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The paper provides a step-by-step guide in the guise of a roadmap for service improvement initiatives using importance performance map analysis (IPMA).

To empirically illustrate how IPMA can be applied to any service industry, three sectors are considered; sports and fitness (study A), hospitality (study B) and higher education (study C). Following the proper selection of measuring instruments and their evaluation using structural equation modeling-partial least squares (Smart-PLS), IPMA is applied to identify those attributes having strong total effects (high importance) over the targeted construct (satisfaction) but which also have low average latent variable scores (low performance).

For sports and fitness (study A), the physical aspects and programme quality require managerial attention. For the hospitability sector (study B), it is service commitment, interaction quality and internal sense of happiness. Whereas for higher education (study C), it is administrative quality as well as the element of transformative quality, namely the university’s role in adding to its students’ emotional stability, which needs the attention of the top management.

This study provides researchers and practitioners with a roadmap for applying PLS-SEM and IPMA for continuous service quality improvement. The roadmap extends upon Ringle and Sarstedt’s (2016) work. It highlights critical decisions that need to be considered in the pre-analytical stages of the IPMA application, i.e. at the research design phase in selecting the most appropriate service quality measurement model specifications. It not only contributes to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence to advance theory development in the quality management field but also has implications for the practitioners in any service sector on where to focus their attention for an effective service improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) and explain how to use it in the context of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). A case study, drawing on the IPMA module implemented in the SmartPLS 3 software, illustrates the results generation and interpretation.

The explications first address the principles of the IPMA and introduce a systematic procedure for its use, followed by a detailed discussion of each step. Finally, a case study on the use of technology shows how to apply the IPMA in empirical PLS-SEM studies.

The IPMA gives researchers the opportunity to enrich their PLS-SEM analysis and, thereby, gain additional results and findings. More specifically, instead of only analyzing the path coefficients (i.e. the importance dimension), the IPMA also considers the average value of the latent variables and their indicators (i.e. performance dimension).

An IPMA is tied to certain requirements, which relate to the measurement scales, variable coding, and indicator weights estimates. Moreover, the IPMA presumes linear relationships. This research does not address the computation and interpretation of non-linear dependencies.

The IPMA is particularly useful for generating additional findings and conclusions by combining the analysis of the importance and performance dimensions in practical PLS-SEM applications. Thereby, the IPMA allows for prioritizing constructs to improve a certain target construct. Expanding the analysis to the indicator level facilitates identifying the most important areas of specific actions. These results are, for example, particularly important in practical studies identifying the differing impacts that certain construct dimensions have on phenomena such as technology acceptance, corporate reputation, or customer satisfaction.

This paper is the first to offer researchers a tutorial and annotated example of an IPMA. Based on a state-of-the-art review of the technique and a detailed explanation of the method, this paper introduces a systematic procedure for running an IPMA. A case study illustrates the analysis, using the SmartPLS 3 software.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the concepts of two new approaches offered by IPMA through its internationally widespread member associations: IPMA Delta® for assessing and developing project management maturity and the IPMA Organisational Competence Baseline (OCB), acting as reference model for IPMA Delta. In addition to this description, a case study reveals insights in the usage of IPMA Delta and the benefits realized through such a holistic assessment of project management maturity.

The paper takes the form of a conceptual paper and a case study.

IPMA Delta is a holistic assessment of the organisational competence in managing projects. Three modules are used to assess the competence of selected individuals, the application of project management in selected projects and the organisation's approach of managing projects. Through the assessment, an organisation gets insights in regard to the current maturity and the Delta to a desired target state. Recommendations drive the continuous development of organisational competences in managing projects, which is shown in the case of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. This case study also reveals insights in the benefits realized through such a holistic maturity assessment.

This conceptual paper builds on organisational competence in managing projects, a new concept in the world of maturity models offering a holistic view beyond processes.

The main objectives of this study are to (1) explore underlying components and attributes of travel applications that influence traveler usage intention and (2) investigate which contents should be prioritized to increase the efficiency of travel apps.

This study uses importance–performance map analysis (IPMA) with an innovative approach (i.e. generalized structured component analysis [GSCA]) to identify components and attributes that have relatively high and low significance for the target construct (i.e. travel app's usage intention).

An integrated model influenced by three components (i.e. entertainment, travel review and medical and emergency information is proposed to have an impact on travelers' intention to use travel apps). The IPMA results indicate that restaurant and shopping receive the utmost emphasis from Thai domestic tourists who use travel apps, and sports and attraction are regarded as less critical attributes.

The app content scales identified in this study can be used as a basic framework for app developers, service providers and tourism authorities to design a travel app. The IPMA results also help concerned practitioners to make decisions on which contents/attributes should be incorporated and improved.

This study implements IPMA using a GSCA estimator to present the standard results reporting on the path coefficients of each of the attributes of travel app services. The results not only contribute to the improvement of app features and services, but also suggest an innovative approach for generating pertinent IPMA results with GSCA, thus contributing to the theoretical and methodological advancement in hospitality and tourism areas.

This study assesses the impact of marital status towards customer-centric measures in a Canadian ski resort using the importance-performance map analysis (IPMA) as the analytical framework. For the purpose of this paper, the three groups that were assessed included singles, partnership without children and partnership with children as marital status indicators. From the theoretical and especially managerial point of view, knowing the importance and the performance of the relevant ski resort-related customer-centric perceptions is of key importance.

A survey was completed to assess customer-centric measures including customer satisfaction, repurchase intent, value for money, willingness to recommend, overall performance in terms of meeting expectations, relationship quality and skiing service quality. An IPMA was conducted with partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to assess the importance-performance perceptions of the three marital status groups.

The results indicated that for five of the seven customer-centric measures, there were significant differences between the marital status groups. Overall, singles appeared to have the lowest values in customer-centric measures, whereas respondents living in partnership with children had the highest. This was also the case with the value for money perceptions, although the cost for the ski resort visit was likely to be the highest for the respondents living in partnership with children. There were also differences between the marital status groups in terms of the importance-performance evaluations.

Results of this research have implications for ski resort management as the three marital status groups appear to perceive the customer-centric measures quite differently in the IPMA framework.

Effective leaders have emerged as the cornerstone of project success. The major purpose of this paper is to propose a framework to categorize and prioritize leadership competencies for project managers in megaprojects.

In the first stage, this study utilizes PMBOK 6th Edition, IPMA ICB 4.0 frameworks to develop a hierarchy-based four clusters of leadership competencies. In the second stage, a Fuzzy-AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) approach was employed to prioritize the leadership competencies for an organization dealing in megaprojects. Finally, using ordinal priority approach (OPA), the results of Fuzzy-AHP method are validated.

Based on PMBOK, IPMA and literature, the proposed framework deduced twenty-four leadership competencies and grouped them in four clusters. The Fuzzy-AHP results indicate that among clusters, people competencies cluster is ranked most important, followed by perspective, practice, and innovation competencies. Considering the sub-categories and global weights, culture/values, governance, interpersonal skills, and development and growth emerged as the most important leadership competencies. The results from OPA corroborate the findings of Fuzzy-AHP method.

Megaprojects are characterized by massive investments and extensive economic and social impact. The proposed framework would be an important aid for policymakers to develop suitable strategies and programs to inculcate leadership competencies that would lead to successful project managers and improved project performance.

The need for this research stems from the need to integrate popular project management frameworks in leadership competencies development in project based organizations. The proposed integrated framework, based on PMBOK 6th Edition and IPMA ICB 4.0 competency frameworks, is an original contribution to understand and prioritize leadership competencies for megaproject success.

The professionalization of project management (PM) profession has developed differently according to the different environments in which it has been introduced. The purpose of this paper is to examine an example of this professional project (Italy) with this research question: “what have been the professionalization strategies of PM professional associations within Italian field?”

The authors develop a qualitative case study made up of semi-structured interviews and archival data.

The analysis demonstrates how PM in Italy has embarked on a clear upward trajectory in terms of its occupational size, economic significance and institutional development. However, the development of PM in Italy considerably lags behind Anglo-Saxon countries. The authors also identify three main strategies through which this professionalization project is being accomplished (see Section 5). These are corporate engagement, expanding membership and institutional recognition.

The study reviews the professionalization of PM in Italy. This is not a comparative study, but rather highlights Italian PM professionalization. Moreover, the authors expect significant findings could be reached with a comparable research across different national contexts.

This work constitutes the first detailed and comprehensive study in the field of PM within the Italian context.