Social responsibility research within the context of megaproject management: Trends, gaps and opportunities

Abstract Due to its strategic significance, the implementation of megaprojects usually requires lots of social resources, which indicates that megaprojects have magnitude social responsibilities. Although researchers and practitioners have done a large amount of efforts within the domain of megaproject social responsibility, the relevant studies are still limited and scattered. Research into social responsibility of megaproject is not as well developed a field as other aspects of project management research. This study aims to review relevant studies in this area. A systematic process employing a four-phase search method, objective analysis and subjective analysis, helps to provide enough potential articles related to social responsibility in megaproject management, and to reduce arbitrariness and subjectivity involved in research topic analysis. Basic information such as publication year, type, and megaproject stage and type were analyzed to provide an overview of the research area. Cluster and word frequency analyses were used to explore classification of megaproject social responsibility research. As a result, three main research topics addressing the key questions were derived. In addition, four research gaps and the corresponding research agenda were identified. This detailed review provides the basis for further studies on social responsibilities within the context of megaproject management. The research trends and gaps can serve as motivation for researchers and practitioners to work on the next generation of the studies to support the sustainable development of megaprojects.