“This is MY PhD project… or is it?” Understanding perceived doctoral project ownership through psychological ownership mapping

Abstract

This paper investigates PhD student's perceived feeling of project ownership and how it influences their project management. Drawing on psychological ownership (PO) theory and the PO mapping method, this study identifies distinct project ownership paths among students, revealing how project engagement can be improved. The findings demonstrate the importance of carefully considered and timely student-supervisor expectation discussions to help influence project ownership. To this end, the paper offers several routes of ownership that can influence project ownership among PhD students.