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Evaluation of product development projects is quite intuitive and subjective. The purpose of this paper is to analyze decision makers' value perceptions of organizational impact before and after a project to explain how post‐project value perceptions are formed.

The research approach is hypothetic‐deductive and uses questionnaire data from 126 risky product development projects.

Pre‐project value perceptions explain post‐project value perceptions at a significant level and in a different way for different value dimensions. The results reveal two moderating effects by using a product development control system, and different product types.

The study was limited to risky product development projects with external funding and their retrospective cross‐sectional survey. The findings imply a strong relation between the early‐stage value estimates and the latter‐stage value estimates, which may make change decisions difficult in risky projects.

The initial value priorities of the managers have an important role in escalating commitment, and such value priorities can be reflected in the use of formal evaluation criteria.

Many studies express the need to understand the organizational impacts of projects better and take them into account in decision making. This empirical study on the perceptions of managers offers evidence on the formation and evolution of the perceived organizational impact during the project.

This paper presents an organization based information architecture (OBIA) that defines a structure for information needed to address the strategic decision process of evaluating and selecting projects to pursue. The project evaluation process requires information that has not been well defined by project specific information structures developed in previous information modelling efforts. The information in the OBIA is separated into five main categories: organization, commitment, process, environment, and facility. The OBIA categories were identified through expert interviews. The model was then evaluated through a detailed analysis of 10 project case studies. Each case study focused on the evaluation of a particular project from one organization's perspective. A method of applying the model to analyse projects is presented. The structure is also believed to be applicable for other strategic decision types including strategic planning and market selection.

The authors explore the under-researched area of post-decision evaluation in PPPs (public–private partnerships), focusing upon how and whether Post-decision Project Evaluation (PdPE) is considered and provided for in United Kingdom (UK) public infrastructure projects.

The authors’ research design sought insights from overviewing UK PPP planning and more focused exploration of PPP operational practice. The authors combine the extensive analysis of planning documents for operational UK PPP projects with interviews of different stakeholders in PPP projects in one city. Mobilising an open critical perspective, documents were analysed using ethnographic content analysis (ECA) and interviews were analysed using thematic analysis consistent therewith. The authors theorise the absence and ambiguities of PdPE drawing on the sociology of ignorance.

The authors find a long-standing absence and lack of PdPE in PPP projects throughout planning and operational practice, reflecting a dynamic, multi-faceted ignorance. Concerning planning practice, the authors’ documentary analysis evidences a trend in PdPE from its absence in the early years (which may indicate some natural or genuine ignorance) to different levels or forms of weak inclusion later. Regarding this inclusion, the authors find strategic ignorance played a substantive role, involving “deliberate engineering” by both public sector and private partners. Interview findings indicate lack of clarity over PdPE and its under-development in PPP practice, deficiencies again suggestive of natural and strategic ignorance.

The authors draw from the sociology of ignorance vis-à-vis accounting's absence and ambiguity in the context of PPP, contributing to an under-researched area.

The aims of this paper is to establish an appropriate physical-change-based renewal (PCBR) projects selection mechanism capable of selecting the combination of the PCBR projects that can make up an integrated urban renewal program in high-density cities.

The research design follows a sequential integrated methodology that combines the calculation algorithms of Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (Fuzzy-ANP) with Zero-One Goal Programming (ZOGP) to support decisions for the selection of PCBR projects. In the first phase, general criteria for assessing the sustainability performance of PCBR projects were collected from relevant literature. In the second phase, the Fuzzy-ANP was used to identify the priority weights of the candidate projects through clarifying the interdependent degree between the criteria and candidate projects. Finally, ZOGP method was selected as a predetermined number of PCBR projects among candidate projects.

The feasibility and effectiveness of this hybrid approach is then verified in a case study of Yuzhong District, Chongqing in China. The results of this study indicate that the integrated method is capable of directing the decision maker toward the best compromising solution of PCBR program that can achieve the maximization of sustainable benefits and allocate limited resources most efficiently.

The novelty of this paper consists in combining the algorithms of the Fuzzy-ANP method with those of the ZOGP model that serves as an effective analysis tool to address practical decision problems. This is the first hybrid algorithms to make PCBR projects selection decision that reach the maximization of the sustainable benefits, both in economic and socio-environmental terms.

This paper deals with the process followed to select investment projects within the construction industry with emphasis on the characteristics of infrastructure projects in developing countries. It presents an overview of the current practices in the main areas concerned with the process, namely project evaluation and decision‐making. The research carried out shows a process with a narrow scope and a lack of integration between the different techniques. The methodology described in this paper is developed to overcome such diffi culties and reduce some of the uncertainty that surrounds the selection of engineering projects. The proposed methodology has been tested and validated and results of the testing have been discussed and conclusions are drawn.

This chapter addresses the criticisms that escalation of commitment research has focused only on individual (as opposed to team or group) decision-making. It has been suggested that research findings of individual-based decision on managers’ escalation behaviors may not be applicable in today’s business environment which is increasingly dominated by team or group-based decision. Specifically, this chapter examines the effects of information availability (public vs. private information) and type of responsibility (sole and joint responsibility) on managers’ project evaluation decisions. A laboratory experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses developed for this study. The results indicate that, consistent with prior research, project managers exhibited a greater tendency to continue a failing project under private information than public information conditions. In addition, in the private information condition, project managers with joint responsibility for an investment project expressed a greater tendency to continue a failing project than those with sole responsibility. Implications of our results for the design of management control systems are discussed.

This study aims to partially replicate and extend prior escalation of commitment (e.g., Harrell & Harrison, 1994; Harrison & Harrell, 1993). It extends prior studies by examining the impact of risk propensity on managers’ project evaluation decisions. In addition, the study examines the joint effects of private information, potential for personal gain, and risk propensity on managers’ project evaluation decisions. A laboratory experiment involving 146 subjects was conducted to test the various hypotheses developed for this study. The results are consistent with prior studies, suggesting that managers exhibit a greater tendency to continue unprofitable projects under conditions of private information and potential for personal gain. Furthermore, the results reveal that managers with high risk propensity exhibit a greater tendency to commit additional resources to unprofitable projects than those with low risk propensity. The results support the proposition that high risk propensity managers who experience conditions of private information and potential for personal gain exhibit a greater tendency to commit additional resources to unprofitable projects than low risk propensity managers who experience only one or neither of these conditions.

Noting the scarcity of complexity techniques applied to modelling social systems, this paper attempts to formulate a conceptual model of decision‐making behaviour within the information systems evaluation (ISE) task, against the backdrop of complexity theory.

Complexity theory places an emphasis on addressing how dynamic non‐linear systems can be represented and modelled utilising computational tools and techniques to draw out inherent system dynamics. In doing so, the use of fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) and morphological analysis (MA) (hence a fuzzy‐morphological approach), is applied to empirical case study data, to elucidate the inherent behavioural and systems issues involved in ISE decision making within a British manufacturing organisation.

The paper presents results of applying a combined FCM and MA approach to modelling complexity within management decision making in the ISE task: both in terms of a cognitive map of the key decision criteria; a matrix of constraint criteria; and a synthesised model that provides an indication of the linkages between technology management factors and organisational imperatives and goals. These findings show the usefulness of viewing the topic in complexity science terms (emergent behaviour, non‐linearity and chaotic response).

This research is limited in applying the given technique to a single case study organisation in the UK manufacturing sector, where the sample size is limited. Since this is the first time that such a combined MA‐FCM technique has been used in this field known to the authors, future research needs to validate and explore the implications of this approach in a wider context (multiple organisations and viewpoints).

The paper highlights the need for those involved in analysing managerial decision making to include aspects of complexity theory in their evaluations – namely uncovering inherent inter‐relationships that may exist between stakeholders, processes and systems. In doing so, expanding the manager's understanding of how to achieve congruence between driving forces and factors, which may exhibit non‐linear, chaotic or feedback behaviour.

The given research brings together both artificial intelligence and operational research techniques, applied in the socio‐technical milieu of information systems evaluation, within the context of complexity theory, in order to describe the rich detail within the ISE decision‐making task.

The paper reports on a study of private investors' assessment of projects. The study includes both financial and non‐financial analysis of projects, with an emphasis on non‐financial analysis. The purpose of this paper is to explore factors that influence the substance (investment quality) of projects, and how that substance should be evaluated.

Results in this paper are based on literature studies as well as interviews. A state‐of‐the‐art analysis has been carried out related to private ownership, venture capital investments, corporate finance and project management. Ten prominent Norwegian decision‐makers are interviewed.

Results are present in two perspectives. The first perspective represents factors that contribute to the substance of a project. The second perspective illustrates how the substance of a project is analysed. Results from this study indicate that the substance of a project is not only dependent on the characteristics of the deliverables, but is also context dependable. The involved decision‐makers evaluate to what extent potential projects are compatible with company strategy, if they have trust in the people who will manage the investment, expected market development and exit options.

Different investors have their individual modes of operation. The results indicate that the formalised analyses that are presented in many textbooks are done, but at a late stage in the project selection process, partly serving as quality assurance. Initially, analyses are done on an aggregated level. In addition, the paper discusses to what extent the findings are applicable in a public sector context.

This paper studies how project selection is done by people investing their own money. Most previous research has focused on project selection from a managerial perspective, not from an owner's point of view.

The electric utility industry, unlike most other technology‐intensive industries, does not spend much money or effort on research and development. Many utilities do not possess an in‐house R&D facility, nor is there an R&D line item in their budgets. Over the last several decades the rate of change in the electric utility industry has been very slow and in‐house R&D efforts have not been required. As the rate of change in the industry is beginning to change, the need to pursue R&D is increasing. The electric utility industry is responding to this increasing requirement by increasing R&D budgets, and in some cases re‐initiating the R&D process within individual utilities. The purpose of this paper is to focus on R&D portfolio management efforts of various actors from different industrial sectors, to find out the best practices by using benchmarking method.

The paper used case study approach and on‐site interviews as research methods.

The authors found that R&D management is in its infancy in the electric utility sector, while the methods established in the manufacturing sector are applicable there.

This study is exploring R&D management in the electric utility sector and contributes to the service innovation research stream.