Share:


Identifying the critical success factors and their relevant aspects for renewable energy projects; an empirical perspective

    Rashid Maqbool Affiliation
    ; Yahya Rashid Affiliation
    ; Saira Sultana Affiliation
    ; Ye Sudong Affiliation

Abstract

Owed to their enormous impact on the sustainable development of energy security, climate change, and the economy, multiple renewable-energy projects are carried out around the world, both in developed and in developing countries. Since the construction of renewable energy project is an entrepreneurial activity, there is a big concern about the success of such projects. Although pertinent literature suggests several methodologies to enhance the success of various projects, renewable-energy projects are still overlooked. This study identifies multiple critical success factors (CSFs), required for renewable-energy projects. Using a sample of 272 firms working on renewable energy projects in Pakistan, a quantitative and causal study was undertaken to identify the critical success factors (CSFs). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied to test and verify hypothesis. The results show that there is a strong direct dependency of project success over the proposed factors, however environmental factors are found to be the only predominant CSFs which show the significant indirect effect over project success. The study expected to contribute towards and widen up the existing knowledge base for the project performance of renewable energy projects by adding on the findings regarding critical success factors.

Keyword : critical success factors, renewable energy projects, project success, structural equation modeling, environmental factors

How to Cite
Maqbool, R., Rashid, Y., Sultana, S., & Sudong, Y. (2018). Identifying the critical success factors and their relevant aspects for renewable energy projects; an empirical perspective. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 24(3), 223-237. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2018.1691
Published in Issue
May 28, 2018
Abstract Views
3537
PDF Downloads
3290
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

AEDB. 2010. Alternate Energy Development Board report. Ministry of Power Division, Government of Pakistan [online], [cited 8 January 2010]. Available from Internet: http://www.aedb.org/2010

Ahimbisibwe, A.; Cavana, R. Y.; Daellenbach, U. 2015. A contingency fit model of critical success factors for software development projects: A comparison of agile and traditional plan-based methodologies, Journal of Enterprise Information Management 28(1): 7–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-08-2013-0060

Ahmed, S.; Mahmood, A.; Hasan, A.; Sidhu, G. A. S.; Butt, M. F. U. 2016. A comparative review of China, India and Pakistan renewable energy sectors and sharing opportunities, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 57: 216–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.12.191

Ali, S. H.; Zuberi, M. J. S.; Tariq, M. A.; Baker, D.; Mohiuddin, A. 2015. A study to incorporate renewable energy technologies into the power portfolio of Karachi, Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 47: 14–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.03.009

Allen, T. J. 2000. Architecture and communication among product development engineers, in Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE Conference “Engineering Management Society”, 15 August 2000, Albuquerque, NM, USA, 155–158. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMS.2000.872493

Amer, M.; Daim, T. U. 2011. Selection of renewable energy technologies for a developing county: a case of Pakistan, Energy for Sustainable Development 15(4): 420–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2011.09.001

Andertson, J.; Gerbing, D. 1998. Structural equation modeling in practice: A review and recommended two–step approach, Psychological Bulletin 103(2): 411–423. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.103.3.411

Arshad, M.; Ahmed, S. 2016. Cogeneration through bagasse: a renewable strategy to meet the future energy needs, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 54: 732–737. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.145

Asif, M. 2009. Sustainable energy options for Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13(4): 903–909. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2008.04.001

Awan, A. B.; Khan, Z. A. 2014. Recent progress in renewable energy – Remedy of energy crisis in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 33: 236–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.01.089

Babakus, E.; Mangold, W. G. 1992. Adapting the SERVQUAL scale to hospital services: an empirical investigation, Health Services Research 26(2): 767–86.

Baccarini, D.; Collins, A. 2003. Critical success factors for projects, surfing the waves: Management challenges; Management solutions, in Proceedings of the 17th ANZAM Conference, 2–5 December 2003, Perth, Australia, 2–5.

Bairi, J.; Manohar, B. M. 2011. Critical success factors in gaining user customer satisfaction in outsourced IT services, Journal of Enterprise Information Management 24(6): 475–493. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391111166530

Bayiley, Y. T.; Teklu, G. K. 2016. Success factors and criteria in the management of international development projects: Evidence from projects funded by the European Union in Ethiopia, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 9(3): 562–582. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-06-2015-0046

Bergmann, A.; Hanley, N.; Wright, R. 2006. Valuing the attributes of renewable energy investments, Energy Policy 34: 1004–1014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2004.08.035

Biedenbach, T.; Müller, R. 2011. Paradigms in project management research: examples from 15 years of IRNOP conferences, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 4(1): 82–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111096908

Buchanan, D. A.; Badham, R. J. 2008. Power, politics, and organizational change: Winning the turf game. 1st ed. London, UK: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446280300.n6

Campbell, D. T.; Fiske, D. W. 1959. Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix, Psychological Bulletin 56(2): 81–105. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046016

Cavana, R. Y.; Delahaye, B. L.; Sekaran, U. 2001. Applied business research: Qualitative and quantitative methods. 1st ed. Milton, Queensland, Australia: John Wiley & Sons.

Chaudhry, M. A.; Raza, R.; Hayat, S. A. 2009. Renewable energy technologies in Pakistan: prospects and challenges, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13(6): 1657–1662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2008.09.025

Chou, J. S.; Pramudawardhani, D. 2015. Cross-country comparisons of key drivers, critical success factors and risk allocation for public–private partnership projects, International Journal of Project Management 33(5): 1136–1150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.12.003

Cooper, R. 1998. Benchmarking new product performance: Results of the best practices study, European Management Journal 16(1): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-2373(97)00069-8

Cserhati, G.; Szabo, L. 2014. The relationship between success criteria and success factors in organisational event projects, International Journal of Project Management 32(4): 613–624. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.08.008

Davcik, N. S. 2014. The use and misuse of structural equation modelling in management research: A review and critique, Journal of Advances in Management Research 11(1): 47–81. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAMR-07-2013-0043

Devlin, S. J.; Dong, H. K.; Brown, M. 1993. Selecting a scale for measuring quality, Marketing Research 5: 12–17.

Dvir, D.; Lipovetsky, S.; Shenhar, A.; Tishler, A. 1998. In search of project classification: a non–universal approach to project success factors, Research policy 27(9): 915–935. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0048-7333(98)00085-7

Ellabban, O.; Abu-Rub, H.; Blaabjerg, F. 2014. Renewable energy resources: Current status, future prospects and their enabling technology, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 39: 748–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.113

Fang, Y.; Zeng, Y. 2007. Balancing energy and environment: the effect and perspective of management instruments in China, Energy 32(12): 2247–2261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2007.07.016

Fornell, C.; Larcker, D. F. 1981. Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error, Journal of Marketing Research 18(1): 39–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312

Ghafoor, A.; ur Rehman, T.; Munir, A.; Ahmad, M.; Iqbal, M. 2016. Current status and overview of renewable energy potential in Pakistan for continuous energy sustainability, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 60: 1332–1342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.020

Globerson, S.; Zwikael, O. 2002. The impact of the project manager on project management planning processes, Project Management Journal 33(3): 58–64.

Gondal, I. A.; Masood, S. A.; Amjad, M. 2017. Review of geothermal energy development efforts in Pakistan and way forward, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 71: 687–696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.097

Gondal, I. A.; Sahir, M. 2010. The potential of renewable hydrogen production in Pakistan, ISESCO Science and Technology Vision 10(6): 68–81.

GoP. 2006. Policy for development of renewable energy for power generation report. Government of Pakistan [online], [cited 4 December 2017]. Available from Internet: http://aedb.org/Documents/Policy/REpolicy.pdf

Gopalasamy, P.; Mansor, Z. 2013. An investigation on project management standard practices in IT organization, International Journal of Computer Engineering Science (IJCES) 3(1): 1–12.

Hair, J. F.; Anderson, R. E.; Black, W. C. 1995. Multivariate data analysis with reading. 4th ed. New Jersey, USA: Prentice-Hall.

Hair, J. F.; Black, W. C.; Babin, B. J.; Anderson, R. E.; Tatham, R. L. 2006. Multivariate data analysis. Vol. 6. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Hair, J. F.; Sarstedt, M.; Hopkins, L.; Kuppelwiser, V. G. 2014. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS–SEM): An emerging tool in business research, European Business Review 26(2): 196–121.

Hayes, B. E. 1992. Measurement customer satisfaction: Development and use of questionnaire. Milwaukee, WI: ASQC Quality Press.

Hayfield, F. 1979. Basic factors for a successful project, in Proceedings of the 6th Internet Congress, 1979, Garmisch-Partenkirchen FRG, Germany, 7–37.

Hazen, B. T.; Overstreet, R. E.; Boone, C. A. 2015. Suggested reporting guidelines for structural equation modelling in supply chain management research, The International Journal of Logistics Management 26(3): 627–641. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-08-2014-0133

Holland, C. R.; Light, B. 1999. A critical success factors model for ERP implementation, IEEE Software 16(3): 30–36. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-017-0137-9

Hulio, Z. H.; Jiang, W; Rehman, S. 2017. Technical and economic assessment of wind power potential of Nooriabad, Pakistan, Energy, Sustainability and Society 7(1): 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13705-017-0137-9

Ika, L. A., Diallo, A.; Thuillier, D. 2012. Critical success factors for World Bank projects: An empirical investigation, International Journal of Project Management 30(1): 105–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.03.005

Ika, L. A.; Donnelly, J. 2017. Success conditions for international development capacity building projects, International Journal of Project Management 35(1): 44–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.10.005

Jugdev, K.; Mathur, G. 2012. Classifying project management resources by complexity and leverage, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 5(1): 105–124. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211192928

Kamal, M. 2006. IT innovation adoption in the government sector: identifying the critical success factors, Journal of Enterprise Information Management 19(2): 192–222. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410390610645085

Kwek, C. L.; Lau, T. C.; Tan, H. P. 2010. Education quality process model and its influence on students’ perceived service quality, International Journal of Business and Management 5(8): 154–165.

Larson, E. 1995. Project partnering: results of study of 280 construction projects, Journal of Management in Engineering 11(2): 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(1995)11:2(30)

Lewin, M. D. 2001. Better software project management. 1st ed. New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Li, E. Y. 1997. Perceived importance of information system success factors: a meta analysis of group differences, Information and Management 32(1): 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-7206(97)00005-0

Li, T.; Cavusgil, T. 2000. Decomposing the effects of market knowledge competence in new product export, European Journal of Marketing 34(1): 57–80. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560010306205

Liu, J.; Love, P. E.; Smith, J.; Regan, M.; Davis, P. R. 2014. Life cycle critical success factors for public-private partnership infrastructure projects, Journal of Management in Engineering 31(5): 1–7.

Malhotra, N. K. 2008. Marketing research: An applied orientation. 5th ed. New Jersey, USA: Pearson Education. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1548-6435(2008)4

Maqbool, R.; Sudong, Y.; Manzoor, N.; Rashid, Y. 2017. The impact of emotional intelligence, project managers’ competencies, and transformational leadership on project success, Project Management Journal 48(3): 58–75.

Marzagão, D. S. L.; Carvalho, M. M. 2016. Critical success factors for Six Sigma projects, International Journal of Project Management 34(8): 1505–1518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.08.005

Mirza, U. K.; Ahmad, N.; Harijan, K.; Majeed, T. 2009. Identifying and addressing barriers to renewable energy development in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13(4): 927–931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2007.11.006

Mirza, U. K.; Maroto-Valer, M. M.; Ahmad, N. 2003. Status and outlook of solar energy use in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 7(6): 501–514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2003.06.002

Mukhtar, M. M.; Amirudin, R. B.; Sofield, T.; Mohamad, I. B. 2017. Critical success factors for public housing projects in developing countries: a case study of Nigeria, Environment, Development and Sustainability 19(5): 2039–2067. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9843-2

Muller, R.; Turner, R. 2010. Leadership competency profile of successful project managers, International Journal of Project Management 28(5): 437–448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.003

Nastase, M. 2009. Leadership development within SMEs: Solving the organizational conflict, International Review of International Comparative Management 10(5): 1035–1042.

Nunnally, J. C.; Bernstein, I. H. 1994. Psychometric theory. 3rd ed. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill Education.

Olasupo, A. R.; Ibrahim, O. O.; Gazal, H. O. 2012. Effect of project management on project success, Australian Journal of Business and Management Research 2(3): 1–11.

Osei-Kyei, R.; Chan, A. P. 2015. Review of studies on the critical success factors for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects from 1990 to 2013, International Journal of Project Management 33(6): 1335–1346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.02.008

Pal, R.; Wang, P.; Liang, X. 2017. The critical factors in managing relationships in international engineering, procurement, and construction (IEPC) projects of Chinese organizations, International Journal of Project Management 35(7): 1225–1237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.05.010

Pfeffer, J. 1994. Competitive advantage through people: Unleashing the power of the work force. 1st ed. Boston, USA: Harvard Business Press.

PMD. 2004. Feasibility report – the establishment of commercial wind power plant of 18 MW at Gharo–Sindh. Technical Report no. PMD–11/2004, Pakistan Meteorological Department [online], [cited 4 December 2017]. Available from Internet: http://www.pmd.gov.pk/wind/Wind_Project_files/Feasibility%20Report-Gharo.pdf

Prabhakar, G. P. 2008. Projects and their management: A literature review, International Journal of Business and Management 3(9): 3–10. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v3n8p3

Raja, I. A.; Dougar, M. G.; Abro, R. S. 1996. Solar energy applications in Pakistan, Renewable Energy 9(1–4): 1128–1131. https://doi.org/10.1016/0960-1481(96)88477-1

Rajkumar, S. 2010. Art of communication in project management, in PMI® Research Conference: Defining the Future of Project Management, 11–14 July 2010, Washington, DC. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

REN21. 2010. Renewables 2010 global status report.

Ribeiro, M. B.; Duarte, V. D.; Salgado, E. G.; Castro, C. V. 2017. Prioritization of critical success factors in the process of software development, IEEE Latin America Transactions 15(1): 137–144. https://doi.org/10.1109/TLA.2017.7827917

Rogers, E. M. 1976. New product adoption and diffusion, Journal of Consumer Research 2(4): 290-301. https://doi.org/10.1086/208642

Sahir, M. H.; Qureshi, A. H. 2008. Assessment of new and renewable energy resources potential and identification of barriers to their significant utilization in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 12(1): 290–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2006.07.002

Saunders, M. N.; Saunders, M.; Lewis, P.; Thornhill, A. 2015. Research methods for business students. 5th ed. India: Pearson Education.

Schreiber, J. B.; Stage, F. K.; King, J.; Nora, A.; Barlow, E. A. 2006. Reporting structural equation modelling and confirmatory factor analysis results: A review, The Journal of Educational Research 99(6): 323–338. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOER.99.6.323-338

Shahbaz, M.; Loganathan, N.; Zeshan, M.; Zaman, K. 2015. Does renewable energy consumption add in economic growth? An application of auto-regressive distributed lag model in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 44: 576–585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.01.017

Shakeel, S. R.; Takala, J.; Shakeel, W. 2016. Renewable energy sources in power generation in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 64: 421–434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.06.016

Sheikh, M. A. 2009. Renewable energy resource potential in Pakistan, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 13(9): 2696–2702. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2009.06.029

Shen, W.; Tang, W.; Siripanan, A.; Lei, Z.; Duffield, C. F.; Wilson, D.; Wei, Y. 2017. Critical success factors in Thailand’s green building industry, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering 16(2): 317–324. https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.16.317

Shenhar, A.; Levy, O.; Dvir, B. 1997. Mapping the dimensions of project success, Project Management Journal 28(2): 5–13.

Standish, G. 1994. The CHAOS report. The Standish Group International, Inc, Boston.

Sudhakar, G. P. 2012. A model of critical success factors for software projects, Journal of Enterprise Information Management 25(6): 537–558. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391211272829

Tabachnick, B. G.; Fidell, L. 2012. Using multivariate statistics. 6th ed. New Jersey, USA: Pearson.

Thite, M. 1999. Leadership: a critical success factor in IT project management, in Proceedings of Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET’99), 29–29 July 1999, Portland, USA, 298–303. https://doi.org/10.1109/PICMET.1999.787819

Varona, F. 1996. Relationship between communication satisfaction and organizational commitment in three Gautemalan organizations, International Journal of Business Communication 33(2): 111–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/002194369603300203

Verma, V. K. 1995. Organizing projects for success – The human aspects of project management. Vol. 1. Pennsylvania, USA: Project Management Institute.

Westerveld, E. 2003. The Project Excellence Model®: linking success criteria and critical success factors, International Journal of Project Management 21(6): 411–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(02)00112-6

White, D.; Fortune, J. 2002. Current practice in project management – An empirical study, International Journal of Project Management 20(1): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0263-7863(00)00029-6

Williams, T. 2016. Identifying success factors in construction projects: A case study, Project Management Journal 47(1): 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21558

Wixom, B. H.; Watson, H. J. 2001. An empirical investigation of the factors affecting data warehousing success, MIS Quarterly 25(1): 17–41. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250957

Wüste, A.; Schmuck, P. 2012. Bioenergy villages and regions in Germany: an interview study with initiators of communal bioenergy projects on the success factors for restructuring the energy supply of the community, Sustainability 4(2): 244–256. https://doi.org/10.3390/su4020244

Xavier, R.; Komendantova, N.; Jarbandhan, V.; Nel, D. 2017. Participatory governance in the transformation of the South African energy sector: Critical success factors for environmental leadership, Journal of Cleaner Production 154: 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.146

Xiong, B.; Skitmore, M.; Xia, B. 2015. A critical review of structural equation modeling applications in construction research, Automation in Construction 49: 59–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.006

Xu, P.; Chan, E. H. W.; Qian, Q. K. 2011. Success factors of energy performance contracting (EPC) for sustainable building energy efficiency retrofit (BEER) of hotel buildings in China, Energy Policy 39(11): 7389–7398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2011.09.001

Yalegama, S.; Chileshe, N.; Ma, T. 2016. Critical success factors for community–driven development projects: A Sri Lankan community perspective, International Journal of Project Management 34(4): 643–659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.006

Yamin, M.; Sim, A. K. 2016. Critical success factors for international development projects in Maldives: Project teams’ perspective, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business 9(3): 481–504. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-08-2015-0082

Young, R.; Poon, S. 2013. Top management support – almost always necessary and sometimes sufficient for success: Findings from a fuzzy set analysis, International Journal of Project Management 31(7): 943–957. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.013

Zhao, Z. Y.; Chen, Y. L. 2018. Critical factors affecting the development of renewable energy power generation: Evidence from China, Journal of Cleaner Production 184: 466–480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.254

Zhao, Z. Y.; Chen, Y. L.; Chang, R. D. 2016. How to stimulate renewable energy power generation effectively? – China’s incentive approaches and lessons, Renewable Energy 92: 147–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.02.001

Zhao, Z. Y.; Chen, Y. L.; Thomson, J. D. 2017. Levelized cost of energy modeling for concentrated solar power projects: A China study, Energy 120: 117–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.12.122

Zhao, Z. Y.; Zuo, J.; Zillante, G.; Wang, X. W. 2010. Critical success factors for BOT electric power projects in China: Thermal power versus wind power, Renewable Energy 35(6): 1283–1291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2009.09.016

Zou, W.; Kumaraswamy, M.; Chung, J.; Wong, J. 2014. Identifying the critical success factors for relationship management in PPP projects, International Journal of Project Management 32(2): 265–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.004