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The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which user liaison behavior and outcome control influence the process performance of information technology (IT) projects and how the IT experience, behavior observability, and outcome measurability of user liaisons affect behavior and outcome control.

A research model that integrates the IT experience, behavior observability, outcome measurability, behavior and outcome control, and performance from the perspective of user liaisons is developed. Quantitative data are obtained from 63 completed IT projects. Partial least squares technique is used to evaluate the measurement model. Hypotheses are tested through hierarchical regression analysis.

User liaisons with high IT experience exhibit decreased behavior control but increased outcome control. The outcome control of user liaisons is effective in the process performance of IT projects, whereas their behavior control insignificantly affects performance. However, the behavior observability and outcome measurability of user liaisons strengthen the effectiveness of behavior and outcome control. The behavior and outcome control of user liaisons also vary across different industries and project types.

The results of this study highlight the joint effects of the IT experience, abilities, and control decisions of user liaisons. Although the outcome control of user liaisons is an appropriate control mechanism in IT projects in consideration of the strengths of these liaisons in business knowledge and their control expenditures, the behavior control of user liaisons may also be effective in process performance if these liaisons possess high levels of behavior observability and outcome measurability.

This research aspires to contribute in the area of exploration of the psychological traits evolving by practitioners within the project management profession. Specifically, it investigates whether there is any difference in optimism levels among experienced project management practitioners and newcomers in the profession.

The research used the life orientation test-revised (LOTR) (Scheier et al., 1994) to calculate respondents’ optimism scores. With these scores at hand, the researchers could then apply inferential statistics in order to deduce any differences observed among optimism score and the respondents’ characteristics (age, years of experience etc.).

Based on the results of this research, several demographic variables were shown to be statistically significant with optimism. These were (1) the number of years of experience the respondent had in managing projects, (2) working in a government organisation and (3) possessing specific project management certifications, all of which were found to adversely affect the respondent’s optimism score.

This research was unique in applying a well-known psychological test instrument (LOTR) to provide insight into the psychological impacts of a career as an information technology (IT) project manager. It is also highly likely that this correlation between the length of time working as a project manager and the adverse impact on their optimism would also apply to not just IT project managers but all experienced project managers.

Very little or no study has explored the predictors of behaviour and traits that determine digital entrepreneurship (DE) success. In response, the purpose of this paper is to present a research model that takes information technology (IT) culture as a theoretical lens and personal innovativeness and experience in IT projects as theoretical constructs to predict behaviour and traits that explain DE success.

Based on the literature review, the authors propose hypotheses and a research model. The authors tested the model using structural equation modelling (SEM), by surveying a sample of digital entrepreneurs operating in the Yabacon Valley, Lagos, Nigeria.

The results indicate that IT culture is an essential predictor of achieving DE success. The results also suggest that an entrepreneur's innovativeness in IT and experience in IT projects have significant negative and positive moderating effects on the relationship between IT culture and achieving DE success.

This paper taps into a new setting – DE context – by exploring the moderation effects of an entrepreneur's innovativeness in IT and experience in IT projects on the link between their IT culture and achieving a successful DE outcome.

This model offers managers an understanding of how IT culture and personal innovativeness and experience in IT work together to achieve DE success. Meanwhile, it sheds some light on managers to treat individuals with different levels of experience differently.

The authors theorise IT culture, personal innovativeness and experience in IT and show their effects on DE success, thus making an essential contribution to the information systems (ISs) and entrepreneurship research and practice. Moreover, the authors provide a novel methodology to conceptualise IT culture as a second-order hierarchical reflective construct by giving evidence that partial least squares (PLS) path modelling can assess a hierarchical model with moderating effects. This study answers scholars' call to construct more accurate explanations of innovation outcomes in an increasingly digital world.

The purpose of this paper is to study the recognition, application and understanding (status) of risk management in information technology (IT) projects in the South African public sector and thus contribute to the research gap.

A quantitative approach in the form of a survey design was adopted, with data being collected through a questionnaire. The results from the study are compared to the theory and practice of risk management before drawing conclusions on the status of risk management in IT projects.

The findings provide significant statistical support for the conclusion that risk management is being applied in current IT projects and that it is understood by the respective project clients.

Though risk management has been studied by several authors, very little is known about its status in the South African public sector. This study sheds light on its application in IT projects and its understanding by IT project clients.

The study findings encourage project executives to develop knowledge bases for risk management in IT projects, as well as the corresponding tools. This will ultimately assist in knowledge sharing, which increases chances of IT project success. Importantly, the study also highlights that the relationship between project clients and project teams can be accelerated through knowledge sharing and continuous project communication.

The research addresses one of the questions held by many scholars on the status of risk management in IT projects. It advances the recognition of risk management as a knowledge base and the practical implications thereof.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for assisting individuals in organisations to understand how to engage their senior stakeholders.

The main method for the research is a descriptive case study to test the theories described in the paper. The approach to the topic is based on reflection of the experiences of the author and colleagues, tied in with theories developed by the research of individuals in the field of leadership and organisational strategy. The result is a framework to provide guidance to practitioners working in organisations and a new approach for researchers in organisational management and stakeholder engagement.

While there are many journals and books devoted to assisting management to lead and motivate staff and team members, there is an absence of research and thinking on how staff and team members may gain the attention and support of their managers. This paper addresses this gap. The problem has been expressed in terms of the experiences of the author and colleagues and has been received with interest by those individuals who have attended workshops and presentations given by the author on this topic.

The solutions proposed are based on the experiences and reflection of the author and colleagues. Additional research needs to be conducted to further support the conclusions drawn from the ideas in this paper.

Significant changes should be made in the thinking of staff and team members in their approach to acquiring and maintaining the support of their managers. The recommended approach is a structured process of stakeholder engagement based on building and maintaining robust relationships with important stakeholders leading to the development of timely, appropriate and effective communication.

The paper and the ideas expressed within it take a different approach to most of the published literature in that they seek to view organisational culture and practice from the perspective of staff or team members (followers) and how they might proceed to address issues that require management attention and support.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relevant determinants of IT project decision making and their relevance in corporate practice.

The empiric analysis used in-depth expert interviews (n=18) as method for data collection and qualitative content analysis using evaluative categories for analysis.

Corporate practice is strongly influenced by descriptive decision making. There is only little use of normative decision models in decision making. In corporate practice little use is made of evaluations to analyze achieved project outputs and impacts to improve decision-making practice. This is the result of several evaluation barriers in organizations.

The sample is restricted to IT projects as the experts are responsible for IT project portfolio management. Also, an industry comparison is not included in the study.

The analysis shows that IT project decision making in corporate practice should include results from descriptive decision theory into project decision processes in corporate practice. More effort should be made in challenging project input data which is relevant for project decision making. By systematically including evaluations for relevant projects, the deviations between planned and achieved project impacts offer valuable feedback for estimators and decision makers.

The paper presents detailed analysis on decision variables and their relevance for IT project decision making in corporate practice. Critical aspects of decision making become clear, such as the aspects of evaluation barriers and the need to incorporate descriptive decision-making aspects into corporate decision processes.

The purpose of this paper is to unveil the perception of information technology (IT) professionals in Brazil regarding the success of IT projects.

By using the social representation theory and the words evocation technique, data were collected from IT professionals in Brazil, being subsequently processed so as to identify the central nucleus of the social representation of the success of IT projects for IT professionals in Brazil.

IT professionals in Brazil perceive the central core of the social representation of the success of IT projects as formed by “satisfaction” and “scope.” Furthermore, while a considerable amount of IT professionals in Brazil still consider cost, quality and time as relevant factors for the success of IT projects, they do not consider them the most important factors. Moreover, these professionals overlook the financial dimension of the success of IT projects.

Errors of inference may have been made during the categorization of the words evoked. Furthermore, the sample adopted refers exclusively to IT professionals in Brazil, which limits the universality of the work.

Organizations and project management associations must take into account the utmost importance of customer satisfaction for the success of IT projects. Besides, these associations must develop IT project success criteria that account for the financial, business and strategic impact of the success of IT projects in organizations.

IT project success is perceived by IT professionals in Brazil merely from the adherence to scope and customer satisfaction dimensions, leaving aside the importance of project profitability and the strategic impacts of same in the performance of organizations, as well as their future.

Information technology (IT) projects are renowned for their high failure rate. Risk management is an essential process for the successful delivery of IT projects. In‐depth interviews with IT professionals from leading firms in Western Australia were undertaken to determine how IT risks were managed in their projects. The respondents ranked 27 IT risks in terms of likelihood and consequences to identify the most important risks. The top five risks, in order, were: personnel shortfalls; unreasonable project schedule and budget; unrealistic expectations; incomplete requirements; and diminished window of opportunity due to late delivery of software. The respondents overwhelmingly applied the treatment strategy of risk reduction to manage these risks. Furthermore, these strategies were primarily project management processes, rather than technical processes. This demonstrates that project management is a risk management strategy. Scope, quality management, and human resource management were solutions applied to several risks. In particular, managing stakeholders’ expectations is a specific risk treatment that helps to manage several key IT risks.

This study aims to evaluate how stakeholders affect project risks by analyzing the connection between stakeholder management and risk management in the information technology (IT) project context.

Using the Delphi method, interviews with IT project experts were conducted to examine four factors concerning stakeholder management and define probabilities for three risk variables. The design of experiments (DoE) method was applied for the design of the research instrument and data analysis.

Stakeholder engagement and communication with stakeholders have significant influence on the occurrence of negative risks, opportunities and the development of contingency strategies. These results provide project leaders with relevant data that better guide actions toward stakeholders and enhance project success probability.

This study clarifies important aspects of two main project management areas – stakeholder and risk management – in the IT projects context. This research also presented an unusual application for the DoE method which allows the subjective variables analysis by statistical tools and enables to explore factor influences on real project situations.

The rapid advancement of digital technologies has fundamentally changed the competitive dynamics of the logistics service industry and forced incumbent logistics service providers (LSPs) to digitalize. As many LSPs still struggle in advancing their digital transformation (DT), the purpose of this study is to discover barriers and identify organizational elements and associated leading practices for DT success at LSPs.

This study utilizes a two-stage approach. Stage 1 is devoted to a literature review. Stage 2, based on multiple case studies, analyzes information collected across nine international and global LSPs.

This research derives a practice-based definition of DT in the logistics service industry, and it has identified five barriers, eight success factors and associated leading practices for DT. The main obstacles LSPs struggle with, are the complexity of the logistics network and lack of resources, while the main success factor is a leader having and executing a DT vision, and creating a supportive organizational culture.

The results contribute to the emerging field of DT within the logistics and supply chain management literature and provide insights for practitioners regarding how to effectively implement it in a complex industry.

The authors analyze DT from the perspective of LSPs, traditionally not viewed as innovative companies. This study compares their DT with that of other companies.