Search results

The purpose of this paper is to report on a PhD thesis that examined the empirical relationship between a specific set of critical success factors (CSFs), project success, and success dimensions (criteria) from the perspectives of World Bank project supervisors (task managers or task team leaders) and project managers (the national project coordinators). Also, the PhD thesis author's journey and motivation are explained.

Data were collected by web questionnaires addressed to 1,421 World Bank task team leaders and paper‐based questionnaires delivered to 600 national project coordinators in 26 different countries in Africa. Principal component and confirmatory factor analyses, multiple correlation and regression analyses, as well as structural equation models were used for data analysis in this study.

First, research findings highlight a specific set of World Bank project CSFs (monitoring, coordination, design, training) and the existence of a second‐order latent CSF, that is World Bank project supervision. Second, they suggest that World Bank project supervision has differing significant influences on the two project success dimensions and that the first (project management (PM) success) does not significantly affect the second (deliverable success). Third, consistent with theory and practice, they suggest that the most prominent CSFs for both World Bank project supervisors and managers are design and monitoring. Fourth, they suggest that for the national project coordinators, project success is insensitive to the level of design efforts but a significant correlation does exist between monitoring efforts and project “profile”, a success dimension which is an early pointer of long‐term deliverable success (impact).

This study offers insights into the relationship between success factors and dimensions for ID projects with the perspectives of both the World Bank project supervisors and managers. The thesis calls for further research on PM in the ID industry sector.

As in the private sector, public organizational information systems (IS) development is commonly carried out through projects. One of the alternatives followed by governmental organizations to perform their projects is outsourcing (by hiring other public institutions that have expertise in the IS area of the projects to be developed). However, limited research has been conducted on project success regarding these government-to-government (G2G) contexts. Since achieving success is crucial for public management, this paper proposes a model for Success Management of IS projects in G2G context.

The research method was design science research (DSR). In the evaluation step of the DSR, IS projects in a G2G environment were the object of case studies.

This work presents in detail how Success Management activities can be integrated into the processes and process groups of the Project Management Institute's project management guide. The authors also suggest tools and techniques to be used in each Success Management activity.

Managing success, particularly addressing success criteria and success factors, can help managers focus their efforts on what will really impact the success of a project. In the context of IS projects in G2G contexts, this contributes to decreasing waste and increasing the chances of providing better services to citizens.

This work contributes to theory by providing a new model for IS G2G projects that integrates Success Management and project management processes.

In this study, the authors sought to investigate how the implicit social ties of both project owners and potential backers are associated with crowdfunding project success.

Drawing on social ties theory and factors that affect crowdfunding success, in this research, the authors developed a model to study how project owners' and potential backers' implicit social ties are associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The proposed model was empirically tested with crowdfunding data collected from Kickstarter and social media data collected from Twitter. The authors performed the test using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with fixed effects.

The authors found that project owners' implicit social ties (specifically, their social media activities, degree centrality and betweenness centrality) are significantly and positively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. Meanwhile, potential project backers' implicit social ties (their social media activities and degree centrality) are negatively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The authors also found that project size moderates the effects of project owners' social media activities on projects' degrees of success.

This work contributes to the literature on crowdfunding by investigating how the implicit social ties of both potential backers and project owners on social media are associated with crowdfunding project success. This study extends the previous research on social ties' roles in explaining crowdfunding project success by including implicit social ties, while the literature explored only explicit social ties.

This study aims to explore how ethical leadership and innovative climate impact project success through employees innovative behavior. In addition, based on the conservation of resources theory, this study also examines whether time pressure moderates the innovative work behavior and project success nexus.

Data were collected from 403 employees working in Vietnam's information technology (IT) companies. The partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to investigate the impact of ethical leadership and innovative climate on project success, the mediating effect of innovative behavior and the moderating role of time pressure.

Empirical findings indicate that ethical leadership and innovative climate positively impact on project success. Moreover, employees' innovative behavior has a complementary effect on these relationships. In addition, time pressure moderates the nexus between innovative work behavior and project success.

The findings suggest that IT companies can promote innovative work behavior among employees by building ethical leadership and enhancing an innovative climate. Moreover, when designing and implementing a project, project managers should take care to allow enough time for innovative behavior within the team.

This inquiry is probably the first attempt to explore the mechanism linking ethical leadership and innovative climate to project success, with the mediating role of employees' innovative behavior. Additionally, time pressure is an increasingly relevant factor in contemporary business, but so far little explored in research. This study extends the current knowledge by considering the moderating role of time pressure in the innovative behavior and project success nexus.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of humble leadership on project success. In addition, we examine the mediating effect of organisational learning on the relationship between humble leadership and the success of international development projects.

This study adopted a quantitative research methodology based on questionnaire data collected from 80 international development project managers from different sectors in Senegal (West Africa). The variance-based structural equation method, following the partial least squares approach, was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results showed that humble leadership is positively related to project success. Furthermore, organizational learning mediates the relationship between humble leadership and project success.

This research has several limitations. The authors did not examine the role of organizational culture as a moderating variable. However, the authors believe that the cultural variable can have an impact on project success and team building, and future studies should consider this aspect as well. In the African context, each country has its own culture, which may affect the behaviour of the project manager. Also, the authors admit that the sample size is relatively small, which greatly reduces the generalizability of the results.

These findings have important implications. First, because a project leader’s humility enhances project success, it is critical for development projects to select leaders who demonstrate modest conduct in the workplace. The perfect selection of a humble leader depends heavily on judgements about the characteristics of a humble leader from new project manager candidates.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study found that humble leadership is important for project success, thus extending the utility of the concept of humble leadership to the project literature.

This study investigates the impact of network positions on inter-team conflicts and project success in megaprojects.

Network position is measured with centrality and structural holes. Substantive conflict and affective conflict reflect inter-team conflicts. A questionnaire survey was implemented in Chinese megaprojects, and 309 valid questionnaires were collected. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and bootstrapping methods.

The results show that centrality negatively impacts project success, while the presence of a team in a structural hole has no significant impact on project success. Centrality is negatively related to substantive conflict and is positively related to affective conflict. The team in a structural hole has a positive effect on substantive conflict and a negative effect on affective conflict. Substantive conflict and affective conflict have positive and negative effects on project success, respectively. The effect of network position on project success is mediated by inter-team conflict.

This research provides a reference for megaproject managers to better conduct network governance, manage inter-team conflict, and successfully manage projects. The study did not investigate the effects of changes in teams' network positions on project success. Future research should explore this facet of megaprojects.

This research adds to existing research on network position, and reveals that project network governance is important for megaproject success. This provides a new direction for megaproject management. Furthermore, the results validate constructive and non-constructive roles and the mediating role of inter-team conflict. This complements the literature on conflict management, providing a reference for megaproject managers when managing inter-team conflict.

The objectives of this study are twofold: first, to identify the effect of sustainability management on the success of international development projects, and second, to investigate the moderating role of political and social skills on this relationship.

This study adopted a quantitative research methodology based on questionnaire data collected from 43 international development project managers from various fields in Burkina Faso (West Africa). Descriptive statistics and exploratory and confirmatory analyses using principal component analysis were used to assess the quality of the measurement model. A multiple regression analysis based on the partial least squares approach was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that sustainability management positively contributes to the success of international development projects. However, given the specificities of these projects and their perception of success, the project coordinator's political and social skills do not predict a greater impact of sustainability management on the success of international development projects. The study also found that project coordinators prioritize their technical skills over behavioral ones.

This study fills a gap in the literature, given that little is known about the moderating role of political and social skills in the effect of sustainability management on the success of specific projects such as international development projects.

Despite considerable research on the subject, there is still some misunderstanding about what characterizes successful project delivery in construction projects. Evaluating project delivery success is crucial for organizations since it enables them to prepare for future growth through more effective project management mechanisms and rank the organization's projects for continuous improvement. There is considerable disagreement over a set of success criteria that can be applied to all kinds of projects when evaluating project delivery success, making it a complicated procedure for practitioners and scholars. This research seeks to alleviate the problem by validating and testing a systematic project delivery success model (3D integration model) in the Australian construction industry. The aim is to establish a dependable approach built upon prior research and reliable in evaluating delivery success for any project type.

Based on a novel project delivery success model, this research applies a case study methodology to analyse 40 construction projects undertaken by a single Australian project management consultancy. The research utilizes a mixed-method research approach and triangulates three sets of data. First, the project delivery success (PDS) scores of the projects are calculated by the model. Second, a qualitative analysis targeting the performance of the same projects using a different system called the performance assessment review (PAR) scores was obtained. These culminate in two sets of ranking. The third step seeks validation of results from the head of the partnering organization that has undertaken the projects.

The findings of this study indicate that the 3D integration model is accurate and reliable in measuring the success of project delivery in construction projects of various sizes, locations and durations. While the model uses six key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure delivery success, it is evident that three of these may significantly improve the likelihood of PDS: value, speed and impact. Project managers should focus on these priority aspects of performance to generate better results.

Restrictions inherent to the case study approach are identified for this mixed-method multiple-case study research. There is a limitation on the sample size in this study. Despite the researcher's best efforts, no other firm was willing to share such essential data; therefore, only 40 case studies could be analysed. Nonetheless, the number of case studies met the literature's requirements for adequate units for multiple-case research. This research only looked at Australian construction projects. Thus, the conclusions may not seem applicable to other countries or industries. The authors investigated testing the PDS in the construction sector. It can assist in improving efficiency and resource optimization in this area. Nonetheless, the same technique may be used to analyse and rank the success of non-construction projects.

Despite the research conducted previously on the PDS of construction projects, there is still confusion among researchers and practitioners about what constitutes a successful project delivery. Although several studies have attempted to address this confusion, no consensus on consistent performance metrics or a practical project success model has been formed. More importantly, (1) the ability to measure success across multiple project types, (2) the use of triple bottom line (TBL) to incorporate sustainability in evaluating delivery success and (3) the use of a complexity measurement tool to adjust delivery success scores set the 3D integration model apart from others.

As managing risks effectively is critical for successful projects, project managers regularly identify and prioritize the risks that apply to their projects. However, research argues that project managers struggle to identify effective risk mitigation approaches for the most critical risks, partly because they do not always have the required authority to act effectively. The authors argue that, particularly in high-risk projects, organizational support (OS) provided by senior executives to project managers can facilitate a practical approach to risk mitigation beyond traditional risk management practices.

The authors modeled the relationship between risk, organizational support and project success. Then, the authors conducted a structural equation modeling analysis on survey data obtained from 722 projects and tested for the impacts of OS practices in the presence of risk on projects' success.

Suppose done effectively, senior executives can provide more support to project managers and the teams in high-risk projects, resulting in higher project success. OS has a positive impact on project success in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. Interestingly, the positive impact of OS on success is greater than the negative impact of the risk.

The paper further describes various effective OS practices to mitigate risks and explore opportunities when faced with high-risk projects.

Whereas it is known that risk has a negative impact on project success, this paper suggests that, in addition to that, OS is in between risk and success and has an impact on this relationship (mediation). Moreover, with OS, the total negative effect of risk on effectiveness turns into a positive impact.

The emergence of collaborative delivery models and working practices in construction industry has created a potential area for project success research. Previous studies have addressed success factors of various collaborative delivery models (e.g. alliance and partnering). However, there is currently very limited research-based knowledge concerning core success factors for different collaborative delivery models, exploring the commonalities. Thus, this study aims to conceptualize a success model for collaborative construction projects by identifying and structuring their core success factors through the lens of project delivery elements.

A systematic literature review was conducted, and thematic as well as content analysis of the relevant studies led to the identification of mentioned success factors in the literature for different collaborative delivery models. Then, those common success factors were structured in a model based on factors' relation to project delivery elements.

The obtained results present eight core success factors (e.g. equality, mutual trust and commitment to win–win philosophy) for collaborative construction projects, structured in a model based on their contribution toward project organization, contractual relationships, and operational system in construction project delivery. Moreover, the differences between success factors for traditional and collaborative construction projects are discussed.

This study's findings provide insightful theoretical contributions on collaborative construction project success and providing a departure point for future studies based on the discussed differences between success factors of collaborative and traditional construction projects. The findings can be also practically insightful for the project professionals in collaborative construction projects to succeed in managing project organization, contractual relationships, and operational system.