Meeting investors’ demands in PPP project to improve enthusiasm for participating in green and low-carbon

Figures & data

Table 1. Investor demands and operational description.

Demands	Operational description	References
Investment income (II)	Enterprises increase investment income through project investment and financing process	Lisa (2012)
Industry competitiveness (IC)	Enterprises cultivate resources and capabilities through PPP projects	Zhang and Wang (2012)
Future project market (FPM)	Enterprises win project resources and occupy a position in PPP industry in the future by participating in PPP projects	Kwon et al. (2017)
Cooperative relationship with government (CR)	Enterprises establish good cooperation with the government by participating in PPP projects	Fan (2003)
Social reputation (SR)	Enterprises win social and public recognition and approval by participating in PPP projects	Walker and Dyck (2014) and Esen (2013)
Industry status (IS)	Enterprises improve industry ranking, brand value and market share by participating in PPP projects	Sharkey (2014) and Reng and Liang (2005)

Source: data analysis results of the study.

Figure 1. Scale development procedure referenced the scale preparation process by Wu (2000).

Table 2. Background of the participants.

Characteristics	Category	Frequency	%
Stakeholders	Government	34	12.6
	Investors (financial institutions such as banks or strategic investors: including professional service companies such as contractors and operators)	77	28.6
	PPP researchers	158	58.7
	Others	0	0.0
Project experience (Research and Practice)	≤2 years	51	19.0
	2–5 years	167	62.1
	5–10 years	47	17.5
	>10 years	4	1.5
	Never heard	0	0.0
Understanding on PPP	Basic	33	12.3
	Very	161	59.9
	Master	67	24.9
	Expert	8	3.0
The degree of concern about the government's decision-making in PPP projects	No	0	0.0
	Occasional	49	18.2
	Sometimes	116	43.1
	Often	87	32.3
	always	17	6.3

Note: ‘0’ indicates that the corresponding case has been excluded.

Source: data analysis results of the study.

Table 3. Reliability, validity and factor analysis of data.

Scale	Latent variable	Observation items	Factor loading	Percentage of variance	Cumulative variance percentage	α	KMO and Bartlett
Investor demand	IS	IS3	0.840	16.623	16.623	0.768	0.776***
		IS5	0.824
		IS2	0.823
		IS1	0.822
		IS4	0.783
		IS6	0.630
	SR	SR3	0.855	14.909	31.532
		SR4	0.824
		SR1	0.821
		SR2	0.820
		SR5	0.754
	CR	CR2	0.908	10.734	42.266
		CR3	0.894
		CR1	0.878
	IC	IC2	0.914	10.607	52.873
		IC3	0.892
		IC1	0.856
	II	II2	0.870	9.816	62.690
		II3	0.856
		II1	0.838
	FPM	FPM3	0.852	9.247	71.937
		FPM2	0.840
		FPM1	0.790

Note: ***Significance of Bartlett test (p < 0.001).

Source: data analysis results of the study.

Table 4. Standardised factor load of CFA.

Measurement model	Latent variables	Observation items	Standardized factor load
Investor demand	IS	IS1	0.83
		IS2	0.86
		IS3	0.84
		IS4	0.67
		IS5	0.68
		IS6	0.50
	SR	SR1	0.77
		SR2	0.79
		SR3	0.83
		SR4	0.79
		SR5	0.68
	CR	CR1	0.79
		CR2	0.89
		CR3	0.86
	IC	IC1	0.78
		IC2	0.89
		IC3	0.86
	II	II1	0.71
		II2	0.84
		II3	0.81
	FPM	FPM1	0.67
		FPM2	0.76
		FPM3	0.80

Source: data analysis results of the study.

Table 5. Comparison of correlations and square-rooted AVE of constructs.

Latent variables	CR	AVE	IS	SR	CR	IC	II	FPM
IS	0.88	0.60	0.77
SR	0.88	0.60	−0.13	0.77
CR	0.88	0.72	0.18	0.03	0.85
IC	0.88	0.71	0.13	0.11	0.11	0.84
II	0.83	0.62	0.18	0.03	0.17	−0.05	0.79
FPM	0.79	0.56	0.05	0.24	0.03	0.20	−0.02	0.75

Note. Diagonal bold elements are square roots of the average variance extracted (AVE).

Source: data analysis results of the study.

Table 6. Formal scale of investor demand.

Demand latent variables	Description of observation items
Investment income (II)	II1: Investors expect to increase investment income from operating income by participating in PPP projects
	II2: Investors expect to obtain investment income from government preferential policies by participating in PPP projects
	II3: Investors expect to obtain investment income from the government's additional private products and resource allocation by participating in PPP projects
Industry competitiveness (IC)	IC1: Investors expect to improve the PPP professional and technical ability of enterprises by participating in PPP projects
	IC2: Investors hope to enrich the professional theoretical knowledge of PPP of enterprises by participating in PPP projects
	IC3: Investors expect to train PPP professionals of enterprises by participating in PPP projects
Future project market (FPM)	FPM1: Investors expect to ensure the future project resources of the enterprise by participating in PPP projects
	FPM2: Investors hope to ensure that enterprises can obtain the cooperation channel of the project by participating in the PPP project
	FPM3: Investors expect to take the initiative in the future project market by participating in PPP projects
Cooperative relationship with government (CR)	CR1: Investors expect to gain the trust of the government by participating in the PPP project
	CR2: Investors expect to maintain close contact and benign interaction with the government through participation in PPP projects
	CR3: Investors expect to form a good relationship atmosphere with the government through participation in PPP projects
Social reputation (SR)	SR1: Investors expect to obtain public approval through participation in PPP projects
	SR2: Investors expect to gain the public's trust in the enterprise brand by participating in the PPP project
	SR3: Investors expect to gain industry recognition by participating in PPP projects
	SR4: Investors hope to obtain the recognition of partners through participating in PPP projects
	SR5: Investors expect to obtain positive disclosure of their information by social media through participation in PPP projects
Industry status (IS)	IS1: Investors expect to increase the market share of PPP by participating in PPP projects
	IS2: Investors expect to improve their industry ranking by participating in PPP projects
	IS3: Investors expect to improve the brand awareness of enterprises by participating in PPP projects
	IS4: Investors expect to improve the PPP performance of enterprises by participating in PPP projects
	IS5: Investors expect to improve the growth rate of enterprises by participating in PPP projects

Source: data analysis results of the study.

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Data availability statement

Some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.