Theory Use in Project Management Research: An Exploratory Content Analysis Approach.

IF 3 4区社会学 Q1 SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY

Evaluation Review Pub Date : 2024-09-04 DOI:10.1177/0193841X241279706

Erastus Karanja, Jigish Zaveri, Angela K Miles, Steven Day

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Abstract

The frequency and richness of the theories developed, tested, and used by researchers in an academic discipline exemplify several pertinent factors, namely, the growth, the maturity, the independence, the legitimacy, and the influence of the discipline. Although organizations have been working on projects for centuries, Project Management (PM) is a considerably new academic discipline with emerging research themes, models, methodologies, frameworks, and paradigms. These PM concepts are anchored on or reinforced by new or existing theories. This exploratory study aims to add to the existing PM body of knowledge by investigating the prevalence of theory use in PM research. A systematic content analysis of 9200 PM research articles published from 2000 to 2019 (20 years) in the leading PM journals identified 248 unique theories. These results reveal that the PM discipline is increasingly embracing the use of theories with game theory, fuzzy theory, agency theory, contingency theory, and stakeholder theory emerging as the most dominant theories in the reviewed research articles. Also, although PM is developing its theories, the results revealed that PM researchers continue to heavily use theories borrowed from other academic disciplines such as psychology, sociology, mathematics, and economics.

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项目管理研究中的理论运用：探索性内容分析法

一门学科的研究人员所开发、测试和使用的理论的频率和丰富程度体现了几个相关因素，即学科的成长、成熟、独立、合法性和影响力。尽管各组织开展项目工作已有几个世纪的历史，但项目管理（PM）却是一门相当新的学科，其研究主题、模式、方法、框架和范式不断涌现。这些项目管理概念以新理论或现有理论为基础，或得到这些理论的加强。本探索性研究旨在通过调查项目管理研究中理论使用的普遍程度，为现有的项目管理知识体系添砖加瓦。通过对 2000 年至 2019 年（20 年）期间在主要 PM 期刊上发表的 9200 篇 PM 研究文章进行系统的内容分析，发现了 248 种独特的理论。这些结果表明，项目管理学科正在越来越多地使用理论，博弈论、模糊理论、代理理论、权变理论和利益相关者理论成为所审查研究文章中最主要的理论。此外，尽管项目管理正在发展自己的理论，但研究结果表明，项目管理研究人员仍在大量使用从心理学、社会学、数学和经济学等其他学科借鉴的理论。

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来源期刊

Evaluation Review SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

2.90

自引率

11.10%

发文量

期刊介绍： Evaluation Review is the forum for researchers, planners, and policy makers engaged in the development, implementation, and utilization of studies aimed at the betterment of the human condition. The Editors invite submission of papers reporting the findings of evaluation studies in such fields as child development, health, education, income security, manpower, mental health, criminal justice, and the physical and social environments. In addition, Evaluation Review will contain articles on methodological developments, discussions of the state of the art, and commentaries on issues related to the application of research results. Special features will include periodic review essays, "research briefs", and "craft reports".