Analysis of Stakeholder Concerns at Different Times of Construction Projects Using Social Network Analysis (SNA)

Success in the projects will not be achieved without analyzing the key stakeholder concerns. Indeed, against such concerns will result in higher project costs. One of the most important steps in stakeholder management is paying attention to the stakeholders' concerns and planning how to respond to them. Stakeholders and their concerns change with time throughout execution of projects. The purpose of this research was to identify and analyze stakeholders of road construction projects and their concerns using social network analysis (SNA) method. First, the stakeholders and their concerns were identified and evaluated. Next, using the Net Miner four network software, their concerns were analyzed and assessed at different times of their projects. Finally, the main challenges involving stakeholders were identified and classified in different groups and some strategies were proposed for responding to them. According to the obtained results, the lack of comprehensive environmental studies, the presence of adverse effects of the project performance on the environment and inaccurate estimates of cost, as well as completion time of the project were the major concerns of project stakeholders. In the initiation phase of every project, the challenges were more related to the environmental and political problems affecting the project. In the planning phase, concerns were more related to the selection of appropriate contractors and methods with their sufficient experiences and knowledge in various fields, such as environmental problems and project budgeting, etc. In the execution phase of the projects, foreign policy pressures and sanctions, high inflation, and qualities of observing and implementing the environmental rules and public discontent were among stakeholders' key challenging concerns.