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This paper highlights that extant project management (PM) bodies of knowledge have not fully addressed organisational transformation enabled by information systems projects. The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation context in the PM disciplines. The authors argue that the execution-oriented PM bodies of knowledge are limited, as they place too much emphasis on the delivery outputs by the supplier rather than the achievement of beneficial outcomes by the project owner.

As a conceptual paper, this paper reviews extant PM bodies of knowledge, life cycle models, the context of organisational transformation and benefits realisation, and the distinction between a project owner’s and the project supplier’s capabilities.

A new PM knowledge framework is provided as an advanced research frame for future works by enhancing Peter Morris’ Management of Projects framework by employing the conceptual lens of Winch’s Three Domains of Project Organising model.

The advanced model emphasises the necessity of distinguishing a project owner’s and a supplier’s PM capability and knowledge to achieve successful IS-enabled organisational transformation. Through this effort to resolve the fragmentation and specialisation problems in PM disciplines, the model can be used as a theoretical groundwork for the advancement of PM research.

The project organising literature has increasingly paid attention to the dynamic capabilities required for the development of projects. The current research aims to expand the dynamic capabilities framework by including owner capabilities required throughout the whole project life cycle.

The research uses an interpretive qualitative research approach. Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key actors of a social infrastructure project.

The findings suggest that the expansion of the dynamic capabilities framework to include owner capabilities required throughout a project life cycle could positively impact the success of a project. “Transformational capabilities” are recommended to enable the owner to overcome challenges and lead the evolution towards project organisations that are capable of transforming its outputs into beneficial use.

Existing research on dynamic capabilities does not address the particular challenges of social infrastructure projects such as housing. The current research fills this gap by exposing the challenges experienced by owners in the development of certain capabilities and their impact on the performance of a project.

The purpose of this paper is to frame the potential benefits of lean dynamic performance management (PM) systems for small and micro-enterprises. Such systems may exploit the entrepreneur’s tacit knowledge and build on managerial competencies, by incorporating individual attributes into organisational routines.

The paper suggests the use of insight models based on the combination of lean PM tools and system dynamics (SD) modelling. Based on a number of exemplary cases, the paper discusses the potential benefits of these models, in respect to four specific contexts: artisan, new company start-up, established firm and micro-giant company. Related to such contexts, the research identifies: needs or priorities, and obstacles or impediments to pursuing business survival and development.

The conceptual framework discussed in the paper discloses a quite original empirical basis to outline lean dynamic PM systems that may provide entrepreneurs with a set of key-performance drivers that help them to prioritise action, in each of the four analysed contexts.

Growing interest in adopting lean PM models in small and micro-firms appears in the recent PM literature with research highlighting strengths and shortcomings. However, few attempts have been produced to overcome such limitations, while the adoption of SD is relatively new in supporting lean PM system design.

As global competitive forces begin to impact more and more on smaller enterprises, they may find themselves more limited in the approaches available to them to prepare for fundamental change. In‐depth case studies were analysed for 11 firms in the south‐west of England, of which eight were characterised as small/medium enterprises (SMEs). Each firm had recently undergone a major change, and their managers were found to face considerable practical difficulties in developing and updating their skills in comparison with their counterparts from larger organisations. The need for innovative new approaches to SME managerial skills development is argued, and the potential benefits of a generic “computer‐aided visioning” system is highlighted as a low‐cost option for the smaller enterprise.

Recent debates have suggested a wide variety of new forms for the nineteen nineties. The work of Piore and Sabel has stimulated a wide‐ranging debate about the relevance of a return to a craft form of production organisation under the guise of ‘flexible specialisation’ as a response to the deregulation of world markets. Others, such as Miles and Snow have been more impressed by the unbundling of vertically integrated businesses into ‘dynamic networks’ in a shift from hierarchical to market transaction governance within the production process. For the MIT team working on the corporation of the nineties, information technology is the main force towards the ‘networked organisation’. Advocates of ‘total quality management’, ‘lean production’ and the ‘flexible firm’ are all arguing that there has been a profound seachange in our established conceptions of organisational form.

Companies are increasingly adopting technologies that can promote integration between functions and tasks. The implementation of these technologies has largely concerned the tasks of installation and the technical integration of the system. However, insufficient attention appears to have been directed towards organizational and managerial integration issues. Argues, based on empirical data from 15 UK engineering companies, that effective implementation of integrating technology requires a better understanding of issues concerning the integration of functions/tasks involved. Focuses on the issues and problems concerning managers involved with improving engineering/production integration, and proposes alternative organizational and technical mechanisms for implementing such integration. Reviews these mechanisms by reference to the engineering case companies.

Purpose – The core theme of this paper is that, to provide the best kind of process systems to support a “quality” healthcare provider, it is essential to “engineer‐in” quality as early as possible – effectively at the specification and design phase. It extends to the healthcare context a novel approach, which provides a transparent model of how an envisioned structure delivers services and fulfils stakeholders' needs. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper a new construct, developed by the authors, is described and then extended to the healthcare sector. The underpinning theories of the new construct are discussed and examples for a health care service are presented. Findings – The paper finds that there is a full literature on quality and TQM, but relatively little offers practical tools for supporting design and implementation processes that enhance the likelihood of achieving quality operations. The presentation and discussion of the construct presented argue that the approach presented here can achieve this aim. Practical implications – In the paper, as with many ventures, organisations charged with healthcare delivery are presently facing the dual challenges of seeking to satisfy widely extended stakeholder groups and implement complex ICT systems to support e‐fulfilment. To ensure that quality is “engineered‐in”, a holistic, integrated and quality approach is required, and Total Quality Management (TQM) principles are the obvious foundations for this. Originality/value – The paper shows that electronically delivered information and funds transaction systems do offer healthcare organisations great potential, but many large integrated ICT systems have notoriously disappointed the stakeholder health care service. An integrative view of the delivery system design, based on the literature from strategic management, business process design, e‐business design, and TQM, has yielded a unique construct, which integrates these views in a transparent model readily accessible to the various domain experts. The specific role of this in healthcare fulfilment system design applications is demonstrated.

Many, if not most, small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) are subject to the impacts of globalisation. This article seeks to explore the extra dimension of challenge to their already difficult environments when they have to venture into the world‐trade system.

Recent research undertaken separately by Polish, Italian, Norwegian and UK collaborators examined eight case studies of disparate smaller companies with international operations. This article brings together the common features found, and discusses them in terms of structural drivers and dynamic implications.

Research findings include the stretching of capabilities in supporting customers in unfamiliar markets, the internal competition for funds in pursuing multiple international markets, the importance of word‐of‐mouth marketing, and the pressures on R&D functions.

The critical importance of balance in smaller enterprises where resources are likely to be tightly constrained is highlighted, and the article observes that, while some of the challenges apply to many firms and other contexts, they are especially critical in SMEs.

This article identifies common pressures and challenges facing SMEs when going global, and uses causal loop diagramming to capture the drivers and consider longer‐term dynamic implications.

Focuses on consulting experiences utilizing simulation approaches that capture decision‐making processes in formulations that are transparent to the general manager. Examines the dual benefit of modelling in terms of not only providing forecasts and an objective framework for quantitative evaluations, but also in the softer sense of building consensus in management teams. Casts these experiences against theories of effective group decision making, and other decision support examples which focus on the use of models. Reconciles the circumstances of the case with the conditions specified for effective group working and suggests that the greatest contribution may be made to consensus decision making when the whole modelling approach, not just access to model outputs, is integrated into the decision‐making process, and where the model complexity is commensurate with the task complexity and the task familiarity of the management group.

One of the consequences of trends in business worldwide has been the emergence of the “network form” organization ‐ alliances of independent operating units bound together by a mutuality of interests and shared visions of the future for their industry rather than as subsidiaries of a single hierarchical firm. These operating units are seen as offering the flexibility and responsiveness necessary in today’s turbulent and fast‐changing industrial situations. This article reviews the particular demands of these new organizational structures, including the reconciling of latest thinking on control and co‐ordination needs with the advantages of unit autonomy. It then offers a vision and structure for an information technology‐based integrating framework. The system is styled a virtual neural business system (V‐NBS) to suggest that it would not only manage and and fuel the operations of the network partners by linking their sensory and motor components, but also act as a whole‐system knowledge, experience and “thinking function accessible and available to support all managers in their individual decision making”.