Project Management Journal

Entrepreneurship provides promising bases for project innovation in unpredictable settings that require general adaptability rather than responsive variety. However, important theories in this area are based on world views that are antithetical to the causal assumptions that support often-productive theory and practice in project management. This article outlines four entrepreneurial models of innovation, concluding with subjective innovations based on interactively defined lifestyle and ideological values rather than scientific or economic logic. Their adoption requires difficult personal and organizational admissions of failures in current practice as well as recognition that deeply rooted beliefs in causal logic are an impediment in intrinsically unpredictable environments.

Whereas existing approaches and empirical studies of dynamic capabilities focus on the strategic innovation activities of firms (i.e., permanent organizations executing multiple projects and programs), this article identifies how certain types of dynamic capabilities are required to deliver large, complex, and risky projects involving multiple parties. Our longitudinal study of the design and construction of Heathrow Airport Terminal 5 by the British Airports Authority (BAA) makes three main contributions to the literature: (1) It contributes to the project management literature by identifying how specific dynamic capabilities (BAA's “T5 Agreement,” strategic behaviors, and collaborative processes) are developed through a three-phase process (learning, codifying, and mobilizing) to support the strategic management of complex projects. (2) While emphasizing their importance for the successful management of complex projects, our findings also underline the continuing fragility of dynamic capabilities. (3) The case study reveals their fluidity and balancing role with respect to demands for stability and change in complex, uncertain, and volatile project environments.

This article deals with the management of exploratory projects and relies on a case study of the space industry to study their supposed strangeness compared with more traditional projects. Indeed, exploratory projects seem to be floating because they lack clear objectives, carefully defined work packages and phases, risk management plans, and so forth. We rely on advances in design theory to demonstrate that exploratory projects actually follow a different logic of expansion that can be managed. We conclude by discussing the contribution of the project mode to the structuring of exploration processes.

Understanding the link between project complexity and innovation is highly pertinent. Yet, the challenge of innovative complex projects has received limited research attention and little theory development. This article provides a retrospective analysis of the difficulties experienced by Boeing during the development project of its highly innovative Dreamliner aircraft. Eventually successful, this project suffered extensive delays and cost overruns. The article analyzes the project's complex nature of innovation, while using several frameworks to provide an integrative view of its challenges and suggesting possible alternative ways to address them. Insights for complex project teams and future research directions are offered.

Although concurrency between project development stages is an effective approach to speeding up project progress, previous research recommends concurrent engineering primarily for less complex, incremental projects. As such, in complex radical aircraft development projects, managers opt for less concurrency; however, by using system dynamics modeling, this study shows that less concurrency can contribute to overall project delays, rather than preventing them. The time lost by rework due to early starts of project stages is more than compensated by the time gained by early feedback and faster learning, with positive effects on project completion and subsequent sales.

Innovation project leaders have the challenging role of guiding their team by managing four intertwined processes: developing content, meeting project constraints, stimulating creativity, and guiding group dynamics. This article investigates the role narratives play in leading an innovation project and how an innovation project leader uses stories in practice. We found a variety of stories that relate to all four processes. We argue that the roles of stories can be divided into three different aspects: the story, the storytelling, and the storymaking. Together, these aspects of stories can support managing the four intertwined processes to deliver innovation.

The pre-project or ideation phase is often disregarded in project portfolio management. Senior managers put more emphasis on later project stages, and researchers predominantly investigate the front end from a single project perspective. This study investigates how and under which circumstances the performance of the front end affects project portfolio success. Using a sample of 175 firms, we confirm a strong positive relationship between front-end success and project portfolio success. Results show that this effect becomes stronger for larger project portfolios, for portfolios with more interdependency between projects and, finally, for firms that have a strategic orientation toward riskiness.

To attain benefits and value, multiproject R&D management seeks synergy between projects. Selecting or inventing appropriate end-product components within R&D programs is a concrete example of the synergy between projects. Lowering the number of different components used across projects (i.e., increasing component commonality) can lower end-product costs, which can contribute to firm-level profitability. Prior research, however, shows component commonality as a limitation of innovativeness in multiproject R&D. Conversely, this article shows that component commonality can also serve as the source of innovation, making component commonality an area of special interest to multiproject R&D management and research.

Researchers have long recognized that standard approaches to project management are ill-suited to address changes in the environment or business needs, particularly in innovative contexts characterized by uncertainty and complexity. Instead of being concerned with the efficient implementation of a deliberate strategy, a project in such a context becomes a process for strategy formulation. Three imperatives for project management arise as a result: managing the explorative phase, managing the involvement of stakeholders in the project, and managing the project in relation to the strategizing process of the firm. We propose that design thinking, a recent evolution in the field of design, can make some important contributions to these imperatives. Design thinking has been highlighted by practitioners as well as academia as a novel methodology that is potentially valuable for improving innovative outcomes, whether they are products, services, or strategies. We examine and articulate these possible contributions through 10 propositions that could form an agenda for future experimentation and empirical research on innovation project management.