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Given the critical role of project prioritization and selection process in Six Sigma efforts, this study aims to analyse the relevant literature to answer this question: What types of project prioritization and selection methods have been used in Six Sigma research?

The study implemented the systematic literature review (SLR) method to identify and review all relevant previous studies.

The study revealed that 59 articles focused on the topic used 111 methods, analytic hierarchy process appeared as the most frequently used method with 12 articles (20%) and one-third of the methods used in the current Six Sigma project selection literature contained multi-criteria decision-making methods. In total, 61% of 59 articles were not published in the journals ranked by the ABDC’s list. Only 17% of the articles reviewed in this study were published in journals ranked as B category and 12% of the articles were published in A category journals.

The findings of this literature review may help Six Sigma practitioners and researchers accurately identify project prioritization and selection methods, considering that qualitative and quantitative scientific methods guarantee to make better decisions than “gut feelings” of the decision makers in this process.

Although a variety of studies focused on the topic, an SLR is lacking in the area of Six Sigma project prioritization and selection. Therefore, this study was constructed using the SLR method to analyse the topic.

Limited facilities operating and modernization budgets require organizations to carefully identify, prioritize and authorize projects to ensure allocated resources align with strategic objectives. Traditional facility prioritization methods using risk matrices can be improved to increase granularity in categorization and avoid mathematical error or human cognitive biases. These limitations restrict the utility of prioritizations and if erroneously used to select projects for funding, they can lead to wasted resources. This paper aims to propose a novel facility prioritization methodology that corrects these assessment design and implementation issues.

A Mamdani fuzzy logic inference system is coupled with a traditional, categorical risk assessment framework to understand a facilities’ consequence of failure and its effect on an organization’s strategic objectives. Model performance is evaluated using the US Air Force’s facility portfolio, which has been previously assessed, treating facility replicability and interruptability as minimization objectives. The fuzzy logic inference system is built to account for these objectives, but as proof of ease-of-adaptation, facility dependency is added as an additional risk assessment criterion.

Results of the fuzzy logic-based approach show a high degree of consistency with the traditional approach, though the value of the information provided by the framework developed here is considerably higher, as it creates a continuous set of facility prioritizations that are unbiased. The fuzzy logic framework is likely suitable for implementation by diverse, spatially distributed organizations in which decision-makers seek to balance risk assessment complexity with an output value.

This paper fills the identified need for portfolio management strategies that focus on prioritizing projects by risk to organizational operations or objectives.

Accessing web sites from mobile devices has been gaining popularity but may often do not give the same results and experiences as accessing them from a personal computer. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

To address these issues, the paper presents a server-side adaptation approach to prioritising adaptive pages to different devices through prioritisation system. The prioritisation approach allows users to prioritise page items for different devices. The prioritisation engine reorders, shows, and removes items based on its priority set by users or developers.

With this approach, the overall web page's structure is preserved and the same terminology, content, and similar location of content are delivered to all devices. A user trial and a performance test were conducted. Results show that adaptive page and prioritisation provides a consistent and efficient web experience across different devices.

The approach provides advantages over both client-side and proxy and has conducted significant experimentation to determine the applicability and effectiveness of the approach.

This study contributes to a growing body of literature on the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) by examining how lender incentives affected prioritization of large borrowers. In addition, this study separately examines incentives for commercial banks and credit unions during the program.

Using 2020 PPP loan data, the authors create a proxy for lender loan prioritization by comparing the skewness statistics of large and small loan distributions. A regression model is used to examine lender reporting incentives and loan prioritization.

Results show that larger borrowers were prioritized in receiving PPP loans earlier. Lenders with financial reporting concerns and commercial banks favored large borrowers to a greater extent.

This study may inform social planners and regulators about the benefits and costs of delegating emergency funding loan decisions to financial institutions.

The authors believe this paper is the first to examine financial institution reporting incentives in relationship to PPP lending practices. It adds novelty by examining lender incentives, while prior research has focused heavily on the economic consequences of the program and how borrower–lender relationships affected loan practices during the program.

The paper seeks to indicate where resources should be directed to utilize online marketing communication (OMC) further, including the identification of the diversity of OMC adoption, prioritization and future potential.

A conceptual model of prioritization and potential of OMC, specified as a structural equation model is developed. Research data are collected from both Danish advertising agencies and major companies, and based on these data the model is estimated by using partial least squares (PLS).

The adoption of OMC by companies, as opposed to advertising agencies, is rather diverse. Companies should take responsibility for the holistic utilization of OMC, as well as the development of holistic prioritization methods. Special attention should be given to online relationship communication, as this discipline is the primary driver of confidence in future potential, and online interactive communication, which has the largest potential for improvement.

The research is based on a single geographic market (Denmark), and its transferability to other markets can be questioned. The geographical constraint also means that the sample is limited.

The paper presents original findings for online marketing communication planning and prioritization, and thereby adds to a green field that lacks both theory and practical recommendations.

Maintenance is a compulsory cost in any asset's operation and requires sufficient budget to be supported. However, insufficient maintenance allocation would lead to maintenance prioritization being practiced as a solution to relief the maintenance demands. The purpose of this paper is to review and discuss the related literature on the factors considered and methods practiced in maintenance prioritization, especially in asset managements.

A thorough literature search related to factors and methods used in maintenance prioritization was conducted through several journal databases. The keywords maintenance priority, maintenance prioritization, priority management and maintenance planning were used. Publications related to maintenance priority from the period of 1990 to 2016 were reviewed and filtered out. Literature focusing on methods and factors related to maintenance prioritization were analyzed and discussed.

This study presented the trend and publications related to maintenance priority throughout 1990 to 2016. Publications related with methods and factors were analyzed. The most used priority-setting methods include analytical hierarchy process; priority criterion; priority matrix; and failure mode and effect analysis. Factors for maintenance priority were categorized into four categories which are technical, financial, social and political category. A discussion on the strategic direction of maintenance prioritization was conducted to highlight future research and possible improvements.

The paper contains a state of the art on publications and discussion related to the factors, methods and suggestions on the strategic aspect of maintenance prioritization. It offers insights and information on the current body of knowledge to academics, researchers, maintenance managers, practitioners and stakeholders concerned with asset management.

As the prioritization of family goals depends on the resolution of family conflict, this study's purpose is to explain how a dominant coalition (DC) of parental family members prioritizes their family economic and non-economic goals when faced with different types of family conflict.

A conceptual framework is developed drawing on a socio-cognitive approach to explain a family's goal formation process. This socio-cognitive approach extends the stakeholder salience underpinnings of family influence/essence theory. It shows that family conflict arises from the complex and novel social settings of a family business and that a DC prioritizes their family's goals by drawing on heuristic biases to resolve such family conflict.

A key finding of this study is the introduction of a distinct type of agency to family influence/essence research. Unlike the salient explanations, a family's goal formulation process is attributed to a DC's heuristic response in resolving their family business conflict.

Scholars have called for a greater need to investigate the social and cognitive underpinnings of a family's goal formation process. While the social settings of a family business are often explained in terms of family conflict, an understanding of the sources of such conflict and their resolution have received limited attention. This study opens new avenues to understanding the sources of such family conflict and the cognitive mechanisms needed to overcome them. This understanding is critical not only to the prioritization of a family's goals but also to the idea that “influence” defines the essence of a family business.

Limited funding to maintain and preserve short‐line railroad (SLRR) bridge infrastructure requires that important priority decisions be made on an annual basis. The compartmentalized, dispersed, and diverse nature of many SLRR owners and operators is such that there is a need for a coordinated and centralized effort to evaluate the state‐wide system as a whole, to ensure the most effective overall resource allocation and also identify assets that either outperform predictions or consume disproportionate levels of resources for maintenance and operation, allowing for review of design and construction practices. The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of the art for railroad bridge population management and resource allocation decisions and to develop a state‐wide SLRR bridge prioritization methodology, to be used as a tool by a state agency to assist in allocating limited public funding for bridge maintenance, rehabilitation and replacement activities.

A literature review examining the state of the art of railroad bridge population management and resource allocation decisions was conducted, which provided the foundation for the development of a bridge prioritization algorithm. A state‐wide survey was conducted to develop a bridge database. A detailed evaluation of a statistically significant sample of bridges was conducted, to determine the structural and maintenance needs and preservation status of sub‐populations. The research team developed methodologies, applicable to the entire population, to develop a ranking of bridge preservation candidates.

A risk‐based prioritization algorithm is proposed to assign a relative risk score to each bridge in the population. The algorithm provides a management tool for making more effective maintenance and preservation decisions. Additionally, the bridge database allows managers to examine sub‐populations according to structural parameters to evaluate performance.

The revisable, modular framework of the prioritization algorithm provides a simple, effective and versatile tool for asset management and evaluation. The present proposal of this new prioritization methodology for SLRR bridges is a valuable tool for agencies faced with making rational decisions with limited information. Such a methodology does not currently exist in the literature and is of significant interest to short‐line owners/operators and state transportation agencies.

The study aims to provide insights in the sensemaking process and the use of business analytics (BA) for project selection and prioritisation in start-up settings. A major focus is on the various ways start-ups can understand their data through the analytical process of sensemaking.

This is a comparative case study of two start-ups that use BA in their projects. The authors follow an interpretive approach and draw from the constructivist grounded theory method (GTM) for the purpose of data analysis, whereby the theory of sensemaking functions as the sensitising device that supports the interpretation of the data.

The key findings lie within the scope of project selection and prioritisation, where the sensemaking process is implicitly influenced by each start-up's strategy and business model. BA helps start-ups notice changes within their internal and external environment and focus their attention on the more critical questions along the lines of their processes, operations and business model. However, BA alone cannot support decision-making around less structured problems such as project selection and prioritisation, where intuitive judgement and personal opinion are still heavily used.

This study extends the research on BA applied in organisations as tools for business development. Specifically, the authors draw on the literature of BA tools in support of project management from multiple perspectives. The perspectives include but are not limited to project assessment and prioritisation. The authors view the decision-making process and the path from insight to value, as a sensemaking process, where data become part of the sensemaking roadmap and BA helps start-ups navigate the decision-making process.

Extant research presents firms’ purpose as a consensual and positive attribute. This paper introduces an alternative perspective, which sees firms’ purposefulness as defined in relation to specific audiences. A firm’s purposefulness to a focal audience can be either positive or negative. Audiences find firms with which they share a common prioritization of issues more purposeful in absolute terms. Audiences find firms with which they share a common understanding of issues positively purposeful. Conversely, audiences find firms with an opposite understanding of issues negatively purposeful. Audiences harness specific resources to support firms they find positively purposeful and to oppose firms they find negatively purposeful. This paper introduces topic modeling and word embeddings as two techniques to operationalize this audience-based approach to purposefulness.