences, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Tasaddaque Hussain Assistant Professor, Department of Management Sciences, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
Abstract
Large-scale capital projects that typically cost over $1 billion are called megaprojects and can have a significant impact on the economy, the landscape, and entire societies. While most of these projects have not met their cost, benefit, or schedule goals, they continue to grow in number and size. This persistent gap between ambition and delivery is usually referred to as the “megaproject paradox”, and is what drives this present review. The study was conducted using a systematic review protocol that was developed in accordance with PRISMA principles, and used the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) framework to assess the quality of the 37 peer-reviewed articles identified between 2014 and 2024 in Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar, and analyzed them thematically to address two questions: why do megaprojects underperform and what can be done to improve their delivery? This integrated view of the causes of underperformance, condensed into seven themes, is set to define the problems. There are seven themes with interrelated causes of underperformance, and they will be problem definitions. A set of evidence-based improvement strategies derived from the literature reviewed is mapped to each of these. The results suggest that the failure of megaprojects is rarely a simple matter of one isolated cause; instead, it is an outcome of a combination of technical, organizational and institutional factors, and thus, for lasting improvements, a coordinated approach is needed for governance, cost control, stakeholder engagement and leadership development, but not a combination of isolated fixes. These results are compared with the more recent systematic reviews of megaproject performance, with their theoretical and managerial implications, and an agenda of future empirical research is outlined.
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Corresponding Author
Sadia Bint Raza
Lecturer, Department of Management Sciences, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan.
Corresponding Author: [email protected]
