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The purpose of this paper is to reengineer the process of cost management in large projects.

Considering the fact most large projects overrun their budgets because of the long time period needed to completion, it was decided to reengineer the cost management. Accordingly costs allocated to packages were reviewed and changed on a dynamic basis. Different types of contingencies were provided. Concepts of package contingency and project contingency were introduced. These were based on the project buffer and feeding buffer concepts popularised by Eliyahu Goldratt.

The re-engineered method of cost control worked well and yielded better than expected results, leading to the setting up of a new world record in the completion time for setting up a million tonnes per annum continuous, tandem cold rolling mill to roll steel sheets.

In view of the total success of the reengineered approach, which was tested out on a large project over three years, it is felt that other projects could also try out this technique, especially since it is along the lines proposed by Eliyahu Goldratt who is an authority on project management. However the success can be better understood if the results of the testing become available. To that extent the contents of the present paper have limitations.

Large projects can deploy the methodology and complete their projects on time and under budget.

The reengineering of the cost management was done primarily with a view to complete projects under budget. Since many governments spend many billions of dollars on publicly funded projects for the welfare of citizens, the use of this technique could have a salutary effect on the cost.

The method was innovated in the company by the author’s team and deployed in a live project over four years for the first time to achieve world-class results.

While humanitarian supply chains (HSCs) inherently contribute to social sustainability by alleviating the suffering of afflicted communities, their unintended adverse environmental impact has been overlooked hitherto. This paper draws upon contingency theory to synthesize green practices for HSCs, identify the contingency factors that impact on greening HSCs and explore how focal humanitarian organizations (HOs) can cope with such contingency factors.

Deploying an action research methodology, two-and-a-half cycles of collaboration between researchers and a United Nations agency were completed. The first half-cycle developed a deductive greening framework, synthesizing extant green practices from the literature. In the second and third cycles, green practices were adopted/customized/developed reflecting organizational and contextual contingency factors. Action steps were implemented in the HSC for prophylactics, involving an operational mix of disaster relief and development programs.

First, the study presents a greening framework that synthesizes extant green practices in a suitable form for HOs. Second, it identifies the contingency factors associated with greening HSCs regarding funding environment, stakeholders, field of activity and organizational management. Third, it outlines the mechanisms for coping with the contingency factors identified, inter alia, improving the visibility of headquarters over field operations, promoting collaboration and resource sharing with other HOs as well as among different implementing partners in each country, and working with suppliers for greener packaging. The study advances a set of actionable propositions for greening HSCs.

Using an action research methodology, the study makes strong practical contributions. Humanitarian practitioners can adopt the greening framework and the lessons learnt from the implementation cycles presented in this study.

This is one of the first empirical studies to integrate environmental sustainability and HSCs using an action research methodology.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new general approach for estimating the maintenance cost of constructed facilities. The proposed approach consists of four components, including: facility work breakdown structure; historical maintenance cost and cost contingency data of actual completed projects; feedback obtained from the post-occupancy evaluation (POE); and fuzzy set theory (FST) to define the uncertainty associated with the maintenance cost and cost contingency as an alternative approach to simulation.

Literature review of the existing methods used for estimating maintenance cost of constructed facilities was conducted to highlight the limitations of the existing methods and models. The paper then introduced a new approach in which the results obtained from POE are integrated with the estimator’s judgment in estimating maintenance cost of constructed facility. As a proof of concept, the developed approach is tested on a private school facility in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia. The application of the proposed approach in this case project demonstrates its applicability and features in comparison with the existing practice.

The application of the developed approach on a school case project demonstrated that the developed approach can provide a reliable facility maintenance cost estimate, narrow the uncertainties and vagueness associated with the estimated cost, and provide the estimator with the necessary information to conduct risk analysis with less effort, less computations and less complexity comparing with that provided by complex simulation. The results also showed that integrating POE in the estimating process can provide more accurate cost estimate with high level of confidence.

The paper presents a new approach for estimating facility maintenance cost. The developed approach introduced a new concept that assists maintenance contractors in preparing facility maintenance estimate with improved accuracy while satisfying the facility user’s needs. The proposed approach integrates the estimator’s judgment with POE to model the uncertainties associated with cost using FST as an alternative approach for complex simulation.

This study demonstrates a quantitative approach to construction risk management through analytic hierarchy process and decision tree analysis. All the risk factors are identified, their effects are quantified by determining probability and severity, and various alternative responses are generated with cost implication for mitigating the quantified risks. The expected monetary values are then derived for each alternative in a decision tree framework and subsequent probability analysis aids the decision process in managing risks. The entire methodology is explained through a case application of a cross‐country petroleum pipeline project in India and its effectiveness in project management is demonstrated.

This article provides a theoretical framework for understanding the communicative effects of product imagery on attention to the brand, specifically, the attentional effects of incorporating a picture or illustration of the product on the packaging of the product. Empirical results from a virtual reality simulation show that package pictures increase shoppers’ attention to the brand. However this effect is contingent, occurring only for low familiarity brands (private‐label brands) within product categories that offer a relatively high level of experiential benefits. These results suggest that package pictures may be especially useful for private label brands and/or lesser tier national brands whose strategic objectives are to improve consumers’ perceptions of the brand and enter the consideration set.

The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how project management “pull” and AI or analytics technology “push” are likely to result in incremental and disruptive evolution of project management capabilities and practices.

This paper is written as a critical essay reflecting the experience and reflections of the author with many ideas drawn from and extending selected items from project management, artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics literatures.

Neither AI nor sophisticated analytics is likely to elicit hands on attention from project managers, other than those producing AI or analytics-based artifacts or using these tools to create their products and services. However, through the conduit of packaged software support for project management, new tools and approaches can be expected to more effectively support current activities, to streamline or eliminate activities that can be automated, to extend current capabilities with the availability of increased data, computing capacity and mathematically based algorithms and to suggest ways to reconceive how projects are done and whether they are needed.

This essay includes projections of possible, some likely and some unlikely, events and states that have not yet occurred. Although the hope and purpose are to alert readers to the possibilities of what may occur as logical extensions of current states, it is improbable that all such projections will come to pass at all or in the way described. Nonetheless, consideration of the future ranging from current trends, the interplay among intersecting trends and scenarios of future states can sharpen awareness of the effects of current choices regarding actions, decisions and plans improving the probability that the authors can move toward desired rather than undesired future states.

Project managers not involved personally with creating AI or analytics products can avoid mastering detailed skill sets in AI and analytics, but should scan for new software features and affordances that they can use enable new levels of productivity, net benefit creation and ability to sleep well at night.

This essay brings together AI, analytics and project management to imagine and anticipate possible directions for the evolution of the project management domain.

The recent pandemic period (COVID-19), while negatively impacting many companies, has contributed to the growth and adoption of online platforms such as marketplaces and e-commerce. This environment has led many companies, which previously acted only through offline channels, to adopt new technologies and online channels and develop new e-commerce strategies. Small and micro enterprises are most vulnerable due to their limited resources and lack of capabilities. For this reason, the main objective of this paper is to unveil the e-commerce implementation capabilities that micro and small enterprises should build and the challenges they must face when managing an e-commerce strategy.

The authors adopted an inductive qualitative research design approach focused on multiple case studies. The firms operate in the food and beverage industry.

The findings identify several e-commerce implementation capabilities that micro and small enterprises operating in the food and beverage industry should build to manage e-commerce strategies. These are related to outsourcing management, multichannel management, time management, internal stock management and marketplace choice. Moreover, the paper identifies key e-commerce implementation challenges these firms must cope with. These regard distribution management, potential loss of control, fresh product management and lack of resources, time and capabilities.

This research shows that proper capacity management in the implementation of micro and small enterprises e-commerce strategies is critical to achieving efficient results and preventing challenges that threaten such strategies. The research offers guidelines and frameworks for micro and small enterprises to understand how to manage e-commerce and face its challenges.

Probability of Default (PD) is a crucial credit risk parameter. International accords have motivated banks and credit institutions to adopt objective systems of evaluating and monitoring the PD. This study examines retail unsecured loans of a major Greek bank during the period of the financial crisis. It focusses on the stochastic behaviour of the financial states of the loans. It is tested whether a first-order Markov chain (MC) model describes sufficiently the transitions from one state to another. Moreover, Poisson regression models are estimated in order to calculate the limiting transition matrix, the limiting state probabilities and the PD. It is proved that the MC of the financial states of loans is non-homogeneous suggesting that the transition probabilities from one financial state to another are not constant across time. From the Poisson regression models, the transition probability matrix is estimated from one state to another in alternative time periods. From the limiting transition matrix, it is shown that if a loan is delayed then it is very likely to move towards the next worst case. The findings of this research could be useful for bank management.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the conceptual framework about human resources downsizing and restructuring and how organizations of the public sector can do that effectively and efficiently. These facts drive to the conclusion that the implementation of early retirement incentives requires the most elaborate planning and execution to be effective, predictable and safe in the long term.

This paper adopts an analytical, descriptive methodology approach to describe the basic features of the data by using the descriptive research design. Data have been collected through different sources, which include secondary data, to introduce the theoretical literature of the subject as books, journals, articles, published working papers and referred previous studies related to the same subject.

Downsizing process is a deliberate administrative process that includes, but is not limited to, workforce reduction and is primarily aimed at achieving efficiency in public organizations. The definition of workforce downsizing may be narrowed to reducing the number of workers, or more likely to refer to general efforts to restructuring human resources in public organizations, Early Retirement Incentive Programs (ERIP) represents a viable alternative for organizations seeking to reduce staff. For the ERIP to be successful, the program coordinator must understand the business objectives and goals that the organization is trying to obtain.

Human resources strategies concerning downsizing public administration workforce should be more appropriate to those who leave the organization and those who stay at work, reducing the negative psychological, administrative and economical effects. This could be achieved through a strategy called early retirement incentive programs.

Negative issues in the world have increased in recent years. The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has forced the global tourism industry to take precautions against these disasters to be ready to respond. Given tourism's vulnerability to environmental and social changes, the pandemic has dramatically impacted tourism worldwide. Tourism enterprises have developed various strategies and approaches to eliminate vulnerabilities that negatively affect their structures. This chapter tries to measure and recover plans implemented by various countries to increase the tourism industry's resilience in the face of crises and disasters.