International Journal of Project Management最新文献

Implementing strategy through an innovation project portfolio starts with project portfolio formation. The routine of project portfolio formation is especially influential, as it includes identifying, screening, and prioritizing the projects that shape the eventual portfolio. Comprehensive understanding of the project portfolio formation routine is important for addressing the simultaneous pressures for continuity and renewal when implementing innovation strategy. This study explores portfolio actors’ behavioral patterns in the project portfolio formation routine to understand their contextuality and implications on innovation strategy implementation. A multiple-case study with innovative companies reveals a comprehensive framework of governing and empowering actions and organization-specific patterns of actions. Differences between organizations in the combination of governing and empowering actions may be explained by innovation types, and the size and history of the organization. The behavioral patterns of project portfolio formation can provide organizations with a foundation for implementing both continuity- and renewal-oriented innovation strategies.

Megaprojects are commonly exposed to multiple, conflicting institutional demands, making them notoriously difficult to manage. Drawing on organizational institutional theory, the paper explores organizational responses to deal with institutional complexity on a transnational pipeline project spanning China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. The findings show how conflicting institutional demands across the involved countries were dealt with through the establishment of distinct organizational strategies and structures when a large Chinese petroleum organization entered into two separate project companies, each responsible for a section of the pipeline. One relied on a manipulation strategy where institutional complexity was reconciled by selectively coupling to certain institutional demands. The other handled competing demands through a compromise strategy involving the creation of a compartmentalized organizational structure. While these results confirm findings from prior work that the nature and internal representation of demands exerted on an organization shape its response strategy, we contribute further by showing how distinct contextual characteristics of megaprojects influence the specific responses adopted to deal with institutional complexity.

Empathy is receiving increasing attention as it can contribute to the collaboration and connectedness required for today's global challenges. A similar trend reveals itself at the scale of project management, given the change from technological to integration-driven challenges in projects. The necessary integrated approach affects the key competencies sought in project team participants. Since empathy enhances one's feeling for and understanding of the project participants’ interests, it could support the integration assignment. Therefore, focusing on the Dutch civil engineering industry, this study investigated whether the project team's empathic ability drives project performance. The results suggest a positive correlation between the team's empathic abilities and performance. Additionally, the study provides insights into the industry's current level of empathic ability, prompting the conclusion that there is room to improve performance by increasing the project teams’ empathic abilities.

Transferring knowledge across strategic projects is challenging. This study investigates how informal practices of members of the parent organization shape the transfer of knowledge across strategic projects. This was addressed through an in-depth case study of strategic projects in an innovation trajectory of a large public organization aiming to accelerate to transition towards circular construction. We identified five disabling practices: shaming and blaming, disconnecting, holding onto the department and project boundaries, fostering one-way relationships and avoiding internal conflict. Furthermore, we identified three enabling practices: supporting circular projects, sharing similarities across projects and integral visioning. The results contribute to the cross-project knowledge transfer literature by showing how members of partner organizations can enable or disable knowledge transfer across strategic projects. Furthermore, the results contribute to the strategic project literature by illuminating the importance of informal practices of members of the parent organization.

The discourse of social organizing in projects centres on temporary-permanent relationships across projects and between projects and embedded organizations. Less explored are temporary-temporary relationships within project ecologies. We investigate the practice of collaborative consumption in project ecologies as a form of such relationships. Specifically, we focus on tensions arising from contradictory logics of cooperation and competition in these temporary and ad-hoc strategic interactions. Based on the case of the construction industry, our results elaborate how coopetitive tensions shape the extent and forms of these ad-hoc temporary interactions among stakeholders to guide innovation in project supply chains. Beyond the limitations of broad strategic collaborations, these innovations promote the prospects for joint specializations, collective commitments, strategic resource dependences and more permeable organizational boundaries. But organizing these ad-hoc strategic interactions requires additional regulatory frameworks, as well as alternative artifacts, such as a digital platform for brokering structural holes in information relating supply and demand. Our study extends the stakeholder discourse in project studies through empirical research into emerging forms of temporary ad-hoc stakeholder interactions rather than broad strategic collaborations. Understanding these ad-hoc interactions and associated coopetitive tensions instigates a wider range of social organizing in project ecologies.

The interplay of contractual and relational governance has shown inconclusive effects on project performance, resulting in the complements versus substitutes debate. Adding nuance to this debate, this study takes a configurational perspective and examines their combined effects by conceptualizing contractual governance as design (control, coordination, and adaptation functions) and enforcement, and relational governance as trust. A qualitative comparative analysis of survey data collected from international construction projects undertaken by Chinese contractors reveals multiple pathways for high or low project performance. Contractual coordination and trust are the most critical factors, with their synergistic application proving beneficial regardless of other conditions. Although contractual governance alone can ensure high performance, trust must operate in tandem with contract-based mechanisms. Strict contract enforcement without sufficient trust results in poor performance. By connecting the transaction cost theory and social exchange theory, this study deepens the understanding of interrelations between project governance mechanisms and enhances project performance.

Modern organizational transformations increasingly rely on change programs led by the introduction of new information technology. Managing these information technology-based change programs within project-based organizations presents unique challenges due to the division between ongoing business processes and temporary project activities. This study uses an institutional logics perspective to understand how a project-based organizational context shaped and was shaped by an information technology-based change program. Through a three-year longitudinal case study on the interaction between a project-based organization and its information technology program, our findings reveal that institutional logics prevailing in the project-based organization significantly influenced the program's implementation. In turn, the information technology program acted as a catalyst for change, creating a competitive environment where two primarily segmented logics—a project organizing logic and an asset management logic—competed for dominance. The conflict between these logics led to new beliefs, values, and practices being dominant, marking a shift in balance between the two logics. Our findings contribute to increasing understanding of the dynamic interplay between project-based organizations and information technology-based change programs, shedding light on their mutual evolution over time and offering a deeper understanding of transformative change within project-based organizations.

The selection of an appropriate research design that provides a balance between rigor and relevance is a critical decision for scholars. The objective of this paper is to discuss the Design Science Research approach in project management research. The paper introduces the theoretical foundations of Design Science Research, its potential for co-creating new knowledge with practitioners, its rigor and relevance, and its challenges. It then provides examples of successful Design Science Research papers in project management research and implications for project management scholars who consider using this approach in their research.