This document summarizes a research paper that develops a framework for measuring the success of rural infrastructure development projects in Vietnam. Through a literature review and survey of over 300 project stakeholders, the research identified three key dimensions of rural infrastructure project success: 1) meeting the needs of users, 2) satisfying project funders, and 3) having positive impacts on the local community in the long term. An exploratory factor analysis was used to group survey responses into these three dimensions. The proposed framework provides a holistic approach to evaluating both the short-term and long-term success of rural infrastructure development projects in Vietnam.

1. FRAMEWORK FOR MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF RURAL
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN VIETNAM
Xuan Hung Pham
PhD Student – School of Global, Urban and Social
Studies - RMIT University - Australia
International Conference on Global Studies 2015
Colombo, Sri Lanka – November 2015

2. CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
5. CONCLUSIONS
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(Rural Infrastructure Development Projects = RID Projects)

3. 1. INTRODUCTION
 Significant spending on RID projects
 High percentage of population living
in rural areas
 Poor performance of many RID
projects
 Interest by both governments and
international agencies
 Limited research on RID projects in
Vietnam
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Why focus on RID projects?

4. Project success is multi-
dimensional concept
4
Challenges in investigating project success
 Challenges in identifying project success criteria
Different interest groups have
different perspectives on
project success
This research aims to develop a framework for measuring the success
of RID projects in the context of Vietnam

5. 5
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
 Definition of RID projects
 Project success criteria

6. Hard infrastructure
refers to physical facilities
such as transport, energy,
drinking water supply,
hospitals, schools; irrigation,
etc.
Infrastructure
Soft infrastructure
refers to non-tangibles
supporting development such
as policy, regulatory &
institutional frameworks.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW – Definition of RID projects
RID projects in this study refer to physical work/facilities
that support social and economic development in rural areas

7. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW - Project success criteria
Criteria to measure project success have changed over time
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• Completed on time
• Completed within budget
• Meet quality standards
• Stakeholders’ satisfaction
• Relevance
• Project impacts
• Project sustainability
Traditional Later research Recent research
• Completed on time
• Completed within budget
• Meet quality standards
• Stakeholders’ satisfaction
• Completed on time
• Completed within budget
• Meet quality standards

8. 8
Traditional
RID project success items
Adopted from
Literature review Case studies
The project addressed relevant needs of local
communities
Do and Tun (2008)
X
The project contributed to the local development
strategies
X
The project met sponsor priorities
Do and Tun (2008)
Chianca (2008)
X
Project activities were finished on time
(Al-Tmeemy, Abdul-
Rahman, and Harun (2011);
Shenhar et al. (2001))
X
Project resource was used as planned (on budget)
(Al-Tmeemy et al. (2011);
Shenhar et al. (2001))
X
Achieving its fundamental functions X
Project end outputs are accepted by target
beneficiaries
Do and Tun (2008) X
Local beneficiaries/users were satisfied with
service quality supplied
(Baccarini (1999); Do and
Tun (2008)); Wenjuan and
Lei (2011)
X
Government/Sponsors’ satisfaction with the
project results
Wenjuan and Lei (2011) X
Impacts on household cost; local security and
expanding opportunities for local people
X
Improving local capacity in managing RID
projects
Do and Tun (2008); Diallo
and Thuillier (2004)
X
List of success criteria for RID project

9. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY – An overview
9
Literature review Case studies
Survey
Conceptual framework
Discussion and
implications

10. 10
Survey instrument developmentSurvey instrument development QuestionnaireQuestionnaire
Pilot test
and expert review
Sampling and data collection
(Direct interview and web-based survey)
Data analysis
Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)
Questionnaire was validated and revised
Data were collected
Framework for measuring the success of RID
projects
Discussion
Survey process

11.  The target respondents for the survey were drawn randomly from the list of
project managers, contractors, consultants and community members who
were directly involved in RID projects.
 Due to the limitation of internet access in rural areas, both face-to-face
interviews and web-based survey were adopted in this study
 A total of 302 valid questionnaires were returned
 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was employed to identify success
criterion dimensions of RID projects.
RMIT University©2011 Information Technology Services 11
Survey process

12. 12
Key characteristics of RID project in the sample
Project implementation durationProject location
Distribution of RID projects by fundingDistribution of RID projects

13. 13
4.1. Assessment of the suitability of the data for Exploratory Factor
Analysis - EFA)
 The sample size: > 300 cases, and the ratio of subject to item: 12:1
 The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value > recommended value of 0.7
 The Bartlett’s test of Sphericity was significant (p < .05)
 The correlation among variables exceeds the threshold: 0.3
 The dataset is suitable for factor analysis
4. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

14. Component 1 2 3
Funder’s satisfaction
SC5-Completing within budget .853
SC9-Government/Sponsors’ satisfaction with the project results .833
SC3-Meeting sponsor priorities .791
SC2-Contributing to the local development strategies .758
Impacts on community
SC11-Increasing local security .850
SC13-Improving local capacity in implementation of similar RID projects .816
SC12-Increasing opportunities for local people .762
SC14-Enhancing the local ownership of infrastructure facilities .646
SC8-Local beneficiaries/users’ satisfaction with service supplied .599
Meeting users’ needs
SC7-The acceptance of infrastructure service quality by target users .808
SC1-Addressing relevant needs of local communities .792
SC6-Achieving its fundamental functions .766
SC4-Completing on schedule .739
Eigenvalues 5.107 20212 1.269
% of variance explained 39.28 17.02 9.76
Cum.% of variance explained 39.28 56.30 66.06
4.2. Success criteria of RID projects (EFA result)

15.  Component 1: Funder’s satisfaction (four items)
Government and international sponsors are two key funders in the public
sector investment such as RID projects. Therefore, the satisfaction of this
stakeholder is critical criterion for evaluating the success of an RID project
(Wenjuan and Lei, 2011).
 Component 2: Community impacts (five items)
The nature of RID projects is to serve the public infrastructure demands in
the rural areas and local people are the final users of RID project outputs.
Therefore, the satisfaction of local beneficiaries was important for the RID
project. This finding was supported by Shao and Müller (2011).
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4.3. Discussion

16.  Component 3: Meeting users’ needs (four items)
 This factor consist of factors related to the capacity of infrastructure facilities
to fulfil the primary needs of target users.
 In public infrastructure sector, project completion time is perceived as the
most important criterion for measuring the performance of a project (Ahsan
and Gunawan, 2010, Ahsan, 2012).
RMIT University©2011 Information Technology Services 16
4.3. Discussion (cont)

17. 17
RID project success dimensions
Impacts on
community
Meeting users’ needs
Funders’ satisfaction
RID PROJECT SUCCESS

18. 5. CONCLUSION
Key findings
The findings of this research indicated that RID project success is a multi-
dimensional concept.
A RID project is considered as successful when it is capable in integrating the
three success dimensions - fulfil the primary requirements of target users; fulfilling
the requirements of project funders and contribute to community’s success in long
term.
Research contribution
Developing knowledge about the success of RID projects in the context of
Vietnam
The proposed framework will provide an essential judgment for measuring RID
project success in the short-term as well as the long-term objectives.
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