Making or breaking alternative dispute resolution? Factors influencing its success in waste management conflicts

Various statistical techniques are used to test the influence that 17 characteristics of waste management disputes and/or alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes have on the degree of success of these methods. Four criteria are used to measure success: whether ADR produced a settlement, whether ADR saved time and money, the duration of the process, and whether the participants were satisfied with the process. Using case documentation and 123 interviews with ADR participants, data were obtained from 54 recent waste management conflicts in Ontario or Massachusetts, in which negotiation, facilitation, or mediation was employed. The article concludes that far fewer characteristics are actually important to ADR success than widely claimed in the literature. Overall, the extent of their influence was lower than expected. These findings are used to generate recommendations for screening waste management conflicts for ADR use and for designing more effective ADR processes.