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Organizations are full of contradictions and leadership dilemmas. Managers often face challenges such as selecting between two contradicting options such that which one is more important can hardly be judged. To manage contradicting dynamics, today’s managers can adopt the paradoxical leadership approach. We build a theoretical model to investigate the influence of paradoxical leadership on multi-dimensional project agility (proactivity, adaptability, and resilience), and multi-dimensional project success (management, investment, and ownership success).

Drawing on survey-based data from the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) megaproject (N = 209), we performed covariance-based structural equation modeling to test the conceptual model.

The findings show that (1) paradoxical leadership has a significant positive impact on megaproject success, (2) paradoxical leadership has a significant positive influence on project agility, (3) project agility has a significant positive effect on megaproject success, and (4) project agility has a significant effect that mediates the link between paradoxical leadership and megaproject success. This research provides a theoretical and practical comprehension of paradoxical leadership with a new perspective on megaprojects.

This study provides an extension of the existing studies on paradoxical leadership and identifies the role of contradicting dynamics and their impact on multiple facets of megaproject success. It not only clarifies the relationship between paradoxical leadership and megaproject success, but also identifies the mediating role of project agility that can play an effective role in mobilizing success in megaprojects.

This study aims to investigate the factors influencing the social responsibility performance of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) megaprojects. Specifically, it examines the role of isomorphic pressures and the joint influence of perceived benefits and top management support on megaproject social responsibility performance (MSRP).

Drawing from institutional theory, social exchange theory, and top management literature, this study established a conceptual model featuring eleven hypotheses. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was administered to collect data from 238 actively engaged participants in BRI megaprojects. Structural Equation Modelling was utilised to analyse the data.

The empirical findings indicate that mimetic and coercive pressures positively influence MSRP. Perceived benefits and top management support significantly enhance MSRP. Moreover, perceived benefits and top management support partially mediate the effects of coercive and mimetic pressures. However, when it comes to normative pressures, their impact on MSRP is solely channelled through the support of top management.

This study is one of the early endeavours to explore the factors influencing the social responsibility performance of BRI megaprojects. It sheds light on the interplay between external pressures and internal factors in shaping social responsibility efforts in these projects. These findings are of particular significance for BRI actors and stakeholders, offering guidance for enhancing social responsibility strategies within the context of BRI megaprojects.

This study aims to obtain governance strategies for managing the complexity of megaprojects by analyzing the impact of individual factors and their configurations using the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method and to provide references for project managers.

With the continuous development of the economy, society and construction industry, the number and scale of megaprojects are increasing, and the complexity is becoming serious. Based on the relevant literature, the factors affecting the complexity of megaprojects are determined through case analysis, and the paths of factors affecting the complexity are constructed for megaprojects. Then, the fsQCA method is used to analyze the factors affecting the complexity of megaprojects through 245 valid questionnaires from project engineers in this study.

The results support the correlation between the complexity factors of megaprojects, with six histological paths leading to high complexity and seven histological paths leading to low complexity.

It breaks the limitations of the traditional project complexity field through a “configuration perspective” and concludes that megaproject complexity is a synergistic effect of multiple factors. The study is important for enriching the theory of megaproject complexity and providing complexity governance strategies for managers in megaproject decision-making.

Inter-organizational collaboration is the organizational guarantee and key link to achieve the goals of megaproject management. Project governance has always played an important role in the construction of megaprojects, but the relationship between project governance and organizational collaboration is unclear. The purpose of this study is to explore the role paths of different project governance mechanisms in influencing the collaborative behaviors of stakeholders and collaborative performance and to elucidate the mechanism of project governance on inter-organizational collaboration.

A conceptual framework was developed based on a comprehensive literature review, termed the structural equation model (SEM). The hypotheses of the model were tested based on data obtained from a questionnaire survey of 235 experts with experience in megaprojects within the construction industry in China.

The results show that project governance positively contributes to the collaborative behavior of megaproject stakeholders and the collaborative performance of the project team. Collaborative behavior acts as a partial mediator between project governance and the collaborative performance of the megaproject inter-organization alliance. The complexity of the project modulates the relationship between the governance mechanism of the project and the collaborative behavior of the stakeholders, which affects the collaborative performance of the megaproject inter-organization alliance.

The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for promoting positive collaborative behavior among stakeholders in megaproject selection and improving the collaborative performance of megaproject inter-organization alliances.

Existing research on innovation has mainly focused on how to promote technological innovation in megaprojects and management innovation (MI) in megaprojects is still an unknown research field. The purposes of this study are to examine the effect of MI on megaproject performance and how the top management team (TMT) regulatory focus affects the use of MI in projects. At the same time, the moderating effects of project uncertainties are also tested.

On the basis of an explorative/exploitative ambidextrous analysis framework, this study divides MI into two dimensions: explorative and exploitative MI, and integrates the theoretical perspectives of the TMT regulatory focus and project uncertainties into a research model. Taking 314 responses from megaprojects’ TMTs in China as research data, this study empirically tests the above model.

Results show that exploratory MI has a U-shaped relationship with megaproject performance; whereas exploitative MI has an inverted U-shaped relationship with megaproject performance. The TMT promotion focus has a positive effect on exploratory and exploitative MI; and the TMT prevention focus has a negative effect on exploratory MI but has a positive effect on exploitative MI. Project uncertainties have a positive moderating effect on the positive relationship between TMT promotion focus and exploratory MI, whereas it has a negative moderating effect on the negative relationship between the TMT prevention focus and exploratory MI.

By empirically measuring the relationship between two types of MIs and megaproject performance, this study clarifies the differential mechanism of the effect of different MIs on megaproject performance. This study also examines the MI of megaprojects from the perspective of the TMT regulatory focus and expounds how changes in uncertainties affect the relationship between the TMT regulatory focus and MI.

Transport megaprojects often struggle to offer social value (SV) that meets local communities' needs. This problem is embedded in how local communities' views are captured and incorporated into SV plans through local community engagement (LCE). By problematising the literature, this article aims to identify LCE issues and their impacts on SV plans at the front-end of transport megaprojects.

The theoretical lens of the study is the practice theory developed by Schatzki (2016, 2005). The authors conceptualised LCE as a practice and conducted 32 semi-structured interviews with UK practitioners. The authors collected data in three steps from three types of practitioners involved in LCE practice and SV planning: project managers, LCE experts and SV experts.

The authors identified 18 LCE issues with thematic analysis and clustered them into five themes. These issues impact LCE with five mechanisms. Findings show that a weak link between LCE and SV plans due to the issues reduces LCE to a tick-box exercise and presents a distorted view of local communities. This reduces SV plans to the bare minimum for project approval instead of offering relevant SV to local communities. Addressing the issues goes beyond changing the approach of project teams to engagement (from instrumental to normative) and requires changing the practices.

For the first time, the study uses practice theory to conceptualise LCE as a practice, following the notion of project as practice. The study problematises the literature to address the under-represented link between LCE and SV plans.

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.

Megaprojects are large-scale and long-term investments. Three pillars of sustainable construction objectives, namely, social, environmental and economic, should be integrated into megaproject risk management to ensure long-term success. A risk assessment method, Risk Assessment Method for Sustainable Construction Objectives in Megaprojects (RAMSCOM), was developed for this purpose.

RAMSCOM was developed based on the latest concepts and identifying relevant and critical sustainability objectives and risks through an extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Cross-Impact Analysis (CIA) were used to determine and quantify the threats regarding the importance of the sustainability objectives. The applicability of RAMSCOM was demonstrated on a real megaproject.

The findings revealed that sustainability risk assessment requires integration of economic, environmental, social objectives and analysis of cross-impacts of risk factors. Visualization of interrelated threats, vulnerabilities and objectives has a potential to support risk mitigation decisions to achieve sustainability goals.

The method has been developed based on the findings from a detailed literature survey on sustainability objectives and risks. RAMSCOM was tested on a single project with the assistance of three experts' views. Findings from the case project cannot be directly generalised for various megaprojects considering the unique nature of megaprojects.

Decision-makers can use RAMSCOM to assess sustainability risks in megaprojects and develop risk management plans for the most vulnerable and important sustainable objectives in a visual and quantified approach to ensure megaproject's sustainability in the long-term.

The theoretical contribution is a novel risk assessment method that integrates all dimensions of sustainability and quantifies the vulnerability of sustainability objectives considering their priorities, interrelations and risks. Sustainability dimensions, objectives and risks used in RAMSCOM can be useful for other researchers aiming to develop similar methods.

Megaprojects are financially large and complex in scope, which require engagement of stakeholders from various institution and communities. With increased concerns from stakeholders on sustainability related issues, from environmental to socio-economic perspective, managing megaprojects has become quite challenging. Hence, there should be proactive approaches in active engagement of stakeholders from the start of the projects to overcome such issues. Currently, there is a knowledge gap on stakeholder management strategies specific to megaprojects on managing sustainability issues.

This research has adopted review of secondary data from case studies to identify stakeholder management challenges and strategies in megaprojects around Sydney area. The documents related to three different projects were reviewed and data were collected through qualitative content analysis and coding with use of NVivo software for within case analysis and was followed by thematic approach for cross case analysis.

Every case study project's sustainability-related stakeholder issues are more similar than different to others. Differences are mostly in terms of intensity of impact of any issue in a particular project, and/or intensity of impact at certain phase of any project. Moreover, significant sectors and strategies have been identified for key focus to manage environment and socioeconomic issues. Whatever be the strategies, in case of megaprojects, they need to be mostly proactive.

This research has extended the knowledge on stakeholder management, in relation to managing sustainability-related issues of megaprojects during their design, construction and operation phases. This research offers useful strategies for project teams of megaprojects to develop a proactive stakeholder management plan, addressing unavoidable sustainability challenges.

Megaproject performance measurement (MPM) has received great attention in the project management community, but it primarily focused on the design of performance measures or frameworks. Yet, whether MPM utilization can improve megaproject performance and how project actors use MPM to improve megaproject performance is less well understood. This study aims to investigate whether and how the use of MPM can contribute to better megaproject performance.

Through the lens of the lever of control, this study conceptualizes MPM utilization as diagnostic use and interactive use. A holistic research model and related hypotheses integrating MPM use, project complexity and megaproject performance were established. The model was validated using a partial square-structural equation modeling method.

Based on 214-megaproject data collected through a questionnaire survey in China, the results show positive effects of diagnostic use and interactive use on megaproject performance. Both, however, have substitutional interaction effects. The moderating results suggest that the higher project complexity weakens the positive effects of MPM utilization on megaproject performance.

This study advances megaprojects performance measurement and management literature by validating the value of MPM utilization on performance. It also presents practical implications for project managers to improve performance by appropriate MPM utilization.