Knowledge transfers and project-based learning in large scale infrastructure development projects: an exploratory and comparative ex-post analysis

In order to apprehend how employees (managers and engineers) active in state-owned enterprises (SOE) learn from and share working experience in large-scale infrastructure development projects, this research analyses the project-based knowledge transfer and learning that occurred in two complex infrastructure (PPP) projects. Using face-to-face interviews with both internal and external project participants, an ex-post comparative analysis is made of two large-scale Belgian rail infrastructure projects. The results indicate that transferring the public sector project teams from one project to another allows for inter-project learning to take place. The knowledge transfers from the project setting to the state-owned enterprise are mainly the transfer of individual and tacit knowledge focussing more on (inter-) personal and individual learning, than on organisational learning. The latter is caused by the limited perceived strategic value of the researched projects, because of their public-private partnership (PPP) finance structure. As such, project-based organisational learning for these large-scale infrastructure (LSI) projects remains underdeveloped.