Understanding clients’ role in community stakeholder participation and influence on infrastructure sustainability—a stakeholder theory lens

The nature of project clients and implementing agents is crucial to Local community stakeholder (LCS) participation in infrastructure development. However, few studies have explored this relationship. The questions regarding clients’ and implementing agents’ nature remain under-explored. Therefore, this article uses stakeholder theory to investigate the clients’ values and stakeholder participation in infrastructure development. A qualitative method used interviews with professionals from clients, consulting organisations and stakeholders to collect data in South Africa. The study revealed that LCS participation was related to client organisation’s values and nature. Equally, the stakeholder participation level influenced delivery of sustainable infrastructure. The significance of the study is that it reveals the gap in stakeholder management, an area extensively studied. Moreover, the study compels project sponsors and researchers to consider factors in clients’ and implementing agents’ organisations to improve stakeholder participation. The study redirects attention to client organisations’ nature and demonstrates the need for the right organisational attitude if stakeholder participation and sustainable infrastructure delivery are to be realised. This study may have important implications for policy and practice regarding stakeholder participation and sustainable infrastructure. However, limitations should be noted regarding the sample size.