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The purpose of this study is to provide more insight in the ways key users act as knowledge managers and boundary spanners during the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system usage phase. Despite the recognized importance of key users during the implementation phase of an ERP system, little is known about their role in the ERP usage phase.

To provide rich insight in the boundary-spanning mechanisms utilized by key users to share knowledge, a qualitative approach was applied. In this study, “abductive” theme coding for 58 interviews with key users, end-users and managers has been used. This paper found six mechanisms and characterized them as “crossing” structural, social or cognitive boundaries.

Six boundary-spanning mechanisms have been distinguished which have been applied by key users to overcome several knowledge management issues. Subsequently, these mechanisms lead to a model which describes three different roles that key users may fulfill to efficiently share and transfer knowledge during the ERP usage phase.

Knowledge barriers during an ERP implementation and their accompanying six boundary-crossing mechanisms have been distinguished.

The recognition of the essential role that key users can fulfill during the usage phase of an ERP system is an important implication. Management has to take into account that tasks and responsibilities of key users have to be clear from the start and they may cautiously select employees who are suited to become key users.

The main contribution is the importance of the impact of key users on the effectivity of knowledge management during the ERP usage phase.

The purpose of the study is to diagnose recurrent logistics problems in a public organization’s network of logistics entities, determining the maturity level of each supply chain (SC) function, and trying to link problems within the SC functions to the maturity level by using the case study method.

Extant research on supply chain management (SCM) maturity is combined with notions of SC flows and disciplines. The resulting SCM Disciplines Maturity model comprises multiple diagnostic steps. It is illustrated by means of a developmental case study at a large public organization facing recurrent logistics problems in routine processes.

The model is shown to be a useful instrument to obtain insight into linkages between recurrent logistics problems and the way an SCM organization harbors multiple SCM disciplines.

The paper examines recurrent logistics problems in relation to SCM maturity, a relatively unknown research subject. It shows how SCM maturity thinking can support the diagnosis of recurrent problems. In a rapidly changing world, it enables further research on diagnosis as a dynamic capability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an organization’s operational alignment in the process of alliance formation.

A literature study was conducted on the strategic importance of assessing and aligning organizations’ operations for alliancing. Furthermore, an instrumental case study was conducted to provide insight in the degree of operational alignment required for a maritime organization to form a service alliance.

Managers indicate a complex set of organizational capabilities required for improving operating process to successfully execute their alliance strategy. Two improvement trajectories were found to be used by alliance managers for aligning operations with alliance strategy: development of a corporate alliance infrastructure, and nurturing a collaborative business culture.

The research is limited to one public organization establishing a vertical service alliance with one of its suppliers.

The paper introduces a new conceptual model of the alliance formation process, addressing the cyclical character of the pre-formation stage in which intra- and interorganizational management considerations alternate.

This paper aims to present a study on the organization of military logistics under “hot” conditions in an expeditionary crisis response operation. The authors' main research question is: in what way is armed forces logistics sourcing organized in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan?

To answer their research question, the authors conducted a case study including field research at military sites in Afghanistan. The case study is focused on military organizations that operate in a hostile and ambiguous environment. The authors compare sourcing of three categories of support services, i.e. facilities management, maintenance & logistics and security.

The authors' results include a systematic overview of the organization of command, logistic and accounting (sourcing) in the ISAF mission, involving multinational military partners and contractors. Second, the authors show how Canada, NATO, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA sourced the three categories of services mentioned in terms of sourcing profiles. Focusing on contracting, the authors outline which strategies NATO and the countries mentioned used in practice. And finally, differences and similarities are highlighted in the area of funding and accounting.

While the authors' study provides insight in the use of sourcing profiles identified in this paper, more research is necessary to identify criteria for explaining sourcing decisions of armed forces.

The paper provides a systematic overview for practitioners and scholars and enhances manageability and policy development relevant for those who prepare, execute, monitor and evaluate missions.

The authors' paper is one of the first to provide a systematic overview in operational defense sourcing relying on first‐hand field data. This area of study is fragmented and remains mostly closed for non‐military researchers.

This study empirically aims to examine the collaboration between social enterprises (SEs) and impact investors (IIs), which are organisations with similar interests but with distinct logics, and in high demand in emerging economies with complex problems. Despite the significant economic contributions of these organisations, there have been limited studies examining how they collaborate in different contexts, including theoretical insights explaining how they gain partner fit from resource synergy.

Mainstream businesses use the compatibility and complementarity concepts to examine buyer–supplier strategic alliances. Using similar concepts in the context of hybrid organisations, the authors interviewed six pairs of SEs and IIs with dyadic relations in Nigeria, aiming to deeply understand how they align dissimilar logics in pursuing common goals in emerging economies.

The authors’ findings revealed how compatibility criteria from the institutional logics perspective and complementarity from social exchange theory guide collaboration between SEs and IIs in an emerging economy. Using these theories provides new insights that distinguish SEs and IIs collaboration from conventional theories on the internationalisation of businesses, which remained insufficient for understanding the cross-border operations of SEs.

The study holds practical implications for organisations, regardless of their size, international investors, governments, organisations and individuals desiring to pursue sustainable business agendas in emerging economies with huge impact opportunities and the process involved.

The outcomes of this study extend knowledge of the theoretical lens examining collaborative entrepreneurship from the perspective of hybrid organisations. It also challenged existing knowledge on collaboration between SEs and IIs, often characterised by potential tensions due to the dissimilarity of institutional logics of actors.

The purpose of this paper is to understand projectification processes of the global organization, based on the example of the Catholic Church’s activities. The Catholic Church is the oldest and the largest international organisation to be assessed also from the longue durée perspective. The Church as both a large and supranational organisation and a religious community has carried out a lot of social tasks. A part of its activity relating to the Church’s basic mission is carried out in these days in the form of various projects. In this paper, the authors demonstrate that seemingly unchanging structure, such as the Catholic Church, based on a determined hierarchy, strict principles and rules of conduct, is affected by the projectification processes.

The authors chose the method of a single case study. To analyse the projectification processes in the Church, the authors focussed on flagship mega-events of WYD programme, from which the following were selected: Rome (1985), Manila (1995), Sydney (2008), Rio de Janeiro (2013) and Krakow (2016).

The study demonstrates that organisational projectification processes can have a real impact on the strategic changes in the global organisation. Under the influence of significant projects, organisations can change internally and also redefine their way of interacting with the stakeholders. Projectification at the same time is a change and leads to it. The research also shows that projectification of a global organisation can intensify internal learning processes. On the one hand, “projectification agents” transfer project practices to various regions of the world, and, on the other, draw on local practices. Therefore, the projectification process is not simply transplanting the project “virus” into new places, but also a process of change and adaptation to the stimuli flowing from the environment.

The particularities, the distinctiveness of the projects of the Catholic Church can be an inspiration for others realizing projects. The experience of the Catholic Church in the implementation of WYD can be valuable for organisations implementing other projects that require involvement and activation of many, diverse stakeholders, for example, charitable projects or the so-called community engagement projects implemented by large international organisations, such as the World Bank, UNICEF, the UN, the Red Cross or humanitarian projects organised by NGOs in different parts of the world.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the strategic role of purchasing and model its transformation process based on a case study of a military firm.

The paper reviews the existing literature to highlight the strategic role of purchasing and put forward the transformations the function is undertaking. The model system dynamic approach is then detailed and applied to model the transformation of the purchasing function of a military firm. The modeling software Analytica is then used to run the model and get to results.

The shift of purchasing toward a more strategic function is complex and multidimensional. Implementing these transformations requires flexible designing approaches such as the system dynamic modeling that incorporates both quantitative and qualitative variables to model the function’s changes. The paper details the methodology of applying the system dynamic approach. It recommends a new structure of the purchasing function as well as new and upgraded indicators of purchasing performance and suppliers’ management.

A single-case study research. Even though, the objective is not to generalize the findings but to enrich the existing literature as regard the system dynamic modeling in a specific domain, the one-case research setting can be seen as a limitation against generalizeable findings.

A clear step-by-step action plan of conducting the transformation of the purchasing function using the system dynamic modeling approach. The paper gives ways to upgrade existing measures of purchasing and policies of suppliers’ management.

The application of the system dynamic modeling approach to the specific domain of military purchasing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the major challenges to managing multiple project environments (MPE) in Australia.

The views from Australian project management practitioners drawn from various industrial sectors were collected via an e‐mailed questionnaire survey. The respondents were asked to rate a total of 22 challenges that affect the management of multiple project environments as identified from the literature review. The results of the questionnaire were analysed using ranking analysis.

The findings show that “commitment and responsibility”, “leading projects”, “planning”, and “conflict and communication” are perceived as the four challenges of most importance. Furthermore, the 22 challenges could be classified into 11 sub groupings: project management processes; competencies of project managers; project assignments; human resource allocation; resource availability; organisational culture; problem solving; competition among projects; information sharing; management of a single project; and project location.

The study forms the basis for further research. Replication of this study to other parts of the industries and world about how identification of major challenges in managing multiple projects could be used as a basis for developing appropriate strategies aimed at improving the competencies of project managers.

Based on the findings, the project management practitioners could develop a better understanding of the challenges needed to be overcome in order to perform effectively. Furthermore, the identification of these challenges could form the basis for the development of guidelines and provision of useful information for development of strategies aimed at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of project managers operating within the multiple projects environments in Australia.

In this paper, major challenges to improving the effectiveness and efficiency of project managers in managing MPEs in Australia are identified and analysed.

Megaprojects present an intricated pattern of leadership activities, which evolve over their planning and delivery and comprises several stakeholders. A framework is useful to navigate this complexity; it allows to identify and cluster the key elements. This paper aims to introduce a novel framework based on boundary spanners to describe the structural pattern of shared leadership in megaprojects.

A systematic literature review about boundary spanning and shared leadership is used to identify and cluster the key elements of shared leadership in megaprojects. The systematic literature review provides a rich theoretical background to develop the novel shared leadership framework based on boundary spanners.

There are three key dimensions characterizing shared leadership topology in megaprojects: stakeholders, boundary spanning leadership roles and project phases. The novel framework shows how project leadership dynamically transfers among different stakeholders, showing the importance of shared leadership as a leadership paradigm in megaprojects.

The novel framework epitomizes shared leadership in megaprojects by exploring its antecedents with social network metrics. This paper stresses that shared leadership is the envisaged form of leadership in megaprojects. By modeling complex project leadership in a simple, yet effective way, the framework fosters critical thinking for future research. The modeling introduced by this framework would also benefit practitioners in charge of megaprojects.

The paper moves the project leadership research to the network-level by taking boundary spanners as shared leadership roles in megaprojects. It shows how shared leadership is a valuable management tool for planning and delivery megaprojects.

The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review of humanitarian logistics (HL) that aims to identify trends and suggest some directions for future research.

This conceptual paper develops a research framework for literature review through qualitative and quantitative content analysis. First, previous literature reviews in HL are updated and detailed. Then, seven classification criteria are added to earlier ones in order to advance the literature analysis.

The conclusions identify some literature gaps and research opportunities. The main conclusions are the need for more studies into the disaster recovery phase and the need for closer relationships between academia and humanitarian organizations to increase the number of applied research.

The literature is limited to academic peer-reviewed journals because of their academic relevance, accessibility, and ease of searching.

Help potential researchers to set up a research agenda for future work.

Reinforce earlier calls to increase truly applied research and improve social impact of the field.

In total, 228 papers that were published in the HL area are reviewed, giving rise to the most extensive literature review in this area. New dimensions for literature review in HL are proposed, which give some new insights into potential research directions.