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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate project management dimensions while constructing the Panama Canal from the end of ninetieth century to the start of twentieth century and then benchmarking against the Palm Diera Island at the lapse of a century. Second, to highlight issues of project management, specially the risk management with its economic, social and political domains at the construction site and in France and America.

The case study research method of qualitative research has been adopted when comparing two mega projects executed in different time and space. For the Panama Canal project documentation investigation was performed. However, a semi-structured interview data collection method was adopted for the Palm Diera Island project. A comparative study of two projects helps in deeper understanding of cross-project management dimensions.

The research reveals that the French team failed to complete the Panama Canal construction project due to inadequate planning, inappropriate design, lack of risk management, health and safety of the staff and non-availability of finances. However, the Americans successfully completed construction of the canal within budget and time and this was due to the support of change in the purpose of the canal construction adding to achieve its commercial objectives and at the same time strengthen its naval presence. American took its construction as a national objective than the individual enterprise as executed by the French team.

Data collection for the Panama Canal was limited to only historical data available from the literature as documentary investigation. The researchers visited the canal to get in-depth understanding of the construction practices and the scale of construction. However, for the Palm Diera project, data collection was limited to three key personnel interviews.

The Americans were successful in completing the canal due to the US Government control on management and finances of the canal construction and lessons learned during the French construction period. The paper serves as a benchmark for project management dimension in two different regions in different times. The paper bears economic implications for the construction of the mega projects both in South America and the Middle East. Cost overrun construction of the Panama Canal during the French period influenced political spectrum in France resulting into the defeat of the government. During the American period of construction first time out of country visit by the sitting president of the USA reflects its economic and social importance. The valley of death was converted into the valley comfort during the American period resulting into social welfare of the workers. Completion of the canal by the Americans helped them secure operations of the Panama Canal for the next 100 years, contributing to its economic and naval strength.

The paper reveals that safety and social implications for the work place in two different regions and at two different times. The impact of safe and improved working conditions at Palm Diera Island resulted into no injury or loss of life, however, during the Panama Canal construction more than 30,000 workers died affecting not only families of the respective workers but their nations as well. The impacts of both the projects on the society were also significant. The public opinion against the construction of the canal during the French period of construction was so significant that they had to abandon their construction equipment at the site. On the contrary, completion of construction of the Panama Canal during the French period helped secured political mileage for President Roosevelt and his party.

The paper benchmarks two different mega projects with different scope executed in two different regions at the lapse of a century. No such research work was found to have compared project management dimensions of two mega projects at the lapse of a century and in two different regions.

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 purpose of this study is to examine the dimensions of organizational learning (OL), entrepreneurial orientation (EO), personal value toward the firm performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in North Sumatera, Indonesia.

This study used a quantitative methodology using Smart partial least squares of the structural equation model. A survey is done by distributing the questionnaires to the respondents (owner-managers) of SMEs across sectors. Using a convenient sampling technique, 128 respondents are selected. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 11 hypotheses are tested.

It is found that the innovativeness of EO and personal value both have a significant relationship with firm growth. While OL is significantly related to the innovativeness of EO, risk-taking of EO and proactiveness of EO. Then, both innovativeness of EO and proactiveness of EO significantly mediate the relationship of OL and firm growth. However, OL, proactiveness of EO and risk-taking of EO are insignificantly related to firm growth, while risk-taking of EO also insignificantly mediates the relationship of OL and firm growth.

EO (innovativeness, risk-taking and proactiveness) is deemed a crucial factor in running businesses by SMEs, while OL and personal value play a significant role in creating a competitive advantage that is needed for growth.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between three variables of strategic orientation (market orientation, technology orientation entrepreneurial orientation) and organizational performance in the Jordanian pharmaceutical sector.

This study employed a quantitative research design where 252 questionnaires were collected form respondents operating in various pharmaceutical companies in Jordan to obtain necessary data to test the hypotheses developed for the study. Multiple regressions were used to analyze the research data.

The results of the analysis revealed that strategic orientations were positively and significantly related to organizational performance. The findings also showed that market orientation contributed the most to the enhancement of organizational development followed by technology orientation and finally entrepreneurship orientation.

These findings contribute to the understanding of the importance of employing multiple strategic orientations in order to enhance organizational performance, particularly in pharmaceutical companies

This is the first study which adequately covers the relationship between three variables of strategic orientation (market orientation, technology orientation, entrepreneurial orientation) and organizational performance in the Jordanian pharmaceutical sector.