Governance regimes for large complex projects

Organizations can only successfully realize mega-projects when they have in place a governance regime that is capable of adapting to specific projects, dealing with emergent complexity, and changing as the project development process unfolds. This article outlines a foundation for developing mega-project governance framework. In doing so, it re-examines an early 21st century study of 60 large capital projects; it also reviews the literature on institutional, corporate, and project governance and studies two European mega-projects (one involving the British Private Finance Initiative, the other, a Norwegian effort to develop a project approval process). It opens by identifying the eight themes that most affect the front-end of mega-projects and then by exploring the life-cycle relationship between projects, institutional frameworks, and contextual environments.