{"title":"Considering alternatives to megaprojects for a sustainable future with degrowth principles","authors":"Maude Brunet","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102705","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102705","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the increasing scholarly attention to megaprojects and sustainability, this essay proposes an alternative to building bigger and more megaprojects. Using a critical perspective and mobilizing the literature on degrowth, it is suggested that scaling down could be beneficial on many levels. Megaprojects are ubiquitous, yet they have profound repercussions on the land and resources and on local communities, not always for the better. Suggesting the avenue of ‘sustainability without megaprojects’, some research streams are suggested to pursue this reflection in line with degrowth principles of producing less, sharing more and deciding together. While more research is necessary to understand more thoroughly the implications of degrowth principles to megaprojects framing, there is also a crucial need for political action to debate the alternatives and develop appropriate policy responses.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 3","pages":"Article 102705"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143816986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Khurram Shahzad , Rimsha Iqbal , Muhammad Qaiser Shafi , Shazia Nauman , Marc Ohana
{"title":"From inclusion to action: Does project manager’s inclusive leadership drive team members’ project citizenship behavior?","authors":"Khurram Shahzad , Rimsha Iqbal , Muhammad Qaiser Shafi , Shazia Nauman , Marc Ohana","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102710","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102710","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Drawing upon affective events theory, this study attends to the emerging line of project behavior research by examining the role of the project manager’s inclusive leadership style in predicting project team members’ project citizenship behavior. Additionally, the mediating mechanism of positive affectivity and the moderating role of proactive personality has been examined in this relationship. To test our theorized model, time-lagged and multi-source data was collected from 221 project team members working in three IT and two construction sector project-based organizations. For examining the hypotheses, partial least squares structural equation modeling analysis technique was used. The findings show that inclusive leadership positively affects project citizenship behavior and positive affectivity mediates this relationship. Also, the relationship between inclusive leadership and positive affectivity is stronger in the case of team members who have a highly proactive personality. Theoretically, the findings highlight the importance of emotions derived from inclusive leadership for project success. Practically, this study encourages the adoption of an inclusive leadership approach towards project team members as it leads to positive project outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 3","pages":"Article 102710"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143874581","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How organisational and team climates foster design thinking for project success","authors":"Maria Loderer, Alexander Kock","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102711","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102711","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Traditional project management methods struggle with the uncertainties and complexities of modern, innovative projects. Research highlights the need for flexible approaches integrating exploration and learning, such as design thinking. However, implementing design thinking practices in project management faces various obstacles. Beyond structural and strategic hurdles, the organisational context—specifically how individuals experience the work environment—likely plays a critical role in shaping the intensity and success of such practices. This study analyses the organisational and team climates that support implementing design thinking practices to increase project success while considering the role of project contingencies. Drawing on data from 379 projects nested in 93 companies, we investigate the impact of organisational climates (supportive climate, innovation climate, open climate) and team climates (servant leadership, team autonomy). Our findings suggest that design thinking practices improve project success. At the same time, we identify a supportive climate, an open climate, servant leadership, and team autonomy as conducive to design thinking practices. In addition, design thinking practices are more beneficial for project success when project innovativeness is high. Project innovativeness also strengthens the effect of a supportive climate on design thinking practices. We contribute to the literature on project management and design thinking by providing the first quantitative evidence on how specific climate conditions within the broader organisational context support the application of design thinking practices in project environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 3","pages":"Article 102711"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143894905","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Managing cultural projects: Plural creativity as creative practice","authors":"Rafaela Goncalves Freitas , Eduardo Davel , Julie Bérubé","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102708","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102708","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As powerful drivers of the creative economy, cultural projects rely on creative processes. The socio-economic and cultural development of contemporary societies depends on a type of management that involves the plurality of actors sustaining the creative process of cultural projects. This research is guided by the question: How does plural creativity constitute a creative practice in the management of cultural projects? The method of multi-sited and digital ethnography supported an inductive process that allowed us to engage to this question and produce a theorization. The analysis of narratives was based on sources such as documents, observations, and ethnographic interviews. The findings explain that plural creativity constitutes creative practices in the creation, promotion, and integration of cultural projects. These practices are based on creative relationality, which leads to three phenomena: creative playing driven by affection, creative boosting driven by criticism, and creative inspiration driven by constrains. The research contributes to the research and practice of project management by providing explanations and theorizations to support the strategic management of plural creativity in projects, especially cultural projects.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 3","pages":"Article 102708"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143898659","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How building information modelling mitigates complexity and enhances performance in large-scale projects: Evidence from China","authors":"Yuntao Yang, Bin Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102694","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102694","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite project complexity and large-scale project management being research hotspots in project management, the existing research has not fully considered the influence of building information modelling implementation on project complexity. In order to fill this research gap, this study used quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the impact of building information modelling on project complexity and large-scale project management performance and to verify the mediating role of project complexity between building information modelling and large-scale project management performance. The results show that: 1) The implementation of building information modelling in large-scale projects can significantly mitigate project complexity (technology, goals, information, organization, and environment); 2) Information and goal complexity have a significantly negative impact on large-scale project management performance; 3) Utilizing building information modeling to reduce information and goal complexity can significantly improve the management performance of large-scale projects; 4) Besides reducing project complexity, applying building information modelling can directly improve large-scale project management performance; 5) The improvement of policies and standards, the cultivation of information technology talents (personal incentives), project management process reengineering and innovation, and data governance are conducive to exert the values of building information modelling in project management. These findings not only enrich theoretical research but also provide valuable decision-making references for managers to improve management performance, driving the development of informatization and intelligence in the construction industry.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 2","pages":"Article 102694"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143704688","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Projecting to promote sustainability transitions through joint value creation","authors":"Marina Bos-de Vos , Miia Martinsuo , Ellen Loots","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102692","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102692","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Actors involved in programs that promote sustainability transitions project how future value can be created and protected within the constraints of existing institutions and fields. There is a need to better understand this projecting among versatile organizational actors to support the successful advancement of sustainability transitions. Drawing upon the joint value creation employed in five circular economy programs, we identify three modes of projecting for promoting sustainability transitions: distributing, dispersing, and activating. The modes of projecting relate strongly to how programs are configured. We contribute to the sustainability transitions literature by examining niche-regime interactions through the lens of joint value creation, offering novel insights into programs’ unique ways of promoting sustainability transitions. Another contribution is to the literature on value creation in interorganizational projects and programs by revealing different approaches for joint value creation in different modes of projecting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 2","pages":"Article 102692"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143578124","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The politics of the self: A parmenidean/existentialist perspective of the project leader","authors":"Dr Efrosyni Konstantinou","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102695","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102695","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A sociologically aware, relational interpretation of project leadership has been developing, which emphasises the multiplicity of social relationships, interactions and dynamics evolving within the project and its leadership in the project environment. However, our community is at risk of producing “overly-socialized” images of project leadership, as has been the case in adjacent field of organisation studies. In this context, I introduce the notion of the politics of the self, generously aided by Parmenides of Elea, pre-Socratic philosopher (520–450 BCE), and descendant philosophers in the phenomenological/existentialist tradition. The politics of the self – the permanent political relationship that we all have with our self – suggests that the political dimension of the self is considered along with the social dimension of the self in images of project leadership in equal measure, if not more prominently.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 2","pages":"Article 102695"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143704689","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andreas Wald , Helgi Thor Ingason , Thordur Vikingur Fridgeirsson
{"title":"Ten years after: The evolution of projectification in Germany, Norway, and Iceland","authors":"Andreas Wald , Helgi Thor Ingason , Thordur Vikingur Fridgeirsson","doi":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102696","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ijproman.2025.102696","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Theory of projectification suggests that an increasing use of projects is a reaction to an increasing need for innovation and adaptation to changes in the environment of firms. The degree of projectification of an economy was first measured in 2013 for Germany followed by Norway and Iceland. Over the last ten years, significant changes have taken place in the three countries which can be assumed to spur a further increase in projectification. This paper presents the results of a new series of studies. The results reveal a high level of projectification in the three economies, but also that a plateauing has been reached. In addition to the degree of projectification, the present study assesses and compares the project landscapes in the three countries and examines if the high projectification corresponds to a professionalization of project management in the form of project careers and central project organizations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48429,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Project Management","volume":"43 2","pages":"Article 102696"},"PeriodicalIF":7.4,"publicationDate":"2025-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143747874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}