The Objective Value of Subjective Value in project design negotiations

ABSTRACTDesign in infrastructure public–private partnerships (P3s) involves integrative bargaining. This research looks at the cognitive and psychosocial experience of designers as the dependent variable in such design negotiations. In this study, we associate designers’ Subjective Value (SV) outcomes – psychosocial effects such as trust and rapport – with Objective Value (OV) outcomes – economic payoffs of technical design choices. We conducted a design negotiation exercise with treatment and control settings for the conceptual design of a large infrastructure P3 project. Both the public and private participant’s objectives were represented in the exercise. The setup tested the effects of two design mechanisms, communication (dialogue) and common knowledge (reduced information asymmetry) on the understanding and SV perceptions of a large number of designers. In particular, we addressed how these designers perceived their understanding of the complex design problem evolve during the design negotiation exe...