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Project management scholars and practitioners have long debated how best to harness social interactions to optimise knowledge exchange and enhance stakeholder alignment and value. This study aims to assist project managers to understand and manage fuzziness and create enduring front-end value. It views the project life cycle as a potential source of co-created value. The paper uses a social capital lens to provide a deeper understanding of the project front-end; it uses a three-dimensional view (structural, relational, cognitive) to explore how stakeholder social capital can overcome front-end fuzziness to enhance decision-making and, thus, value creation.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior managers from teleconnections companies, which, when combined with secondary data, established the impact, nature and dimensions of social capital within a project management setting.

The research found that social capital can help to reduce complexity, uncertainty and equivocality in the early stages of projects, making them more clearly defined and thus helping to create greater stakeholder value in the later stages of the project. A surprising finding was that some project team members engaged in intentional equivocality to try to promote their own benefits rather than those of the organisation.

This paper reconceptualises the impact of social capital on stakeholder value creation in the front-end of projects. The paper contributes to a more holistic view of the front-end of project management, focusing social capital to reduce the sources of front-end fuzziness.

Although social media has been increasingly applied and valued in the construction industry, there has been little evidence revealing the influence mechanism of social media use in the construction context. In this way, this paper aims to explore how different purposes of social media use affect project performance from a project manager's perspective.

Drawing on the mechanism–outcome–performance framework, this paper developed a research model to figure out the mechanism through which work-oriented and socialization-oriented social media use influences construction project performance. The empirical data were collected from a survey of 249 construction project managers, and the structural equation modeling technique was applied to test the proposed model.

Results indicate that both work-oriented and socialization-oriented social media use promote knowledge acquisition and project social capital, which both further positively impact the project performance. Additionally, the negative moderating role of information overload is identified on the relationship between social media use and knowledge acquisition.

This study fulfills the need for an in-depth investigation of social media use on construction project performance, contributing to the project management and social media literature. Furthermore, this study provides recommendations for project managers to advance social media applications in the construction domain.

Recent research on construction project management (CPM) envisions addressing wider social good while delivering value to the funding organizations. It is complemented by a growing body of knowledge on social sustainability in construction projects. These two literature streams are currently scattered and there is a lack of holistic guidance on integrating social sustainability with CPM. The current study addresses this knowledge gap through a critical review of these two bodies of literature and thereby proposing a conceptual framework for socially sustainable CPM.

A conceptual modelling approach, involving sequential steps of knowledge acquisition, and knowledge abstraction and representation, has been used. Knowledge acquisition was based on a systematic search and short-listing of research articles and knowledge abstraction was performed through thematic analysis of the 81 shortlisted articles. The categories abstracted through thematic analysis were integrated and presented as the framework.

A framework for socially sustainable CPM, consisting of four social sustainability characteristics and six areas of social sustainability integration in CPM (SSI-CPM), has been proposed. It presents possibilities of integrating social concerns in CPM processes at various levels – ranging from permanent firms that provide resources to the temporary (project) organization that delivers value.

This study seeks to bridge the gap between theory and practice of realizing social good through construction projects. To this end, a conceptual framework has been proposed along with an agenda for future research encompassing social sustainability and CPM.

Numerous studies highlight the importance of knowledge transfer between projects, but the influence factors are still debated. As a contribution to the identified gap, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of organizational context, project characteristics and social relations in the inter-project knowledge transfer within the project-based organizations (PBOs).

This paper collects the data through 268 sample questionnaires from Chinese construction sectors and applies the structure equation modeling to analyze knowledge transfer between projects in PBOs.

The results indicate the organizational context (meeting system, reward system and shared culture) and project characteristics (similarity and urgency) are antecedents affecting social relations (communication, trust and reciprocity) between project teams, and their social relations further influence the effectiveness of inter-project knowledge transfer.

The study highlights the role of organizational context and effect of social relations for inter-project knowledge transfer in PBOs, and provides valuable suggestions for knowledge and project management in PBOs.

In the 1950s, social studies education came under attack from both citizens and the government for the failure to promote citizenship. Events both at home and abroad eventually led to a collective reexamination of the overall purpose and goals of social studies. As a result, over fifty curriculum projects were developed to promote individual social sciences and advances in curriculum design. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the major projects developed during the new social studies movement. As well, this article provides readers with an explanation of the various causes that led to curriculum changes. Due to the large number or projects, the authors have selected eight of the major projects to discuss and highlight.

The purpose of this paper is to present the current knowledge surrounding social value (SV) and show how lean approach supports SV realisation in the delivery of construction projects.

A critical literature review was adopted, to gather the current knowledge surrounding SV from mainstream management sciences, construction management and lean literature. A total of 70 studies were critically reviewed.

The study establishes that the current level of awareness on SV is still low and there is a dearth of scholarly publications on SV especially in the construction management literature. The investigation reveals the potentials of lean approach in supporting the delivery of SV on construction projects.

This study conceptualises the community and the physical environment around where the construction project is executed as customers using lean production approach. It shows that the transformation, flow and value view supports smooth workflow, which enhances the achievement of SV objectives. This creates a new insight into how SV can be realised in construction project delivery.

This study extends the on-going debate around the need for SV in construction project delivery and contributes to construction management and lean construction literature on SV. Future studies could build on this to obtain empirical data and develop an approach/method that would support the evidencing of SV delivery on construction projects.

This research addresses the lack of project management research into social procurement by exploring the risks and opportunities of social procurement from a cross-sector collaboration perspective.

A content analysis of five focus groups conducted with thirty-five stakeholders involved in the implementation of a unique social procurement initiative on a major Australian construction project is reported.

Results show little collective understanding among project stakeholders for what social procurement policies can achieve, a focus on downside risk rather than upside opportunity and perceptions of distributive injustice about the way new social procurement risks are being managed. Also highlighted is the tension between the collaborative intent of social procurement requirements and the dynamic, fragmented and temporary project-based construction industry into which they are being introduced. Ironically, this can lead to opportunistic behaviours to the detriment of the vulnerable people these policies are meant to help.

The paper concludes by presenting a new conceptual framework of project risk and opportunity management from a social procurement perspective. Deficiencies in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) are also highlighted around an expanded project management role in meeting these new project management requirements.

Social procurement is becoming increasingly popular in many countries as a collaborative mechanism to ensure construction and infrastructure projects contribute positively to the communities in which they are built. This research addresses the lack of project management research into social procurement by exploring the risks and opportunities of social procurement from a cross-sector collaboration perspective.

Owing to their complex and knowledge-intensive nature, information systems development (ISD) projects require effective collaboration between business and technology experts. In this regard, social capital theory may provide a valuable framework and insight into explaining knowledge sharing behavior in an ISD context. The purpose of this paper is to expand the theory of knowledge sharing as developed thus far in the ISD project context using the full-blown team social capital theory.

The expertise and communication effectiveness of business and technology professionals were posited as antecedents of team social capital and knowledge sharing. The research model for this study integrates expertise, communication, knowledge sharing, social capital, and team performance into a structural equation modeling. The research model was empirically tested with a data set from business and technology professional pairs collected from 115 ISD project teams.

The results indicated that team social capital and knowledge sharing have significant influences on team performance. Team social capital appears to have a stronger influence on knowledge sharing than business and technology expertise. Communication effectiveness and technology expertise are important antecedents to raise team social capital.

In this study, the social capital theory is applied toward enhancing the theory of knowledge sharing in ISD project teams. General social capital construct and measures are adopted and modified into the team social capital measures and validated empirically.

The purpose of this paper is to present the preliminary findings on the use of sustainable project management practices within social enterprise projects. The research gaps within this field have proposed the authors to address the challenges rising from lack of sustainable infrastructures in social-based projects both within for-profit and non-profit organisations. On the other side, behavioural needs and sustainable awareness of different stakeholders will be examined.

Secondary research consists of conducting a literature review clarifying the existing knowledge of the research topic within the body of literature. The stakeholders’ behavioural needs towards acting and implementing sustainable practices led to the adoption of sustainable practices within projects which are managed across profit and non-profit organisations.

The lack of sustainable behaviour and its adoption within organisations is also highlighted. The limitation of the research is the importance of integration of sustainable development (SD) within social projects. Such projects were identified as the drivers towards educating the society towards future generations’ sustainability awareness. However, if the adoption of sustainable practices is well established in some sectors (such as construction), literature tends to demonstrate a lack of information regarding other sectors, especially within social enterprises.

The novelty of the research is to develop an early understanding regarding linkages between sustainable practices and project management programmes within the social projects. The particular focus is given to corporate social responsibility and the comparative analysis has been made among for-profit and non-profit organisations in terms of SD metrics. The study results would be beneficial to the researchers and practitioners exploring within the same field.

During the late twentieth century in the field of social studies education, Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann, and James Shaver were prominent leaders. Their work on the Harvard Social Studies Project was part of the New Social Studies movement popular in the 1960s and 1970s that attempted to transform the social studies curriculum nationwide. By creating materials that focused on inquiry-based learning, they aimed to make a difference in the way that social studies courses were taught in American schools. The focus of this research is an analysis of the content and impact of the Harvard Social Studies Project and an exploration of the contributions of Donald Oliver, Fred Newmann, and James Shaver to that project. Historical research methods served as the primary theoretical framework for guiding the investigation. Oliver, Newmann, and Shaver’s work on the Harvard Social Studies Project not only established all three men as influential leaders in social studies education but also laid the groundwork for their subsequent work in broader areas of education.