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This study aims to investigate the dual effects of commitment-based governance on the relationship between formal control and public–private partnership (PPP) project performance. Formal control and relationship governance are two primary forms of inter-organizational governance that affect project performance. However, little is known about the interplay between formal control and commitment and its effect on PPP projects. More specifically, previous studies have failed to distinguish the function routes of relationship governance resulting from different types of formal control (process and outcome control).

This study adopts a questionnaire survey to empirically investigate the mechanism that commitment-based governance influences the relationship between formal control and PPP performance. After collecting data from public and private sector professionals involved in 101 Chinese PPP projects, the theoretical framework proposed in this paper is verified by the empirical results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results show that process control has an inverted U-shaped effect and outcome control has a significant positive influence on PPP project performance. Furthermore, commitment moderates the effect of formal control on PPP project performance by increasing the relevance of outcome control and mediates the inverted U-shaped relationship between process control and PPP project performance.

Managers should recognize that process control is a double-edged sword and prevent the overuse of process control. Managers should direct their attention toward efforts to improve the commitment, which allows for the effectiveness of outcome control strategies. Additionally, this study new measurement method for relationship governance suggests that managers should be aware of the difference in parties' perceptions of the relationship.

This study allows for a comprehensive understanding of the relationship governance-control nexus from a commitment perspective. The authors bring into light the dual role of commitment-based governance in the relationship between the two types of formal control and PPP project performance. Moreover, the new approach to measure relationship governance offers valuable insight into the measurement of variables about individual's perception.

According to relational contract theory, relational governance has potential to improve public-private partnership (PPP) infrastructure project sustainability. The main purpose of this research is to investigate the association between relational governance and the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects. Further, this study examines the mediating effect of managerial innovation and the moderating role of public involvement.

Research data were collected from 158 valid questionnaires completed by Chinese PPP professionals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was then employed to test five hypotheses.

Results indicate a positive correlation between relational governance and PPP infrastructure project sustainability. This linkage is regulated by public involvement. In addition, managerial innovation plays a mediating role between relational governance and the sustainability of PPP infrastructure projects.

This study verifies the relationship between relational governance and PPP infrastructure project sustainability, as well as intermediary and regulatory factors, providing a new approach to achieving sustainability in PPP infrastructure projects.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the governance in project organising where owner organisations interface with the temporary project organisations that they initiate. This interface between the two types of organisation represents an opportunity for innovation.

In total, 25 narrative interviews were conducted with managers who work in permanent owner and operator organisations and temporary project organisations. It is combined with the analysis of textual narratives represented in institutional reports (APM, IPA, PMI).

The findings show that it is the flexible and balanced approach to governance that allows innovation to emerge. Strong capable innovative owners play crucial role in creating the corporate governance framework to allow innovation in projects.

The current research presents narratives voiced by senior managers in permanent owner and operator organisations and temporary project organisations. The ways governance can be adjusted through the life cycle of major programmes require further a more longitudinal research investigation.

The practical benefits for the project management community is a better understanding of corporate governance in owner and operator organisations, the role of leadership and their narratives in governing processes, and the impact of strong governance on organisational performance and project deliverables.

Senior managers socially constructed the meaning of governance through narratives. The author learn about practices of governance through the perspectives of those involved in decision making.

This paper contributes to project management theory in two ways: it provides insight into the practice of corporate governance; and it develops the application of narrative enquiry to project management research.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the impact of relational norms on project success in different project governance contexts.

A worldwide web-based questionnaire yielded 200 responses. Results from regression analyses supported the hypothesis that relational norms impact project success. Hierarchical regression analyses showed the moderating effect of governance and control on the relationship between relational norms and project success.

Relational norms in the buyer-supplier relationship are positively associated with project success. This relationship is moderated by the strictness of project governance, especially the level of flexibility left to the project manager. Lower levels of managerial flexibility are detrimental to project success in cases of weak relational norms and supportive of project success in cases of high relational norms.

Academic implications stem from the indication that control has a low influence on the relationship between relational norms and project success, but that the level of managerial flexibility ultimately influences the choice of relational norms needed for a project to be successful.

Clear organizational structures and methodologies are supportive of project success in cases of good relational norms. Therefore, project management training should focus on the relationship building capabilities of project managers, to leverage investments in existing methods and organizational structures.

The paper extends the insights of the importance of soft aspects in managing projects across organizational borders and different governance structures.

Knowledge is recognized to be a key asset to achieve the strategic objectives of an organization. To that end, it is necessary to count on governance mechanisms that ensure the alignment between the knowledge resources and processes and the business strategy. Given that knowledge management is often performed by project management offices (PMOs), the purpose of this paper is to explore if the dimensions for PMOs governance suggested in the literature are also valid for knowledge governance and what problems do exist.

This research has been done using case study methodology. A large complex project in the IT industry was deeply analyzed. This project brings together most of the elements that can be found in current organizational contexts (e.g. geographical dispersed project teams, multicultural environment, technical complexity, etc.), thus reinforcing the applicability of the results obtained.

The study findings indicate that knowledge flows between PMOs take place along the dimensions defined for PMO governance, thus confirming the suitability of those dimensions also for the governance of knowledge. This research also validates the connection between the barriers to knowledge sharing and the knowledge governance mechanisms, and provides empirical evidence of the importance of informal knowledge governance to foster knowledge sharing behaviors. This is of key importance to overcome daily operational issues. The observations made are, in fact, valuable lessons learnt for future projects and a valuable input for further research.

This study explores the similarities between PMOs governance and knowledge governance in multi-PMO settings on the basis of a case study, thus contributing additional empirical data to the literature. Previous work with this approach has not been found.

In this study, we develop further understanding of how institutional change is created within a mature and local industry. In this pursuit, we examine how a collaborative large project governance model was institutionalized at an industrial sector-level through both industry-level activities and “institutional projects”.

This study builds on the foundations of institutional fields and institutional change, suggesting that projects are not only shaped by their contexts but also produce institutional change themselves. We conducted extensive fieldwork on the institutionalization of a collaborative project governance model in Finland.

The findings illustrate how institutional change in governance of large and complex inter-organizational projects is created at the institutional field level. The institutionalized collaborative project governance model includes aspects of both relational and contractual governance. The change was facilitated by temporal links between the institutional projects as well as vertical links between the institutional projects and the field-level development programs.

This is one of the first studies to address how a collaborative large project governance model becomes the norm at the institutional field level beyond the boundaries of an individual project or organization.

The aim of this paper is to identify the combinations of economic, normative, reputational and cognitive mechanisms that can prevent post‐award governance challenges on build‐operate‐transfer (BOT) projects in India.

The paper uses an empirical, case‐study based methodology to collect data and analyzes the cases through the use of the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) technique. The paper first identifies and classifies the various kinds of governance challenges and preventive mechanisms in BOT projects based on the extant literature. Empirical evidence on 11 BOT projects in India is gathered and QCA is employed to unearth the linkages between specific governance mechanisms and post‐award challenges on these projects.

Project governance issues were identified across two dominant interfaces – one between the public and private sector and the other between the project and the societal stakeholders. Governance mechanisms based on providing shared incentives combined with the capacity to administer projects are effective in combating governance challenges across the public‐private sector interface. Cognitive mechanisms which make the project more accountable to the societal stakeholders are most effective across the project‐stakeholder interface.

These findings can be validated on larger data sets, across geographies, sectors and variety of PPP projects – currently the authors have only studied the BOT variant of PPPs.

The authors’ “contingency” approach to governance can help decision makers select specific governance mechanisms based on a project's structure and risk profile to better ensure successful delivery of a BOT project's objectives.

Post‐award governance of PPP projects is a theme that has received comparatively little attention in the extant literature. Further, while post‐award issues as well as governance mechanisms have been separately identified, very little work exists that links these two sets of constructs. This paper seeks to contribute to knowledge in this area by proposing some preliminary findings on the link between post‐award issues and governance mechanisms. In addition, the paper employs an innovative technique called QCA to analyze the case‐study data.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and explore alternative coping strategies that may compensate for the limitations of weak governance structure in a product development project.

The findings are based on a single case study, including interviews and documents, of a product development project that consists of two interlinked projects in a large multinational company.

Two distinct procedures are identified to cope and manage effectively when there are weak project governance structures. The first procedure is a horizontal process of operational consensus-seeking where conflicts between projects are negotiated and resolved through communication between independent actors such as two project managers who are at the same hierarchical level within the same organization. The second process is a vertical process of strategic escalation where issues that have failed to be resolved are shifted upwards to a new hierarchical level where a new round of operational consensus-seeking is attempted.

This paper complements the existing understanding of project governance with a project-as-practice perspective. Based on the findings the authors suggest that project governance needs to be nuanced in its understanding since a too-structured approach may in fact increase tensions in an organization.

Practical insights include how organizations may work with its project governance structures in order to avoid tensions. The authors suggest that, in particular, politically sensitive situations may be avoided by weak rather than strong governance structures.

The authors find that weak governance structures may be efficient for the organization, but harmful to personnel, who become too focused on the task at hand.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge very little research has been attributed to project governance from a practice approach. Moreover, most attention has been given to strong structures, thereby not examining the positive implications of weak structures.

This study aims to examine the impact of governance on project delivery in complex private finance initiative (PFI) projects. Governance is crucial in delivering successful projects within budget, time and in accordance with other project objectives.

A two‐stage approach was used to address the research questions. First, a literature review was carried out and second, a multiple case study approach based on detailed semi‐structured interviews with project directors and senior managers was conducted to provide an in‐depth insight on how two major PFI projects were planned, managed and delivered in the National Health Service (NHS, UK).

Project governance influences project delivery in terms of cost, speed of completion, quality and its financial viability as it is critical in providing clear organisational structure, effective decision‐making structures and control processes. The success of one scheme was attributed to an appropriate governance structure enabling necessary reviews and adjustments to be made to render the scheme financially viable and affordable. The failed scheme, subsequently abandoned at a cost of over £15 million to tax payers, was due to an inadequate governance structure creating conflicting priorities of stakeholders, complex decision making with negative impact on project deliverables such as cost and time.

Previous research has not addressed the management aspect of governance which has a significant influence on financial outcomes of NHS PFI schemes. This will enable NHS and other public client organisations to understand the need for adequate governance structure in reducing the risks of projects running over time and incurring increase costs to ensure financial viability and affordability, particularly in large complex schemes.

The purpose of this study is to create a framework to analyze approaches for coordination, adaptation and safeguarding of exchanges in interorganizational project networks.

An analysis framework to analyze governance in project networks was created based on a systematic review of existing literature. The framework was applied to analyze governance approaches used in a large infrastructure project implemented with an alliance project delivery method to illustrate the practical validity of the framework.

The analysis framework categorized governance in project networks in six dimensions: goal setting, rewarding, monitoring, roles and decision-making, coordination and capability building. A set of questions for each governance dimension was created and the analysis framework was applied in the context of a project alliance.

The focus of this research is on governance internal to a project network. The authors identified dimensions of governance in project networks and related governance approaches based on a systematic literature review. The practical applicability of the framework was validated in a single case study setting.

The paper introduces a concept of governance in project networks, which takes the perspective that all actors that have an influence on project implementation are part of an interorganizational project network. The focal organization may have had a significant role in the design of governance, but governance also emerged from the network structure of companies and the interactions among them. The analysis framework created in this research can be used to design and analyze governance in different type of project context.

The paper introduces a concept of governance in project networks, which takes the perspective that all actors that have an influence on project implementation are part of an interorganizational project network.