Project risk: Theoretical concepts and stakeholders' perspectives

•Risk perspectives of Indonesian stakeholders and assumptions by theories differ.•Risk is widely viewed by Indonesian project practitioners from the negative domain.•Risky decision is seen by practitioners as contextually dependent.•Current study share similar findings with previous ones in developed countries.

Past empirical studies on risk conceptions in general management of developed countries provide compelling evidence to the discrepancy between practitioners' perspectives on ‘risk’ and the principles of the normative decision theory on which risk analysis tools are based. This study provides a similar investigation for a specific context of project management within a developing country setting. It aims at identifying stakeholders' perspectives on project risks in Indonesia and comparing them against assumptions of rational, normative theories and past findings from general management in developed countries. Two separate cross-sectional surveys were carried out with respondents composed of project contractors (n = 96, response rate = 38.4%) and clients (n = 99, rate = 69.7%), respectively. Empirical results identify significant gaps of risk-related concepts between project stakeholders' perspectives and the rational assumptions of the normative decision theories. For instance, risk is widely viewed by practitioners from the negative domain while the rational theory would suggest a more neutral perspective of risk. The pattern of findings is similar to those from previous empirical studies of developed countries within a general management context.