Caption: Large, capital-intensive, global construction projects, such as trans-national pipelines, subway systems and power plants, are "institutionally complex" because they bring together large numbers of participants and stakeholders from across multiple-sectors and multiple-nations. Formal participants include government agencies, lenders, financiers, planners, designers, engineers, and contractors. Stakeholders include local interest groups and sectoral, national, and trans-national non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Each party brings to the project its own unique set of institutions -- tacit beliefs and expectations, informal values and norms, and formal rules and regulations -- resulting in a tremendous level of institutional complexity.

Reference: Mahalignam, Ashwin (2005) Doctoral Dissertation Submitted to Stanford University.