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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.

Although the use of project teams is on the rise, there is a limited understanding of how project managers can ensure project team success. Research to date is relatively broad and does not pinpoint how and why leadership influences success in a project team context. Along these lines, we draw from social learning theory to illustrate that ethical leadership influences project success through leader trust and knowledge sharing.

We collected data from 175 project team members from the information technology and software industry to evaluate our hypotheses. The results were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Our findings support our hypotheses, illustrating that ethical leadership is related to leader trust and knowledge sharing, and that leader trust and knowledge sharing mediate the relationship between ethical leadership and project success.

Our work illustrates that the behaviors inherent in ethical leadership may be particularly well-suited for these project team challenges. Ethical leaders help team members understand that project success is possible when team members are transparent with one another, discussing their goals and challenges, and then working together to ensure their actions are coordinated in a way that increases the success of the overall project.

For those in industries or organizations where project teams are commonly used, our study may help to attract, select, and retain project managers that exhibit ethical leadership tendencies. Project managers are likely to be attracted to settings that align with their leadership style. Thus, organizations could focus on developing a culture that focuses on process over results.

We sought to align with the contingency approach to leadership, which suggests that the ideal leadership style depends on the followers, and the context in which the leader and followers interact. Specifically, we investigate ethical leadership as an ideal approach for project managers influencing members of their project teams. Our study demonstrates how ethical leadership is an ideal, context-specific approach that project managers can apply to increase the chances of project success.

The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively validate the constructs of a theoretically derived research model while gaining insights to steer the direction of a greater study on methodologies, their elements, and their impact on project success. In doing so, to investigate whether different project environments, notably project governance, impacts the relationship between methodologies and project success.

A deductive approach was applied to validate a theoretically derived research model. In total, 19 interviews across 11 industrial sectors and four countries were used to collect data. Pattern-matching techniques were utilized in the analysis to deductively validate the research model.

There is a positive relationship between project methodology elements and the characteristics of project success; however, environmental factors, notably project governance, influence the use and effectiveness of a project methodology and its elements with a resulting impact on the characteristics of project success.

Project governance plays a major role in the moderating effect of a project methodology’s effectiveness. Contingency theory is applicable to a project’s methodology’s selection and its customization according to the project environment.

Understand the impact of project methodologies and their elements on the characteristics of project success while being moderated by the project environment, for example, the risk of suboptimal project performance due to the effectiveness of methodology elements being negatively impacted by the project environment.

The impact of a project methodology (collection of heterogeneous-related elements) on the characteristics of project success is identified while being moderated by the project environment, notably project governance.

Barnes’ Iron Triangle was one of the first attempts to evaluate project success based on time, cost and performance, which were portrayed as interdependent dimensions. Over time, these criteria were expanded and especially criteria taking the satisfaction of stakeholder groups into account are becoming more and more popular. The purpose of this paper is to find out whether specific patterns for the selection of project success criteria across various fields of applications emerged which has not been regarded in literature before. Furthermore, the authors seek to identify of additional key factors influencing project success assessment next to the choice of project success criteria.

The paper uses a review of recent literature published in academic journals, in standard references and in widespread project management frameworks (Organisational Competence Baseline, PRINCE2 and PMBoK Guide).

The findings show that Barnes’ ideas are an integral part of all approaches investigated in the study. Additionally, the relevance of the so-called “soft criteria” related to the satisfaction of stakeholder groups, could be substantiated. However, the authors found no indications that patterns for the selection of project success criteria have emerged across various fields of applications. Factors influencing project success assessment are not taken into account in the examined articles in a systematic manner. This motivates for further research in this field.

Access limitations, papers not yet digitally available or the interpretations have an impact on the results.

For appropriate project assessment the sound and well-rounded selection of hard and soft criteria and the consideration that not the field of application, but influencing factors yet to be analysed influence the selection of project success criteria are crucial. Project management professionals should choose the criteria suitable for their projects individually on a project-by-project basis.

This paper reveals that no patterns have so far been developed to assess project success in various fields of application. Furthermore, factors influencing project success assessment are not considered in a systematic manner.

This study aims to examine the mediating role of cooperative style to conflict resolution and team potency in the relationship between transactional leadership style and the success of international development projects (IDP). The study draws on full range leadership theory and contextualizes transactional leadership style to the IDP environment.

A questionnaire survey was administered to a convenience sample of 111 IDP managers in Benin. The data obtained from the survey were subjected to principal component analysis using the SPSS and confirmatory factor analysis using XLSTAT-PLSM. The research hypotheses are tested according to the partial least squares method.

The hypothesis test shows that transactional leadership has a direct and indirect positive influence (through team potency) on the success of IDP. Contrary to the cooperative style of conflict resolution, team potency plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between transactional leadership and the success of IDP. Also, considering the effect of the specific dimensions of transactional leadership on the success of IDP, only the “active management by exception” dimension influences directly and indirectly (through team potency) on the latter.

As a result, this research is of great value to IDP managers who are aware of the positive consequences associated with transactional leadership without knowing the role played by its dimensions. Indeed, it provides them with information necessary to identify the appropriate transactional leadership behaviors to improve the success of projects.

The relevance of this study is to consider team potency as intermediary mechanisms between transactional leadership and the success of IDP and examine the effect of the dimensions of transactional leadership on the success of IDP by integrating the mediating action of team potency. Besides, this research highlights a mechanism through which transactional leadership influences the success of IDPs and shows that the use of the construct of transactional leadership rather than its specific dimensions does not capture the specificities of the mechanism that links transactional leadership and its consequences.

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of conscientiousness and extraversion personality traits on project success. The relationship is mediated by affective professional commitment, whilst the relationship between personality traits and project success is moderated by organizational project management maturity.

The deductive approach is used to achieve the objectives of this study. Data were collected through a purposive sampling technique from 250 respondents with the help of questionnaires from information technology sectors. The structural equation modelling (SEM) in partial least squares-SEM and SPSS is used to analyse the data and to examine the hypothesis.

The outcomes demonstrate the partial mediating impact of affective professional commitment between the relationship of conscientiousness and extraversion personalities with project success. Additionally, it proves the moderating effects of project management maturity between the relationship of conscientiousness and extraversion personalities with project success.

This study reflects that employee personality appears to be a reliable indicator of how an employee is faithful to his profession. This faithfulness or duty decides the employee’s execution in terms of offering a successful project. Thus, achieving employee commitment needs to be done by completing the project successfully by the organizations in the presence of project management maturity systems.

It is the first study of its kind to provide experimental proof of the impact of a manager’s personality traits on project success in the presence of affective professional commitment (mediator) and organizational project management maturity (moderator).

The purpose of this paper is to provide a holistic view of the link between the identification of complexity contributing factors, the application of project management approaches and their impacts on the performance of Information Technology (IT)-enabled change projects.

A qualitative approach of an embedded single-case design comprising three IT-enabled change projects delivered in Australia was used to explore the impact of complexity contributing factors and project management approaches on project performance measures. Semi-structured interviews were used as the main data collection method. Thematic analysis was used as the data analysis approach.

The results from the thematic analysis highlight that complexity contributing factors are related to two categories of complexity defined in this paper: technical uncertainties and uncertainty in goals and deliverables, both have an impact on the performance of IT-enabled change projects. It also highlights key project management approaches such as the use of an adaptive management approach and good communication as key to managing complexity. It also identifies a misalignment between stakeholder perception of success and the project management success measure for complex IT-enabled projects.

The research is based on data collected from Australian participants involved in three case studies. Additional data collection and reviews from practitioners in the field of project management could further refine and improve this research.

The research facilitates the identification of specific complexity contributing factors at the early stage of a project to ensure that the appropriate project management approaches and success measures are used.

The paper contributes to rethinking the pathways towards improving project performance in the IT sector by expanding the identification of project complexity to understanding how complexity and the management approaches impact project performance.