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The purpose of this paper is to use an organizational design perspective to determine the scope of the state-of-the art of research into project-based organizations.

The paper follows a structured framework-based literature review approach. It uses an analytical framework from the organization design literature to assess 177 papers relevant to the design of the project-based organization that were published in four leading PM journals between 2008 and 2015. The authors determine which elements of organization design are covered in each paper and identify specific research themes for each of the element emerging from the literature. Finally, the authors examine the degree to which interdependencies among separate elements are addressed in the literature and discuss the most holistic papers in more details.

The results show that the literature on project-based organizations downplays broader organizational issues (such as organizational strategy, incentive schemes and performance management systems) while emphasizing research agenda inherited from research on single project management. In addition, the study highlights limited attention in the literature to the interdependence between separate design choices. Finally, it develops a research framework to map current themes in the literature and their relative importance and discusses a prospective research agenda.

Academic implications stem from looking at the project management literature from a fresh theoretical perspective and putting project-based organization as a whole in the focus. There is a great research potential in studying organization-wide aspects and interdependencies between various organization design choices in project-based organizations.

Reflective practitioners could benefit from a wider view on the project-based organization and its design. They could also use the developed framework in management discussions.

The paper offers a novel way of conceptualizing research on project-based organizations by linking it to an established stream within the field of organization theory and design.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative importance of project managers' attitudes towards their project and their leadership competences for achieving project success. Leadership competences were assessed as emotional, managerial, and intellectual competences (EQ, MQ, IQ, respectively) using the leadership dimensions questionnaire. Attitudes were assessed through the importance project managers assign to the project success criteria.

Building on the competency school of leadership theories, this study used 400 responses to a global web‐based questionnaire to identify the variances in attitudes and leadership competences of project managers and its relation to project success. ANOVA and regression analyses were used to identify how attitudes and leadership competences related to project results.

The paper identifies two types of results variances, these are, variances in project results and variances in business results. The former is caused by the attitudes of project managers, the latter is caused by a mixture of their attitude and emotional competences.

The results show the relative importance of specific attitudes and leadership competences for different types of project success.

The results indicate key areas for project manager development in order to move from mediocre to superior project results.

The paper builds on prior work in EQ, MQ, and IQ for project management and is the first study to identify a migration theory for the combination of attitudes and leadership competences for project success.

Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy, in terms of employment and their contribution to national wealth. A significant proportion of that contribution comes from innovation. SMEs are also the engine for future growth in the economy. Project management has a role to play in managing that innovation and growth. The purpose of this paper is to find the extent to which SMEs use projects, project management and the tools of project management, and to determine what differences there are by size of company and industry.

A questionnaire was developed to examine the extent to which small firms carry out projects, the resources they employ, the way they measure project success and the tools and techniques that they use. The questionnaire was answered by 280 companies from a range of industries and sizes.

It is found that companies of all sizes spend roughly the same proportion of turnover on projects, but the smaller the company, the smaller their projects, the less they use project management and its tools. Surprisingly, hi‐tech companies spend less on projects than lo‐tech or service companies, but have larger projects and use project management to a greater extent. They also use the gadgets of project management to a greater extent.

It is concluded that SMEs do require less‐bureaucratic versions of project management, perhaps with different tool sets than the more traditional versions designed for medium‐sized or large projects, and with different versions for medium, small and micro projects. For all firms, the important success factors are client consultation; planning, monitoring and control; and resource allocation are also identified.

The findings suggest the need for further research into the nature of those “lite” versions of project management designed for SMEs.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the differences between leadership competences of project managers and those of functional managers.

Leadership styles of 414 project managers were assessed using a validated research instrument, the leadership development questionnaire. The results were compared with the leadership profiles of over 1,000 functional managers, assessed with the same instrument. Quantitative analysis techniques were used to identify significant differences in the leadership styles of project managers when compared to functional managers. Correlations between leadership competences and leadership performance and follower commitment of project managers were compared with those of functional managers.

The paper finds that project managers score higher than functional managers on conscientiousness, sensitivity, and critical analysis, but they score lower on communication and development competencies. The correlation between the fit of project managers to their organizational context and their leadership performance and follower commitment was calculated.

Comparisons show differences in leadership competences for functional and project managers. Managers in general management roles should be trained to a lesser extent in managerial and intellectual competences than those in project management roles. However, solid training in emotional competences is needed for success in both managerial roles.

The differences in leadership competences of project managers and line managers from industry and government are identified.

This study examines scholarly communications in the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business (IJMPB) and identifies the journal's leading trends from 2008 to 2019.

This study analyzed a sample of 522 articles published in the IJMPB since its inception in 2008 until 2019. A set of bibliometric measures was used in the study to identify publication trends, citation structures, leading authors, institutions and countries. Additionally, analysis of research methodologies, industrial sectors and research themes of the articles was carried out through a rigorous content analysis. To examine the changes in journal expansion over time, the duration of publications (from 2008 to 2019) was divided into three subperiods.

The study findings show that 793 authors from 370 institutions and 58 countries contributed to the journal during this period. In terms of contributions, Australia and the Scandinavian countries are at the top, while Asian and African countries occupy a lower position. Moreover, among authors, Derek H.T. Walker was found to be the most prolific, with the highest weighting score and number of articles. Similarly, RMIT University of Australia emerged as the most productive institution. The articles were predominantly case studies followed by mixed methods (i.e. both surveys and interviews are used for data collection). Most of the articles in the sample were related to project management in general. However, several articles reported on construction, information technology (IT) and manufacturing projects.

This study is useful for the researcher community to understand the journal's scientific productivity. Further, it will also help identify dominant topics in the field of project management.

This is the first comprehensive review article presenting a general overview of the journal's leading trends and researchers since its inception in 2008.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for generic competencies based on lifecycle orientation of projects to support infrastructure managers (IMs) in India.

This study has reviewed literature on competency theories and their advancement of knowledge in management, construction and engineering projects. This study has applied exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to structure generic competencies founded on infrastructure practices in India. Further this study has applied confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test for confirmation on emerged dimensionality of the competence construct for IMs in India.

Using data collected from 175 usable questionnaires of managers serving in infrastructure firms in India for EFA followed by CFA, six generic competencies have been established in the domains of strategic, analytical, personal, managerial, professional and leadership dimensions significantly impacting competent performance.

This study has applied plausibility sampling and it presents only generic competencies for executives working in the infrastructure sector alone.

Due to the growth in number of executives to be employed in infrastructure firms in India, academic institutions in this subcontinent have gained momentum in offering programmes covering the field of infrastructure management. These institutions are believed to be covering domains of strategic, analytical, personal, managerial, professional and leadership dimensions for assuring competent performance of IMs in India.

Attention to these generic competencies can help IMs to contribute towards better performance, academic institutions to design curriculum, recruiters to acquire talent and executives to advance professionally.

Extant academic studies relating to generic competencies are available mostly in project and construction domains. There is a paucity of such academic studies in the domain of infrastructure.

The Rethinking Project Management (RPM) research agenda has been influential in multiple domains. These include industry, education and research. In response to the call for papers for this special issue, the purpose of this paper is to consider RPM with a particular focus on the human side of project management.

Prior to joining academia, the author worked as a project manager for 15 years. This provided an opportunity for the author to consider the influence of RPM from three viewpoints: project practitioner; project educator; and researcher in project management.

Resources originating from project management bodies of knowledge and professional associations relating to the human side of project management are limited. This serves to emphasize the importance of the RPM-inspired research and its influence on the teaching and education of project professionals. The RPM agenda has also served to endorse a research agenda which is wide ranging and one that seeks to better understand and support the human element of project management.

RPM has encouraged researchers to consider project management beyond classical project management and the iron triangle of time, cost and quality. In doing so, there has emerged a rich and diverse body of knowledge which underpins the human element of project management and positively impacts the skills development of project professionals and the practice of project management.

As the complexity and uncertainty of megaprojects make it difficult for traditional management models to address the difficulties, this paper aims to design a performance incentive contract through IT applications, thereby promoting the formation of an information-based governance mechanism for megaprojects and facilitating the transformation and upgrading of the construction management model of megaprojects to informatisation.

This paper introduced IT applications into the performance assessment and used the proportion of IT applications replacing traditional manual management as a variable. It analysed different replacement ratios to obtain the optimal solution for the change of contractors behaviours and promote the optimal performance incentive for the informatisation in megaprojects.

The results show that under the condition of the optimal replacement ratio, achieving the optimal state of a mutual win-win situation is possible for the benefit of both sides. The counter-intuitive finding is that the greater the replacement ratio is not, the better, but those other constraints are also taken into account.

This study enriched the research of the performance configuration incentive from a practical perspective. It extended the research framework of IT incentive mechanisms in the governance of megaprojects from a management theory perspective. It clarified the role of IT applications in incentive mechanisms and the design process of optimal incentive contracts under different performance incentive states. The incentives made the contractors work harder to meet the owner's requirements, and it could improve the efficiency of megaprojects, thus better achieving megaproject objectives.