Organisational forms in Megaprojects: Understanding the ‘Special purpose Entities’ An ontological analysis

Megaprojects are characterised by complexity, uncertainty and a long record of poor delivering. Most of them are delivered with organisational forms called ‘Special Purpose Entities’ (SPEs). Despite the key role played by SPEs there is a huge gap in the project management literature about SPEs and their links with project performances. This paper paves the way to this research stream by building the ontology of SPEs, which is critical since there is a vast misperception about ‘what are’ and ‘what do’ and ‘why are necessary’ the SPEs. In particular, there are three main domains of studies: Legal, Financial and Management (predominantly project management). In the project management domain the SPEs have the main purposes of establish partnerships and enable the project financing.