Edited by: Muddassar Sarfraz, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China
Reviewed by: Kausar Fiaz Khawaja, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan; Zeying Li, Guangdong University of Technology, China
This article was submitted to Organizational Psychology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
The study is based on validating and exploring the effects of a mega project plan (CPEC) on infrastructure development and Sustainable Project Management. The CPEC has great importance to infrastructure development and economy-boosting. The current study's primary aim is to deal with environmental protection, economic boost up, international relations influencing to the Project's success. The paper also addressed project management as a moderator between environmental protection, economic boost up, international relations, and the CPEC project's success. The primary data has been gathered by using questionnaires, and PLS-SEM has been employed for the analysis. The results revealed that environmental protection, economy boost up, and international relations have a positive association with the success of CPEC. The outcomes also exposed that project management moderating among the nexus of economy boosts up the international relations and success of CPEC. The present study results guided how Pakistan and China make the CPEC project stronger with the efficient implementation of practices required for protecting the environment, with the economic growth and boost up, and good strong relations with foreign countries. This study was an attempt to validate the different factors to check their association with each other in a new environment, resulting in a leading edge for the success of mega projects that influence project management.
The CPEC is the initiative of China's one belt one road initiative. The development of infrastructure and other improvements in economic, political, environmental, and regional aspects is tremendous. However, there are a lot of challenges and concerns in the development and establishment of this project. Security and environment protection are two critical areas to be considered in this regard. Under this CPEC program, several modern and groundbreaking initiatives have begun. The building of the rail network, new economic zones, Gwadar port development, and road network initiatives are part of this significant economic development (Kanwal et al.,
Many new and innovative projects have been started under this CPEC initiative. Railways network construction, new economic zones, Gwadar port development, and road network construction initiatives are part of this substantial economic development (Li et al.,
The economic and energy generation sectors are surely improved after initiation of this project, but the thing that should be considered is to avoid all the environmental losses (Khwaja et al.,
The increased number of infrastructure development efforts and an influx of a huge number of tourists in the exotic natural reservoirs and natural parks of Pakistan has posed a grave environmental hazard to the tourist's spots and the biodiversity of those areas (Lin et al.,
The environmental protection role is essential for any business or project's success (Sadiq et al.,
The economy of any country is mainly dependent upon trading and industrialization. CPEC and its related projects provided a lot of ease in both sectors. It can be easily illustrated by the recent studies conducted by different researchers that the unemployment rate is greatly reduced due to enhanced investments and the development of new projects. The foreign investments have elevated the stocks and trade industry of both countries. The economic security and advancement depend upon the combined efforts of individuals of these two neighboring countries. The easy access to trading centers of China improved trading in Pakistan. Local traders and industrial heads have declared the CPEC as the key to a new era of opportunities (Maqsoom et al.,
Economy boost-up will be due to CPEC because it will provide the opportunities. Companies from all over the world will take an interest to start bunnies here. It will also provide job opportunities which would be the one of the reasons for economic boosting. A competitive environment will be created due to this Market. Therefore, the best quality products will be available due to this competition. It would be a central point between the Gulf, Europe, and Asia (Ali et al.,
The skill development in terms of the digitalized system is necessary, and Pakistan's government is working hard in this area. IT and artificial intelligence-related programs are made necessary to be included in all universities courses (Hao et al.,
Project management and related planning are essential in mediating the success factor of CPEC. Environmental protection, Economy boost-up, and International relations are all parts of the project management-related aspects (Chaudhri,
Relations will be developed internationally with CPEC success. Countries will coordinate with each other for trades. Foreign relations will also be strong due to trade. Trade level will be increased. New and equal opportunities will be created at the International Level (Chen,
The combined efforts of Chinese and Pakistani workers showed a regional harmony to the world, the combined efforts in terms of the development of new and novel technologies have helped a lot in maintaining a good cooperative environment in between the people of both countries. The infrastructure development has helped a lot in reshaping the economy and related aspects of both countries' development (He et al.,
Due to its geographical location, developing countries like Pakistan can serve as a tunnel for international bonding and development (Huo et al.,
Hypothesis development and study framework.
H1: There is a positive association between environmental protection and overall success of CPEC project.
H2: There is a positive association between economy boost up and overall success of CPEC project.
H3: There is a positive association between international relations and overall success of CPEC project.
H4: Project management moderates the association between environmental protection and the overall success of the CPEC project.
H5: Project management moderates the association between economy boost up and overall success of CPEC project.
H6: Project management moderates the association between international relations and the overall success of the CPEC project.
CPEC is of great importance to both the countries (China and Pakistan) involved in this project. The quantitative methods have been used in this study to analyze data collected and examine the validity of the proposed hypotheses. Data has been collected from the site engineers, project managers, technical staff related to the CPEC projects. Moreover, the simple random sampling has been used to collect data, and the analysis of the data and the checking of validity of hypotheses, SMART-PLS, have been applied (smart-PLS,
This study addresses three indicators/factors like environmental protection, economy boost up, and international relations that consist of different items. The environment protection (EP) has six items (Kumar,
The study model.
These findings provide the convergent validity for the assessment of the measurement model. The figures highlighted that high nexus between the items of the constructs and valid convergent validity because the loadings and AVE values are more than 0.50 while Alpha and CR values are also >0.70. These values are mentioned in
Convergent validity.
Economy boost up | EBU1 | 0.848 | 0.775 | 0.821 | 0.606 |
EBU2 | 0.760 | ||||
EBU3 | 0.721 | ||||
Environmental protection | EP1 | 0.835 | 0.869 | 0.900 | 0.600 |
EP2 | 0.731 | ||||
EP3 | 0.727 | ||||
EP4 | 0.785 | ||||
EP5 | 0.763 | ||||
EP6 | 0.802 | ||||
International relations | IR1 | 0.812 | 0.840 | 0.893 | 0.675 |
IR2 | 0.849 | ||||
IR3 | 0.821 | ||||
IR4 | 0.804 | ||||
Project management | PM1 | 0.792 | 0.773 | 0.803 | 0.511 |
PM2 | 0.513 | ||||
PM4 | 0.747 | ||||
PM5 | 0.772 | ||||
Success of CPEC | SCPEC2 | 0.782 | 0.827 | 0.898 | 0.747 |
SCPEC4 | 0.910 | ||||
SCPEC5 | 0.895 |
The outcomes also provide the discriminant validity that is also a part of the measurement model, and it is checked by using Fornell-Larcker method and cross-loadings. The figures highlighted no high nexus between the variables and valid discriminant validity because the figures that exposed the nexus among variables are higher than those that show the nexus with other constructs. These values are mentioned in
Fornell Larcker method.
EBU | 0.778 | ||||
EP | 0.471 | 0.775 | |||
IR | 0.559 | 0.628 | 0.822 | ||
PM | 0.482 | 0.548 | 0.554 | 0.715 | |
SCPEC | 0.523 | 0.692 | 0.601 | 0.533 | 0.864 |
Cross-loadings.
EBU1 | 0.442 | 0.554 | 0.471 | 0.481 | |
EBU2 | 0.273 | 0.328 | 0.319 | 0.357 | |
EBU3 | 0.368 | 0.394 | 0.314 | 0.369 | |
EP1 | 0.393 | 0.508 | 0.548 | 0.652 | |
EP2 | 0.408 | 0.578 | 0.414 | 0.595 | |
EP3 | 0.397 | 0.371 | 0.443 | 0.567 | |
EP4 | 0.329 | 0.491 | 0.354 | 0.446 | |
EP5 | 0.338 | 0.482 | 0.348 | 0.400 | |
EP6 | 0.290 | 0.476 | 0.375 | 0.466 | |
IR1 | 0.330 | 0.505 | 0.452 | 0.515 | |
IR2 | 0.365 | 0.554 | 0.441 | 0.534 | |
IR3 | 0.558 | 0.489 | 0.477 | 0.455 | |
IR4 | 0.617 | 0.511 | 0.456 | 0.463 | |
PM1 | 0.389 | 0.402 | 0.417 | 0.404 | |
PM2 | 0.263 | 0.282 | 0.308 | 0.270 | |
PM4 | 0.363 | 0.480 | 0.482 | 0.465 | |
PM5 | 0.349 | 0.365 | 0.343 | 0.345 | |
SCPEC2 | 0.553 | 0.557 | 0.554 | 0.424 | |
SCPEC4 | 0.409 | 0.627 | 0.496 | 0.485 | |
SCPEC5 | 0.391 | 0.606 | 0.504 | 0.470 |
The discriminant validity is also checked by using Heterotrait-Monotrait (HTMT) ratio. The figures highlighted (see
Measurement model assessment.
Heterotrait Monotrait (HTMT) ratio.
EBU | |||||
EP | 0.593 | ||||
IR | 0.737 | 0.728 | |||
PM | 0.697 | 0.684 | 0.727 | ||
SCPEC | 0.691 | 0.791 | 0.717 | 0.700 |
The results revealed that environmental protection, economy boost up, international relations have a positive association with the success of CPEC and accept H1, H2, and H3. The outcomes also exposed that project management moderating among the nexus of economy boosts up, international relations, and success of CPEC and accepts H5 and H6. However, the outcomes also exposed that project management does not moderate among the nexus of environmental protection and success of CPEC and reject H4. These are highlighted in
Hypothesis results (Path Analysis).
EBU -> SCPEC | 0.200 | 0.037 | 5.368 | 0.000 | 0.120 | 0.266 |
EBU*PM -> SCPEC | 0.058 | 0.032 | 1.811 | 0.043 | 0.004 | 0.124 |
EP -> SCPEC | 0.437 | 0.033 | 13.256 | 0.000 | 0.380 | 0.504 |
EP*PM -> SCPEC | −0.029 | 0.033 | 0.885 | 0.378 | −0.090 | 0.033 |
IR -> SCPEC | 0.116 | 0.035 | 3.284 | 0.001 | 0.039 | 0.190 |
IR*PM -> SCPEC | −0.095 | 0.034 | 2.756 | 0.007 | −0.164 | −0.037 |
PM -> SCPEC | 0.105 | 0.032 | 3.301 | 0.001 | 0.047 | 0.166 |
The results have indicated that environmental protection has positive impacts on the CPEC project. These results are in line with the previous studies (Akber,
The results have shown that international relations have a positive association with the success of the CPEC project. These results agree with past studies' results (Christoffersen,
The study carries both theoretical and empirical implications. The study contributes to the literature on international economic relations as it strengthens the economic relations between China and Pakistan in the form of the CPEC project's success. The study makes empirical implications as it guides both countries' governments to create successful their CPEC project. The study implies that Pakistan and China can make the CPEC project stronger with the efficient implementation of practices required to protect the environment, with the economic growth and boost up, and good strong relations with foreign countries.
Environment protection has positive influences on the success of CPEC. The study examines that if both the countries involved in the CPEC project are protective, the project will be more successful. The results conclude that the economic boost-up is favorable for the CPEC project's success as the emerging economic activities and economic growth in both countries accelerate the trade between them. Moreover, the results prove that favorable relations with foreign countries positively affect the success of CPEC. The study also implies that project management is an appropriate moderator between environment protection, economic boost up, and international relations and the success of CPEC as it strengthens the mutual relationship between environmental protection, economic boost up, and international relations and the success of CPEC.
Though the study throws ample light on the CPEC project's success, it has several limitations. This study discusses only the three factors that influence CPEC projects' success, such as environment protection-related aspects, the economic boost up, and international relations. At the same time, many other factors affect the success of CPEC. Future scholars should expand the study's scope by addressing more factors in relation to the success of CPEC. Moreover, the study elaborates on the moderating influences of project management between environment protection, the economic boost up, and international relations and the success of CPEC. Future scholars should use project management as a mediator.
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding authors.
TX, NG, and AN conceived and designed the concept and wrote the paper. SI and MA performed the literature review. AN and GA contributed in the data collection. JH and AM helped to provide technical support to collect the data. AN and TX contributed in analysis tools. TX has supervised the work. AN and AM reviewed the work to improve the outcomes. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.