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The purpose of this paper is to further explore the relationship between new product development project teams and their workspace regarding the impact of the physical (space variety, indoor environmental quality, large meeting room, workstation) and sociotechnical environments (project commitment, IT environment) on their creativity and effectiveness.

The authors gathered data on an enterprise’s ten multidisciplinary teams operating in diverse workspaces by four means: over 40 interviews and four months of observation, secondary data and a survey with 645 responses.

For teams co-located on site and abroad, employees express that proximity in open space is paramount even considering the augmented density. The relationship between team effectiveness and team creativity is strong and bidirectional (correlationβ = 0.40****), but the patterns of relationship between these two variables and certain dimensions of the physical and sociotechnical environment are different. There is a positive and direct impact on team effectiveness, but to a lesser degree on creativity which, in turn, positively influences team effectiveness. Moreover, creativity intervenes (mediator variable) between project commitment, satisfaction with large meeting rooms and the IT environment on their relationship with team effectiveness. When the authors added a direct link between the variables and team effectiveness, the model explains 47.1 per cent of the variance.

The scope of the data is somewhat limited by the time that the company and its teams could allocate to this paper.

The arrangement of space reinforces employees’ sense of belonging to their team as measured by project commitment which along with satisfaction with the large meeting rooms and IT environment influence both team effectiveness and creativity. Managers could consider these three elements as levers for action. Space variety (or balanced layout) is also a way to support team creativity.

Even if open spaces are frequently used, the literature on creative spaces is dedicated mainly to an individual. This paper delivers some results and evidence on the concrete and simultaneous impacts of the workspaces on creativity and effectiveness of multidisciplinary new product development (NPD) team.

The coordination difficulties and risks inherent to business conduct are magnified in alliance relationships, posing a greater challenge for partners. The purpose of this paper is to propose real option perspective to examine how relational risk perceptions shape commitment behaviour in biotechnology alliance relationships.

The hypotheses are tested with survey data on 344 alliance relationships of European Biotechnology small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

This paper suggests that commitment can be seen as a real option, which reduces the degree of asymmetry of information concerning a partner's behaviour. The findings stress that endogenous uncertainty makes unilateral commitment more attractive, but the conclusion does not show that it enhance perceived relationship effectiveness for the party that unilaterally commits in a unique time period.

Nevertheless, within this paper the real options logic to alliance commitments was applied to single dyadic relationships given the alliances were considered an optional context. It would be worthwhile to insert the unilateral commitment decisions for one alliance in the overall portfolio of potential future opportunities.

From a managerial point‐of‐view, this paper shows that unilateral commitments can be seen as the expression of an optional behaviour. These commitments will not benefit the organization in the short term. Managers should adopt a holistic approach and consider all aspects of this problem.

This paper tests a model of unilateral commitment and provides empirical evidence to explain some managerial behaviors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational project management (OPM) as an integrative mechanism to mediate marketing and technology strategies for innovative performance. In addition, the moderating effects of firm size and turbulence on the relationships between marketing strategy, technology strategy, OPM, and innovative performance are examined.

The authors used empirical data derived from a survey of 5,000 firms worldwide in fast‐paced R&D intensive sectors. Respondents were typically chief technology officers or senior R&D managers. Fisher test and moderated regression analysis were applied on 715 usable questionnaires.

Evidence is found that OPM has a positive effect on innovative performance; and intervenes in the relationship between both strategies and innovative performance. The results also show some moderating effects of turbulence.

Marketing and technology strategies impact innovative performance, but part of this influence is established through OPM. Thus, OPM appears to be a good vehicle to translate strategies into concrete results. Project management can no longer be viewed as just a tool. Instead, OPM should be viewed as a decentralized, distributed function that is not innovative as such, but which supports innovation.

To date, the research has not explored OPM as an alternative whereby firms can integrate marketing and technology strategies to drive innovative performance, even if the firm's ability to generate a stream of innovations has become increasingly important. Therefore, probing the OPM links become an interesting search.

The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework and the preliminary results from a research programme on organisational project management. It aims at exploring how organisational project management can be conceptualised as a function within the organisation.

The methodological framework is based on a constructivist epistemology. This research programme contains two sequential phases based on a robust mixed method. The first phase of the qualitative approach, which is the focus of this paper, includes 20 interviews with executives and middle managers.

This approach is expected to be helpful in assessing the fit between organisational context, project management implementation and organisational strategy. The proposed theoretical framework draws from the exploration of organisational project management as a function. Preliminary results confirm that organisational project management can be best understood as a function within the organisation. Future research includes the second phase of this research programme based on a quantitative approach.

This research situates project management within the theoretical field of organisational design. It borrows from innovation literature the concept of function that serve as a foundation piece in the proposed framework, to integrate the various activities undertaken to manage multiple projects.

This research provides some evidence for the organisation design that serves articulating different activities undertaken for the management of multiple projects into a coherent function throughout the organisation.

This research explores what organisations really do when they face the challenges of managing multiple projects while at the same time pursuing their operations. Interviews with executives and middle managers clearly justify the identification of a function dedicated to the overall project management.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a viewpoint on the historical roots and future evolution of social media.

This paper provides a summary of the authors' previous research and experience in the area of social media.

This paper contains practical insights on the consumer use and business potential of social media applications.

This viewpoint provides insights to anyone who is interested in researching consumer use of social media or using social media in a managerial context. It will be particularly helpful to business leaders who are looking for answers in the fast‐moving area of social media applications.

This paper focuses on the decision by firms to commit and to invest unilaterally. It is concerned with the intriguing question as to whether unilateral commitments are mechanisms that help a firm manage risks in alliance relationships in a proactive manner.

The hypotheses are tested with survey data on 344 alliance relationships of European biotechnology small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

In this paper it is shown that unilateral commitments have a positive effect on perceived opportunistic behavior. However, the evidence suggests that, by creating a basis for exchange, relational capital moderates the relationship between unilateral commitments and the perception of opportunistic behavior.

This research adopts a static perspective. It is known that alliances evolve, and develop. Consequently, future research could extend and modify this study along this dimension and analyze the evolution of unilateral commitments through longitudinal research.

From a managerial point‐of‐view, this paper shows that motivation for commitments is different and their effects on risk perception can be contradictory according to the level of relational capital in the inter‐organizational relationship.

This paper is one of the few empirical studies that explored the concept of unilateral commitments and provided empirical evidence to highlight the significance of some managerial practices such as building trust.

The purpose of this paper is to explore consequences of the use of social media for idea generation.

The paper analyzes over 600 ideas submitted to a Slate‐Twitter contest to find the best short characterization of the American Declaration of Independence. These findings are then compared with those of Kornish and Ulrich, who analyzed idea‐contests in classroom settings.

In the Slate‐Twitter contest, repetition of ideas was rare while recombination was frequent. The evolution in the total number of unique ideas suggests that the contest became more focused over time. It also appears that ideas that are recognized as valuable attract similar ideas in turn.

Further checks will be needed with regard to the robustness of the findings. Furthermore, while the current analysis relies on peer review by participants to the contest to value submissions, results might be different if it were done on the basis of independent external reviews. Conceptually, the findings suggest that idea generation via social media has a more iterative character than previously analyzed forms of broadcast search. Future research could investigate what triggers more exploration and exploitation of ideas in this process.

For businesses, which are more and more encouraged to engage in open innovation, the analysis can serve as guide on the use of social media for information collection.

The paper provides a simple and effective method to monitor social media, which firms can use to their advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers comprising a special issue of the journal. The central theme of this special issue is “Projects and organisations: adding rungs to the ladder of understanding project management and its relationship with the organisation”. It is dedicated to research that explores and proposes different avenues to contribute to the development of the field of project management from this perspective of projects and organisations.

The Guest Editors solicited academics and collaborators of the Project Management Research Chair at the École des sciences de la gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG UQAM). Following a call for papers, five were selected that underwent a double‐blind peer‐review process.

The five selected articles each provide unique perspectives and insights. Viewed as a set, their contributions view projects and organisations from three main perspectives: project management governance issues; management of innovative and IT projects; and processes, practices and tools. The set brings new empirical data, ideas and theoretical frameworks to bear that justify the extension of the current project management paradigm, and suggest that project management be viewed as a critical function of the organisation.

The set of papers encourages scholars to continue to examine organisational concerns related to project management with the goal of explaining and enhancing important relationships among organisational phenomena and the project management field.

By bringing this special issue together, the Editor played an important role in adding rungs to the ladder of understanding project management and its relationship with the organisation.

The purpose of this descriptive study is to focus on the salient features of perceived sociability and perceived usability that motivates the members to participate repeatedly on social networking online community web site. The paper proposes that each individual relegate different importance on the dimensions of usability and sociability in terms of the quest of knowledge versus causal knowledge.

A self‐designed questionnaire administered among 600 sample respondents (users of Facebook.com) through online survey method. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine and improve the usability of the measurement tool followed by structural equation modelling to test the proposed framework.

The findings indicate that ease of use, behaviour and interaction is been given an equal level of importance by both the groups, while satisfaction is given the least consideration.

The community used to study the flow of the information belongs to the single general purpose category. Also the target sample size is restricted to active online users belonging to the category of professionals from India.

The results of this research work will provide a framework of user‐centric strategy for the online managers to maintain the dual directional flow of information, i.e. seeking and contributing, and achieve online success.

The study contributes to the existing knowledge of social networking process on online community web site promoting user participation through continuous flow of information.