Why Do Business Organizations Participate in Projects? Toward a Typology of Project Value Domains

Project scholarship suggests that an increasing volume of activities in organizations, economies, and societies occurs in the form of temporary projects. Drawing on research on project value, we aim to build a contextual understanding of why business organizations choose to participate in projects. Discussing value creation, capture, and destruction patterns for the owner, project-based firm, and the temporary project domains of project organizing, we develop a typology of project value domains for business organizations. We contribute to the theory and debate in project studies, integrating the conversations on the projectification of economies and societies with the stream of work on project value

Technology, Business, or Resource? Towards an Architecture of Value Creation in Infrastructure Projects

The aim of the paper is to develop a conceptual framework for understanding infrastructure as a domain of cross-disciplinary inquiry in general and infrastructure projects as a unit of analysis in particular. By drawing upon a diverse body of work in technology and design studies, business studies and neo-institutional economics, the paper derives a set of working propositions pointing towards infrastructure projects as vehicles to develop mature technologies, business systems, and shared resources as the three important functions that infrastructure performs for the society. Integrating this theoretical framework with the extant studies on projects as temporary organisations and systems lifecycle value creation, the paper then derives a propositional typology of resulting value destruction patterns. These patterns can be seen as hypothetical situations, in which projects fail to generate and deliver value to their users - thus incapacitating the value capture processes further down the road. The utility of the propositional typology developed is that it allows for a greater conceptual clarity in understanding the value mechanics for infrastructure projects. Finally, the paper argues that the phenomena of value and their dynamics in infrastructure projects is a promising area for future inquiry

Integration and the hold-up problem in the design organization for engineering projects

The paper presents a perspective of the design organization in engineering projects based on the economic concept of the hold-up problem. By integrating the economic theories on the boundaries of organizations into the existing knowledge on design in engineering projects, the paper hypothesizes a theoretical framework that represents the design organization in the context of the hold-up problem. The framework is illustrated with findings from an interpretive study of a large-scale engineering project that faced design integration issues that are well explained by the hold-up problem. The findings suggest the specific nature of the hold-up problem in design organizations which calls for a managerial mindset based on the concept of the social network and relational contracting instead of the typical project management reasoning based on static hierarchies of scope and controlling mechanisms

The practice of 'managing as designing'

Recent studies of ‘design thinking’ for management have criticized the current focus on principles and tools of design thinking, for creating an over-simplified view of a complex process. As a response, this paper sets out to study the empirical details of ‘doing designing’ in order to explore what ‘managing as designing’ involves in practice. Adopting a practice-based theoretical orientation, the paper presents findings from the design meetings of three residential refurbishment projects in the UK. The findings suggest that the management of design practices was accomplished through everyday interactions during which the nature and level of uncertainty of various issues were established, and the corresponding adaptive and innovative courses of actions were developed. Based on these insights, it is concluded that ‘managing as designing’ is primarily about facilitation of everyday organizational interactions, and leadership for the reconciliation of various concerns of multiple stakeholders

The multiplicity of value in the front-end of projects: The case of London transportation infrastructure

There is growing interest in the ways that value is understood in the context of projects and within project-based settings. Recent studies emphasise the multiplicity of project value in various project settings as perceived by different project actors. Drawing on previous work on project value and project front-end, this study expands on the idea of multiplicity of project value in the early project definition phase. To this end, the study draws from empirical data on infrastructure projects provision, including semi-structured interviews with a set of highly experienced and senior level informants with extensive knowledge and familiarity of infrastructure project planning and front-end decision making. The study is bounded with a focus on London, UK as an example of a complex, highly established global city with a great reliance on its infrastructure and a well-established projects ecology. Through inductive qualitative data analysis the study explores the role of infrastructure projects as solutions to policy problems, the multiple and complex nature of value in project definition and identifies three value levels, which are instrumental for project definition: local value, sector value and user value. The multi-level value framework in the project front-end extends and complements early decision making in planning and setting up of infrastructure projects

Project Intermediation: The Critical Role of Negotiating Socio-Technical Regimes and Technological Niches to Achieve Climate Change Policies

This paper uses the socio-technical transitions model to understand the characteristics of the evolving, interdisciplinary, and externalized context of climate change. Specifically, we (1) identify the elements of the multi-level perspective that exist under new climate change policies and trends and (2) conceptualized how this multi-level perspective will result in emerging project practices. Together, these two areas of insights help us create a preliminary framework to better understand and identify specific contextual characteristics that might influence the use and adoption of project practices. This conceptual framework leads us to a key insight: the role of projects in a socio-technical transitions context. Unlike projects that are delivered within a closedsystem environment, these projects are supported and affected by established institutional and policy measures. The preliminary conceptual framework emphasizes project intermediaries and how they choose project practices that translate policies into climate change outcomes. From this framework, we lay forth propositions that will inform and be tested in subsequent empirical case studies, where we plan to further explore project intermediation, focusing on the empirical setting of climate change infrastructure

Design boundary dynamics in infrastructure projects: Issues of resource allocation, path dependency and problem-solving

Due to their complexity and high social impact, urban infrastructure projects often face challenges in managing the design decision-making processes across disparate disciplinary and knowledge domain boundaries. This paper introduces the notion of design boundary dynamics to describe the various cross-boundary coordination phenomena associated with organising the design of infrastructure projects. Taking a practice-based theoretical stance, the paper presents findings of qualitative research on the nature and genesis of design boundaries and their relation to the strategic decision-making on a transportation infrastructure project. Findings illustrate the entangled processes, through which the disciplinary, knowledge-domain and stage-based design boundaries emerged as a result of unfolding project practices. Paper identifies the key role of resource allocation constraints, path dependency of project decisions, and problem-solving nature of design and concludes with strategic recommendations for upstream operational integration to mitigate the impact of design boundary dynamics on infrastructure projects

Owner capabilities in the project society: The setting of project-supported organisations

Building on extant research on domains of project organising, the aim of this study is to explore the application of the concept of owner capabilities to the wider setting of the project society. To this end, the study focuses on the context of project-supported organisations (PSOs) that operate through a continuous provision of goods and services and only occasionally undertake projects to expand or maintain its business infrastructure. We select the setting of fast-moving consumer goods, where projects have the role of capacity expansion or extension of operational capability. Engaging with 18 informants from a selection of organisations on the supply and demand side in the provision of capital projects in the selected setting, the study provides further insight into the nature and role of strategic, commercial and governance owner capabilities in project-supported organisations. Building on the findings, we derive key recommendations for project leadership and we conclude by calling for future research to understand the role of project owners and their capabilities in the various contextual settings of the project society

The practice of 'managing as designing'

Recent studies of ‘design thinking’ for management have criticized the current focus on principles and tools of design thinking, for creating an over-simplified view of a complex process. As a response, this paper sets out to study the empirical details of ‘doing designing’ in order to explore what ‘managing as designing’ involves in practice. Adopting a practice-based theoretical orientation, the paper presents findings from the design meetings of three residential refurbishment projects in the UK. The findings suggest that the management of design practices was accomplished through everyday interactions during which the nature and level of uncertainty of various issues were established, and the corresponding adaptive and innovative courses of actions were developed. Based on these insights, it is concluded that ‘managing as designing’ is primarily about facilitation of everyday organizational interactions, and leadership for the reconciliation of various concerns of multiple stakeholders