The institutional shaping of global megaprojects: The case of the Lyon-Turin high-speed railway

We respond to the call for more research on the institutional forces that shape global megaprojects. We therefore address megaprojects as elaborate, temporally bracketed social systems made up of key actor groups pursuing interwoven individual and joint goals that may not always be aligned. This work illustrates the process by which goal-oriented actors, in this case international organizations, national governments, firms, and civil society, work through formal administrative structures and legal systems to create and transform their institutional contexts. Building from the findings of an extended case study of the Lyon-Turin high-speed railway megaproject, we firstly detail the overarching institutional environment that megaproject professionals build to realize success. Secondly, we categorize the variety of institutional practices that actors can use to shape global megaprojects. Thirdly, we describe the institutional shaping skills available to project managers for such cases. These findings broaden the scope of traditional project management approaches to megaprojects and provide rich detail in relation to the understanding and successful governance of megaprojects.