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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the causes of scope creep on project completion in the real estate development industry in Ghana.

Both simple random sampling and convenience sampling techniques were used in selecting the respondents for the study. The respondents were experts working in the real estate development industry in Ghana.

Results from the study showed that the most critical factors that cause scope creep in the Ghanaian real estate development industry are client changes, unforeseen risks and unclear scope. Mitigating measures for addressing these factors were proposed.

This paper is limited to causes of scope creep in the real estate development industry in Ghana based on data collected from only real estate development firms in Accra. Due to geographic constraints, the researcher was unable to sample real estate development companies across the entire country. The finding of this study may not be generalised since causes of scope creep can be unique to individual country contexts.

This paper has documented the critical causes of scope creep and its major impacts on project completion in the real estate development industry in Ghana. The results will help project managers in the industry to appreciate the causes of scope creep and its effect on project completion as well as increase the quality of economics on real estate management and reduce the costs and risks of housing of delivery in the country.

The paper examined the causes and mitigation of project scope creep in the Ghanaian context.

Traditional construction procurement is generally used for projects with no unusual features and a well‐established scope. In this method, work progresses sequentially because each step is completed before the next step is started. As such, making changes during construction is problematic and expensive. Design and build (D/B) method allows the client to introduce the contractor's design at any stage resulting in the possibility of having different levels of initial scope establishment. Consequently, the project can gain benefit through buildability and the integration of design and construction. The client's main criteria for selecting D/B procurement are to reduce the time and cost of projects through one point responsibility. Factors that are related to time and cost performance include: the completeness of the client's brief (the level of initial scope establishment by the client), changes made to the project by the client, the stage and manner in which the changes are reffected, degree of project difficulty and coordination efforts with the contractor. It is widely recognized that the initial states of those factors at the beginning of a project affect time and cost performance, but the degree of impact has yet to be studied in details. This study focuses on the effects of different levels of the initial scope establishment prior to engaging the D/B contractor. This is investigated using dynamic simulation approach. It is found that the initial scope development should be roughly in the range between 50 and 70%. Experimentation with the model developed also shows that D/B fast‐track construction with fixed design, procurement and construction schedule is most effective in saving time, whereas D/B with traditional method is best for cost saving.

Strategy research has long understood that reconfiguration of the scope of the activities a firm engages in over time is critical to its long-run success, while under-emphasizing differences in redeployment strategy that underlie apparently similar scope and changes in scope. In this paper, we build on the idea that a firm’s number of activities (scope) and change in activities (turnover) arise from two fundamental rates of redeployment: the rate at which activities are added and the rate at which activities are subtracted. In net, the turnover rate reflects how actively a firm reconfigures its resource base by redeploying resources via addition and subtraction of activities. We develop a model that links addition and subtraction with the composition of a firm’s activities and then provide an empirical illustration using data from the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office. As an example of one extension, the model can be generalized to incorporate elements of absorptive capacity. The analysis contributes to our understanding of how firms reconfigure their activities and provide managers with a clearer understanding of tools that guide redeployment of existing resources.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a contingency framework that allows researchers to classify and study management accounting innovation within the context of the literature on the sociology of diffusion and adoption.

The process of innovation in organizations involves two stages: the stages of diffusion and adoption along two dimensions of extent: technical and administrative, and scope: autonomous and systemic. A combination of these two dimensions yields four types of accounting innovations: mechanistic, organic, organizational development, and organizational transformation. Management accounting innovations has been studied using these four innovation typologies.

The paper suggests that management accounting researchers pay particular attention to an organization's approach to diffusion and adoption strategies of innovation, particularly, the extent and scope dimensions when designing and implementing process innovation programs.

The innovation contingency framework developed in this paper facilitates the analysis of two important research questions. First, why have some innovations been readily accepted while other, apparently similar proposed innovations have not? Second, why has a particular innovation succeeded in some firms and failed in others?

The subject of accounting innovations and change are important to managers. Accounting innovations as administrative and technical innovations are intertwined in performance evaluation as well as compensation systems. Accordingly, they are resisted.

The paper's contribution is in the advancement of sociological theories in behavioral managerial accounting. The paper develops a process innovation framework that integrates organizational sociological research in process innovations, particularly in diffusion research.

This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of independent directors based on the perspective of strategic control.

This is an empirical study carried out between 2007 and 2012 based on a sample of Chinese A-share-listed companies.

The results indicate that the departure of a CEO provides conditions for the new CEO to become empowered to carry out strategic change. The behavior of a new CEO results in the phenomenon of “a new broom sweeps clean” and increases the scope of strategic change. In addition, the results indicate that the board’s independence negatively moderates the relationship between the CEO’s succession and the scope of strategic change, and that independent directors are effective in supervising risk-taking behavior on the part of the CEO which ultimately results in damaging company performance.

The corporate internal and external supervisory mechanisms should be improved during the process of succession of a new CEO, and the effectiveness of the supervision of board directors should also be strengthened during the implementation of the strategic process of a new CEO.

Previous research on the effectiveness of independent directors mostly focuses on financial control, with a single leap from independent directors to corporate performance, which neglects the strategic control of independent directors. From the micro perspective of the strategic control process as a means of discussing the independent directors’ watchdog role, this paper extends and enriches the research on “the effectiveness of independent directors”.

This paper aims to explore the roles different ownership structures, the joint effect of related and unrelated diversification strategies, and previous performance levels have on the restructuring strategies of such firms.

Annual reports of publicly traded firms in the two Chinese stock exchanges are used to collect data. Multiple regression and ANOVA analysis are used to examine the impact of ownership structure types, match between diversification strategies, and previous performance on the change of business scopes of the sample business groups.

Compared to other ownership types, government owned business groups tend to increase their business scope during asset restructuring, while private business groups tend to decrease their scopes through divestitures and spinoffs. Poor previous performance is also found to be negatively related to change in business scopes. The “match” between related and unrelated diversification strategies of the business groups leads to increase in business scopes, while “mismatch” between these two strategies tends to lead to decrease in business scopes.

This study provides some recommendations to managers and public policy makers in emerging economies. There is a need to monitor the changing institutional environment a firm operates in. It is up to the managers of business groups to determine the degree of market imperfections they are facing and the need to compensate with internal market mechanism and social exchange mechanism within the group structure. As China opens its door further to private ownership and foreign ownership, the pressure to increase efficiency and effectiveness along with the continuous improvement of the institutional environment will require that managers adopt strategies that can enhance the competitiveness of the firms, whether it is through further diversification or scope reduction.

This research deepens our understanding of restructuring strategies of Chinese business groups, by linking factors such as ownership structure, diversification strategies, and past performance to scope changes in these groups. It can broaden our understanding of corporate restructuring in transitional economies, such as China and India.

New product development (NPD) project is an organizational competitiveness strategic weapon. Yet, many NPDs projects fail due to the dynamic nature of critical success factors such as time, cost, quality, and scope. Scope and change management (CM) are crucial factors and have a direct bearing on the other three factors. Thus, there is a need for effective CM in NPD projects to sustain the competitiveness and focusing on scope. This study aims to examine this issue.

In this paper, the principles of cybernetics and system dynamics (SD) methodology have been used in developing causal loop diagrams, flow diagrams, and the governing equations. The SD model thus developed has been used to analyze the factors such as change in scope due to the development of new technology.

The dynamic simulation of the SD model was carried out; the results indicate that effective knowledge management (KM) constitutes the main controlling factor that has a significant control over project dynamics. Accordingly, suggestions have been made to improve on the KM aspects in the manufacturing sector, based on which the model has been developed.

The model developed in this research gives an in‐depth study of the influence of “change in scope” on competence loss, competence development, and competence absorption of the knowledge workers. The results lay special emphasis on efficient KM in the manufacturing sector. Accordingly, suggestions on KM implementation include the processes of knowledge creation, storage, distributions, validation, and application.

This paper is unique in the sense that it develops a model with in‐depth structures, which helps the strategic managers in better understanding of the dynamics of NPD when change in scope occurs.

In the continuing endeavour to work towards ever better management, experience plays a crucial role. We learn from success, but we can learn much more from failure. Further, it is far better and cheaper when we learn from other people′s failures rather than our own. This monograph assesses the requirements of project management in relation to industrial projects, illustrating the factors that can result in failure by means of a series of case studies of completed and abandoned projects worldwide that have failed in one way or another. The key roles played by project planning and project cost control in meeting and overcoming the practical problems in the management of industrial projects are examined in detail. In conclusion the lessons that can be learned are evaluated and presented, so that we may listen and learn – if only we will.

For construction and management, the existing codes of practice of international organizations such as US Army Corps of Engineers, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the United Nations Office for Project Services, etc., often prove ineffective when applied in post-war countries like Afghanistan. Domestic contractors faced maximum challenges in contractual scope management, which was implemented by such organizations based on their existing codes of practice. The purpose of this paper is to understand these barriers in scope management as faced by the domestic contractors of Afghanistan.

The research employs a mixed methodology to cater to its objectives. Face-to-face structured interviews of 14 industry experts and extensive literature review were conducted to identify unique barriers pertaining to Afghanistan construction industry. Further, quantitative assessment of these barriers through the statistical tools of “mean score ranking,” “Kendall’s test” and “independent sample t-test” was carried out to understand the severity of the barriers.

In total, 39 unique barriers were identified under the groups of “scope formulation,” “scope completeness,” “scope pricing,” “scope implementation” and “scope change control.” The consequential impacts of these barriers and their existence at different stages of the project were illustrated. The most severe barriers were identified as the “inadequacy of site investigation reports” and the “unavailability of resources in local markets.”

The understanding of the challenges faced by local stakeholders, as highlighted by this study, can be utilized by these international organizations in their strategy and planning to ensure successful projects while also propagating the adoption of sustainable construction practices.

Project scope creep is a nightmare and nearly intolerable task. Most project managers struggle to curtail the expanse and degree of scope creep. This study examines different likely project scope creep factors associated with the construction industry projects.

After many brainstorming sessions with construction stakeholders, several project scope creep factors were identified. Then, a detailed survey was executed in big construction projects of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

The results derived and validated five conspicuous factors leading to project scope creep. Respectively, the highest and the lowest impact on project scope appears to be imposed by tasks/specifications and complexity/uncertainty.

It offers crucial support to the project stakeholders in scrutinizing different factors that stand as hurdles to project success and allows them to seek remedies to resolve them.

It is among the first study in the region that identifies and validates the factors that hinder construction project success.