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The acquisition of knowledge through mergers and acquisition (M&A) may not create value—usually because the knowledge may not be transferred, or transferred but not integrated. The purpose of this paper to develop and test a theoretical model of knowledge and performance in the M&A process.

Theory, model and case analysis.

The literature review led us to distinguish between three main categories of knowledge along the different stages of the M&A process: acquired knowledge in the pre-merger stage; and transferred knowledge and integrated knowledge in the post-merger stage. The application of the model is illustrated in a case study of technology M&A, which includes data collected from annual reports before and after the merger.

The model recommends acknowledging the differences between the acquired knowledge, transferred knowledge and integrated knowledge when examining the relationship between knowledge and performance in M&As. In addition, the model suggests considering several factors that influence future knowledge integration in the pre-merger stage. Ignoring the three categories and the factors may be the reason for the reports of previous studied stating that the acquisition of knowledge-based resources is associated with negative announcement returns to the acquiring firm.

The paper presents new procedures to measure knowledge, collecting data on R&D employees by using annual reports. In addition, the paper suggests adding “in-process R&D” as an “Acquired Knowledge” measure.

In recent years much research attention has focused on managers and entrepreneurs, but very few studies have compared the two. In the current exploratory study, 20 Israeli entrepreneurs (that are the focus of great curiosity but little research) were compared to 47 managers and to a control group of 33 aspiring entrepreneurs. They were interviewed regarding traits of their father, mother, and self. Findings revealed a number of similarities (a similar commitment) as well as differences (entrepreneurs' greater love of challenge) between the managers and the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs also described themselves as having a greater sense of significance in their work. The question why managers and entrepreneurs are who they are is answered within a psychoanalytic‐existential framework that focuses on the managers' positive identification with their father and better relationship with both parents as compared to the entrepreneurs' negative identification with father and greater identification with work. Implications for treatment are suggested.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of a fit between project managers' (PMs) personalities and the “personalities” of their projects, for project success; taking a psychological rather than a project management perspective.

In total, 289 Israeli PMs responded to a specially designed questionnaire that classified projects along three dimensions: Novelty, Complexity and Technological Uncertainty, analyses PM's personality traits that were identified as relevant to these dimensions and assessed the projects' success. It was hypothesized that the greater the PM‐P fit, the greater the projects' success.

Results supported the hypothesis: PMs whose personality profile was close to the ideal PM profile for a particular project type were more successful in impact on the customers, benefit to the organization and overall success.

A cross‐sectional design and a self report measure.

The findings can be translated into recommendations for improving the fit between PMs and the projects assigned to them to increase project success.

The study extends Person‐Organization (P‐O) fit theory to the case of projects, viewing projects as temporary organizations. It also introduces to project management the psychological perspective on PM‐P fit and demonstrates its relevance.

This paper uses archival documents to begin to recover a history of women’s leadership in the advertising industry. In particular, this paper aims to identify the leadership styles of the first five presidents of the New York League of Advertising Women’s (NYLAW) club. Their leadership from 1912 to 1926 set the course for and influenced the culture of the New York League. These five women laid the foundations of a social club that would also contribute to the professionalization of women in advertising, building industry networks for women, forging leadership and mentorship links among women, providing advertising education exclusively for women and, finally, bolstering women’s status in all avenues of advertising. The first five presidents were, of course, different characters, but each exhibited the traits associated with “transformational leaders,” leaders who prepare the “demos” for their own leadership roles. The women’s styles converged with their situational context to give birth to a women’s advertising club that, like most clubs, did charity work and hosted social events, but which was developed by the first five presidents to give women the same kinds of professional opportunities as the advertising men’s clubs provided their membership. The first five presidents of the Advertising League had strong prior professional credibility because of the careers they had constructed for themselves among the men who dominated the advertising field in the first decade of the 20th century. As presidents of the NYLAW, they advocated for better jobs, equal rights at work and better pay for women working in the advertising industry.

This paper draws on women’s advertising archival material from the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe and Wisconsin Historical Society to argue that the five founding mothers of the NYLAW provided what can best be described as transformational feminist leadership, which resulted in building an effective club for their members and setting it on a trajectory of advocacy and education that would benefit women in the advertising industry for the next several decades. These women did not refer to themselves as “leaders,” they probably would not have considered their work in organizing the New York club an exercise in leadership, nor might they have called themselves feminists or seen their club as a haven for feminist work. However, by using modern leadership theories, the study can gain insight into how these women instantiated feminist ideals through a transformational leadership paradigm. Thus, the historical documents provide insight into the leadership roles and styles of some of the first women working in American advertising in the early parts of the 20th century.

Archival documents from the women’s advertising clubs can help us to understand women’s leadership practices and to reconstruct a history of women’s leadership in the advertising industry. Eight years before women in America could vote, the first five presidents shared with the club their wealth of collective experience – over two decades worth – as advertising managers, copywriters and space buyers. The first league presidents oversaw the growth of an organization would benefit both women and the advertising industry when they proclaimed that the women’s clubs would “improve the level of taste, ethics and knowledge throughout the communications industry by example, education and dissemination of information” (Dignam, 1952, p. 9). In addition, the club structure gave ad-women a collective voice which emerged through its members’ participation in building the club and through the rallying efforts of transformational leaders.

Historically, the advertising industry in the USA has been “pioneered” by male industry leaders such as Claude Hopkins, Albert Lasker and David Ogilvy. However, when the authors look to archival documents, it was found that women have played leadership roles in the industry too. Drawing on historical methodology, this study reconstructs a history of women’s leadership in the advertising and marketing industries.

This paper helps to understand how women participated in leadership roles in the advertising industry, which, in turn, enabled other women to build careers in the industry.

The contribution of project success and the organisation's efficiency is consensual in the literature. However, the value of project management (PM) brings to the organisation's effectiveness through the alignment with strategy, contributing to its competitiveness and business success, is yet little explored. This study addresses the literature gap that concerns the relationship between PM and the organisation's competitiveness, proposing a holistic conceptual model to understand of how PM brings value to the organisation. This work also aims to demonstrate the practical implications of theoretical contributions to the value of PM. For this, a detailed action research (AR) was planned to show how researchers and practitioners could work and collaborate in a real problem and prove the AR approach's adequacy to the PM field.

The methodology starts with a systematic literature review (SLR), followed by content analysis to develop a conceptual model of PM's value. To validate the theoretical constructs and transfer the results to real context, an AR plan is then carried out to support a specific PM problem presented by an automotive industry company.

The results have theoretical and practical implications. An original conceptual model is developed–the value of PM: Key factors–defending a multidimensional and holistic perspective to understand the PM's value. A set of key factors was identified, structured, interrelated and exemplified their practical implementation in a single company. In addition to the technical key factors identified in the literature review, the AR plan unveils crucial social aspects to improve PM's value, such as leadership, strong communication and open processes. This work shows the central role of PM methodologies in integrating and interconnecting the key factors, emphasizing the projects' strategic level.

The present work was developed in a specific and particular organisational context and industry.

The AR plan presents a company's original programme–Hyper Competitiveness (HC) Temple–implemented in an automotive company. Project management professionals could understand how this company implemented each key factor, defended in a conceptual model and lead the project's results to the business value.

The research originality lies in rethinking PM's value to organisations from a holistic perspective: multi-dimensional, temporal, life cycle, multi-organisational, pointing out a set of technical and social key factors.

This paper aims to bring to bear the resemblance between the current resilient leadership theory and the transformational–transactional leadership theories. It does this with the view of re-focusing discussions of leadership on an effective mix of the transformational–transactional leadership theories to achieve the desired organisational performance, rather than a new look at leadership from the resilient leadership perspective – which is quite the same.

It achieves this purpose by reviewing literature on the three leadership styles; and further goes on to draw a conceptual link among them to buttress the point that resilient leadership is a repetition of the ideas underlying the two already existing theories – transformational and transactional.

A review of the three leadership theories in literature showed that qualities such as strategic thinking, emotional intelligence, adaptation/change orientation, learning, performance orientation and collective leadership as captured under the resilient leadership theory are already considered under the transformational–transactional leadership theories, and thus, constitutes a repetition not needed in the search for the best leadership approach.

The current volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment calls for a new leadership thinking/approach – one that is known and empirically tested to yield best results. In this regard, the present study advocates for a consideration of the transformational–transactional approaches, which have been proven to yield best results, to focus the discussion on leadership.

This is a case of a crisis project management which showcases the unpredictable nature of the project and the role of management in handling the crisis. It is the case of a very severe cyclonic storm hitting the city of Visakhapatnam plant during October, 2014. The whole city was devastated and so was the situation in the Steel plant as it was under zero power conditions for around 10 days. This case gives need for managing an integrated steel plant in case of very severe cyclonic storm and documents the sequence of events and managing unforeseen uncertainty using NTCP concepts.

Pygmalion and charisma are mutually compatible leadership constructs that beg integration. They share some basic assumptions about human nature, about how leaders lead, and about how they could lead more effectively. Nevertheless, for the most part these constructs are discussed in disparate academic literatures. The present treatise integrates these somewhat divergent yet partially overlapping approaches to leadership and management. The differences between Pygmalion and charismatic leadership, and the commonalities that they share, are explicated. The aim is to understand better how leaders affect followers and how they can exert their influence with greater effectiveness. Some ideas for further research and for more effective management practice based on integration of Pygmalion and charisma constructs are presented. The result is a description of “charismatic Pygmalion,” an integrated management style that embodies both leadership constructs.

Few scholars have been cited as frequently as Pinto, Slevin, and Prescott for their contributions to project success and related critical success factors (CSF) in the 1980s. Studies since then built on their articles to broaden and refine our understanding of the topic. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons for the impact of these seminal contributions and how the topic of project success continues to evolve.

The paper analyses the popularity of Pinto and his colleagues' contributions to project success and reviews the development of this field of research since then.

Project success remains a vibrant school of thought as do the earlier definitions, measurement scales and dimensions, and assessment techniques that Pinto and his colleagues developed. The authors view success more broadly and think of it strategically because they consider longer‐term business objectives. Some research is now based on managerial or organizational theories and reflects the multi‐dimensional and networked nature of project success.

Practically, the classic contributions in project success continue to be valid. The authors see diversity in how success is defined and measured. The CSFs vary by project types, life cycle phases, industries, nationalities, individuals, and organizations.

The paper relates earlier understandings of project success to subsequent research in the field and underscores the significant findings by Pinto, Slevin, and Prescott.