Institutional work and infrastructure public–private partnerships (PPPs): the roles of religious symbolic work and power in implementing PPP projects

Abstract

Purpose – Existing public–private partnership (PPP) literature that explicitly adopts neo-institutional theory, tends to elucidate the impact of isomorphic pressures and organizational fields and structuration on PPP projects. This paper advances this literature by presenting the institutional work and micro-level dynamics through which actors initiate and implement a new form of project delivery. The authors show how actors enact responses to institutional structuration in the expansion and transformation of an airport from a public entity into a PPP in Saudi Arabia. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a single case study design that offers an empirically rich and thick descriptio..