Toward a Mature Body of Knowledge: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents to Infrastructure Project Environmental and Social Sustainability

Abstract

Despite a substantial body of literature addressing the environmental and social sustainability (ESS) of infrastructure projects, empirical findings regarding the effect sizes of ESS antecedents remain dispersed and ambiguous. This study develops a theoretical framework and conducts a meta-analysis of 78 empirical studies to investigate the relationships between ESS and its 11 antecedents. We propose a structured framework for understanding the complex drivers of ESS. The antecedents are categorized into three domains: project governance (encompassing both interorganizational governance and intraorganizational governance); internal resources and capabilities (including internal resources, organizational capabilities, employee-level cognition and organizational opportunity recognition); and institutional environment (characterized by coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures). Our findings reveal a significant positive association between all three antecedent categories and ESS outcomes. Moreover, national cultures and measurement of ESS demonstrate significant moderating effects on the relationships between ESS and its antecedents, underscoring the role of contextual contingencies. Notably, the results demonstrate that the antecedents are complementary in enhancing ESS, rather than acting in isolation. By aggregating and synthesizing existing research, this study contributes to the ESS and engineering management literature by quantifying the relationship between ESS and its antecedents, emphasizing the fundamental role of contingent factors, and establishing a cohesive conceptual framework that elucidates the mechanisms linking ESS and its antecedents.