Research On The Formation Mechanism Of Private Sectors' Participation Behaviors In Public-Private Partnership Projects

Public Private Partnership(hereinafter referred to as PPP),as one of the important ways to provide public products and public services,not only stimulates the vigor of private capital and promotes an effective and stable growth of investment,but also provides a strong support for reducing local government debt,promoting supply-side structural reform,employment,the national targeted poverty alleviation strategy and the construction of "One Belt And One Road".Although governments at all levels have expressed their strong will for cooperation between governments and private sectors and non-public economy development through a series of important policies promulgated,the participation of private sectors in PPP projects is far from achieving the expected effect in terms of both quantity and investment scale,and the PPP market presents a development trend of "hot up and cold down,government hot and private sector cold".Private sectors are facing a series of problems,such as "cannot invest","do not want to invest","dare not invest" and "do not know where to invest".These problems not only restrict the further promotion of PPP in China,but also limit the long-term development of social capital in China.Therefore,it is important to look at the formation mechanism of private sectors'participation behaviors in PPP projects.It will help the central and local governments to understand the economic behaviors of private sectors and figure out what kind of PPP projects attract private sectors and what kind of PPP projects do not.And it makes it possible for government to timely and effectively adjust the scope of the projects or to adopt corresponding policies to guide private sectors,which eventually lead more private sectors to participate in the PPP projects.However,compared with the extensive discussion on how the government should choose the right private sector,the study on how private sector should choose the right PPP project,namely the participation behavior of private sectors,has received little attention from scholars.On the one hand,the extant researches have not systematically captured,identified,and defined the influencing factors of private sectors' participation behaviors in PPP projects.On the other hand,there is also a lack of systematic and in-depth discussion on the acting path and formation mechanism of private sectors'participation behaviors in PPP projects.In view of this,based on the theory of planned behavior and the theory of perceived risk,the formation mechanism of private sectors' participation behaviors was examined in this thesis.Through literature study,the critical incident method,content analysis,binary logistic regression,case studies,and structural equation model,the theoretical analysis and empirical test of the formation mechanism of private sectors' participation behaviors were conducted.This thesis aims to deepen relevant theoretical researches and provide recommendations for the governments to design PPP projects and guide private sectors through policies.The main contents and results of this thesis are as follows:First,this study started from the basic elements of private sectors' participation behaviors in PPP projects,namely the influencing factors of private sectors'participation behaviors,through a mixed method approach.19 influencing factors of private sectors' participation behaviors were identified and described.Then,through the calculation and analysis of 319 questionnaires,the result of a binary logistic regression indicated that the scale of the private sector,the financing ability,the private sector's PPP experience,strategic needs,project profit expectations,the relationship with the government,the trust in the local government,support from the public,the market conditions,nine influencing factors in total were found to have a significant relationship with the private sectors' participation behaviors.Second,this study explored the acting path of private sectors'participation behaviors in PPP projects.The result of multiple case studies showed that:First,the 19 influencing factors work through four mechanisms:attitude,subjective norms,perceived behavioral control and political trust.Second,private sectors' participation cognitions in PPP projects is the"theoretical black box" between influencing factors and participation behaviors,and this participation cognition is constituted by private sectors' participation intention and perceived risk.Third,based on the two dimensions of participation intention and perceived risk,four different outcomes can be derived,namely,high participation intention-high perceived risk,high participation intention-low perceived risk,low participation intention-high perceived risk and low participation intention-low perceived risk.Finally,private sectors'participation cognitions of the PPP projects have strong correlation with private sectors'participation behaviors.Third,this thesis constructed a hypothetical relationship between seven constructs:attitude,subjective norms,perceived behavioral control,political trust in government,participation intention,perceived risk and participation behaviors.The empirical study results showed that:first of all,attitude,subjective norm and perceived behavioral control has a positive influence on participation behaviors,and perceived behavioral control also has a positive impact on the participation behaviors,which shows that the theory of planned behavior can be well applied in the PPP context.Meanwhile,political trust also has a positive impact on the participation intention.Second,attitude,perceived behavior control and political trust all have negative effects on private sectors' perceived risk,while the negative relationship between subjective norms and perceived risk is not significant.Third,the parallel mediating effect between participation intention and perceived risk plays a complete mediating role between attitude,political trust,and participation behaviors,and a partial mediating role between perceived behavioral control and participation behaviors.The above research conclusions deepen the research on the formation mechanism of private sectors' participation behaviors in PPP projects,deconstruct the complex acting paths and relationship among the seven constructs,and verify the important mediating role of participation intention and perceived risk.