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This aims to explore the relationship between the agile methods barriers in large-scale contexts and the benefits for business, team and product and process, exploring the organizational readiness (OR) mediating role.

We propose a theoretical model through survey-based research, applying partial least square structural equation modelling.

We confirmed that OR mediating effect on the relationship between agile methods barriers and team benefits. We operationalized OR in a broader context that embeds the strategic alignment of large-scale agile implementation, considering variables such as organizational structure and culture.

The data are cross-sectional rather than longitudinal, which limits temporal interpretations of the associations between agile methods and organizational issues.

The findings offer a way forward for organizations already using or planning to implement agile management to understand the pathway towards achieving the expected benefits. Our study also unveils the importance of looking at OR when implementing such a complex change in management from traditional to large-scale contexts.

Our results show the significant and positive influence of agile method on all three benefit variables (team, business, product and processes). Furthermore, we identified the significant and positive mediating role of OR on the relationship between agile method and team benefits.

When plans fail, the form of making it happen leads to improvisation in practice, which is not sufficiently approached yet in the project management (PM) field. The main reason for the lack of research is that improvisation is predominantly seemed in a negative perspective. Due to the relevance of improvisation in the PM field, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why improvisation is applied in the PM context. This research address two questions: which are the key topics and studies linked with improvisation in the PM context?: how do the origin factors and the purpose influence improvisation in PM context?

A systematic literature review was carried out through the merging of bibliometric analysis and content analysis. The systematic literature review aims to identify and synthesize the research on the theme, applying structured, transparent and replicable procedures for each phase of the process. These studies focus mainly on the identification of literature standards based on publication reviews. The sampling process follows the flow summarized in Figure 1. The searching process was based on two selected databases, the Web of Science and Scopus. The search strings applied were: (improvisation OR bricolage) AND “project management.”

The evolution of publications has shown the existence of a growing interest in the articles relating to improvisation and PM in recent years. The literature on improvisation in the PM context, allows to identify the key related constructs, origin factors and purposes. It also identifies the core relation among these constructs. The understanding of the effect of origin factors on the key related constructs was achieved. Improvisation appears not only as a strategy for adapting when dealing with urgent demands, but also as a team skill.

As a limitation related to the research methods adopted, their exploratory nature is acknowledged, implying some subjectivity in the content analysis of the surveyed sample. The databases, search strings and selection criteria may also have narrowed the research sample. This study shows a lack of research on knowledge management, experience and resilience that can be a drive for future research. Other interesting insights for future research are that some origin factors are more related with some related constructs than others.

As practical implications, project practitioners can better understand how improvisation is related to PM. The results can bring insights to professionals such as to explore improvisation in uncertainty and complex environments, and to improve aspects like adaptation, intuition and innovation needs. Improvisation can be understood as a way to improve project results considering that it is a mechanism of management in the face of the inherent environment pressure and is related to ones who have experience and is not necessarily a consequence of lack of planning.

This paper contributes to the current literature in two ways. First, there is in-depth understanding of the literature on improvisation in the PM context, which allows to identify the key related constructs, origin factors and purposes. Moreover, it identifies the core relation among these constructs. Second, understanding of the effect of origin factors on the key related constructs was achieved.

Investigate distinctive skills, encompassing Building Information Modeling (BIM skills, project management (PM) skills (PMSs), as well as strategic and operational skills (OSs) in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.

The research design adopts a quantitative survey-based approach, utilizing a partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The findings underscore a significant relationship between OSs and both BIM and PMSs, while also illuminating the relationship of strategic skills with both BIM and PMSs. However, intriguingly, the study reveals that although BIM skills and PMSs are indispensable, they lack a statistically significant relationship. Despite this, we have identified a pathway from BIM skills to operational and strategic skills that traverses through PMSs, exhibiting significant indirect effects.

Our study employs cross-sectional data rather than longitudinal data, which hinders temporal interpretations of the associations between competence building for AEC professionals especially given that BIM skills are still in the early stages within AEC projects, particularly in Latin America. Therefore, a longitudinal study would offer deeper insights into potential causation, allowing for a more robust establishment of underlying associations. Additionally, future research endeavors should focus on capturing longitudinal data through case studies that explore perceptions and observations of the roles of BIM managers and project managers in project-based organizations.

Our model guides organizations to recognize the importance of BIM management skills as a pivotal role in the AEC industry, bridging operational and strategic levels. While project managers focus on tools that facilitate team and project integration, BIM managers enhance collaboration and communication across different disciplines within construction projects. This synthesis highlights the complementary roles of project managers and BIM managers in driving successful project outcomes, showcasing the synergy between their skill sets in achieving strategic objectives within the AEC industry. Furthermore, it underscores the critical role of indirect and cascading flows of influence among skill domains through multiple interconnected pathways.

Our study demonstrates that different types of skills are required to manage AEC projects. These skills are interconnected through direct and indirect pathways that warrant attention from academia. The theoretical contribution of the research model is clearly shown in the linking between PM and BIM in the AEC industry. Several scholars recognize BIM as innovative and that drives the success of civil construction projects; however, our study goes further in identifying the significant relationships among variables and the magnitude of their effects on strategic and OSs for BIM management and PM domain.

This study aims to explore the moderating effect of communication barriers (CBs) on the relationship between knowledge sharing barriers (KSBs) and knowledge management (KM), considering the two enablers, technology and organizational culture, in the project context.

The authors adopted survey-based research approach. The data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), applying the SmartPLS 3.0 software.

The results show the significant and positive effect of both enablers (culture and technology) on KM. Furthermore, the authors identify significant relationship between KSBs and communications barriers. Finally, it elucidated the moderate effect of CBs.

The data are cross-sectional rather than longitudinal, which limits temporal interpretations of the associations between exploitative and exploratory learning and innovative strategies.

The results can guide organization toward cultural and technological issues supporting KM. Moreover, for project managers and practitioners it shows the importance to avoid communications barriers, driving efforts and resources to manage the flow of information efficiently, developing communication processes that integrate the project team and reducing CBs.

The study reveals complex paths that organizations take toward KM. The research findings show how CBs play a critical moderating role in the relationship between KSBs and KM.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate distinctive pathways for product-service system (PSS) development. Moreover, it investigates the contingent effect of the business ecosystem (BE) in terms of being provider-pushed or customer-pulled.

The study adopted a case-based research, performed in the Brazilian and Danish healthcare industries in order to explore the subject.

The results reveal that the capital available for investments influences the pathway. The customer-pulled PSS fast evolved to become result-oriented and connected to a complex resource-dependent network in the BE. The provider-pushed PSS showed a slow evolutionary pathway, limited to product-oriented offerings with low dependence among actors in the BE.

The research offers various managerial implications for PSS providers, policymakers and customers of the healthcare industry.

The growing presence of projectification is affecting more than its cradle, the industry, characterizing it as a broader phenomenon than initially envisioned. This study aims to provide a literature review on the concept.

The sampling process includes articles from two databases, Web of Science and Scopus, and a backward snowballing sampling through the references, entailing the analysis of 103 documents. The publications were analyzed applying bibliometric, content and semantic analyses both manually and with the assistance of VOSViewer, Bibliometrix, NVivo11 and Tropes v.8.

The results identified 55 definitions of projectification. The study synthesizes them in five levels of analysis to capture their main distinctive aspects, as follows: (1) Private Organizations; (2) Public Sector; (3) Academy; (4) Individuals (work and private life); and (5) Society. The paper concludes by depicting factors as general effects, negative effects, tensions, funding and knowledge, embedded within each level of analysis.

This work sheds light on the evolution of projectification concept, presents a multilevel analysis of its consequences and brings forward the related topics, which still require further investigation.

This research aims to investigate the influence of the implementation of technical cycles on both captured value and shared value in the circular economy context. Moreover, it analyses the moderating effect of competitive criteria on the relationship between technical cycles and captured value. Finally, it examines the relationship between the captured value and the shared value.

This research follows survey-based research with data gathered from 50 countries and 16 sectors, whose final sample represented 233 organisations. In order to validate the structural and measurement model, the authors applied the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique in the strict rigour of the confirmatory algorithm.

The validated research model demonstrates the value flow through technical cycles. Moreover, it shows the crucial role of the competitive criteria in the value stream through direct, moderate and indirect effects by influencing the relationship between technical cycles and captured and shared values. Finally, the study fills the gap for quantitative studies in the circular economy field.

From a practical perspective, this study contributes to structuring circular business models more robustly, by understanding the influence of competitive criteria (cost, quality, flexibility and delivery) on the conversion of operation strategy in the implementation of the technical cycles in the circular economy context. It contributes to decision-makers, in deciding on which competitive criteria to invest more, which brings more consistent results for technical cycle implementation. It also confirms the importance of partnerships, demonstrating how value cascades from the company through the value network.

As far as is known to date, this is the first study investigating the influence of competitive criteria in the circular economy context. Furthermore, it sheds light on the direct and indirect effects of the technical cycles on value captured by organisations and flow shared value with other players.

This study aims to investigate how the dynamics of compliance, internal controls and ethics can generate tensions in the domain of project governance. Moreover, it investigates the tensions between these constructs and the search for project success from a practice-based perspective.

A methodological approach is taken, with a case-based research carried out in a large European multinational company. Data were gathered through 21 interviews, between project managers and other key stakeholders, and documentary data from 64 projects for triangulation and critical analysis.

As a result, four patterns of tensions were identified: Tension A between compliance and project success, Tension B between internal controls and project success, Tension C between compliance and internal controls and Tension D between compliance and ethics.

Some limitations should be acknowledged. The first, ontological, is inherent in the post-positivist perspective, accepting human subjectivity and the complexity of social reality intrinsic to research applied to the social sciences, respectively implying interpretive bias and incompleteness in the comprehension of the facts. The second limitation comes from the use of a single case study, in which singular contextual characteristics make it difficult to generalise the results.

This study has implications for practice, as it highlights weaknesses that may occur in organisations owing to tensions between the elements of compliance, internal controls and ethics. This, therefore, implies ways of strengthening the consistency of project governance. The project governance domain and its tensions affect the project-success holistic view in both efficiency and effectiveness, since the elements of internal control and compliance can create tensions that favour one project success perspective to detriment of the others. Understanding the nature of tensions, their implications and the long-term holistic perspective can lead to better decisions by managers.

The results suggest that a formal code of ethics, a project management methodology, internal controls and a well-established training programme are not sufficient, because, in the practical context, the interaction between these elements creates tensions that impact their logical consistency lost when interacting with each other.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a management tool to maximise the effective time-to-market of a portfolio given the competitive monitoring activities.

From the constant monitoring of competition and market needs, it is proposed to define a time-to-need, time when the market may consume the product under development and competitor will not provide a solution before. This time-to-need is proposed to be defined by an expert committee in a periodical meeting of the portfolio. Once it is identified the time-to-need and the time-to-market (project management), it is possible to manage resources in order to maximise the portfolio outputs.

The application of the mentioned approach in an automotive industry showed improvements on number of launched new products per year (double) and on number of patented product launched (four times more).

This approach applies on projects of medium to long term (more than two years) because the resource management can consume set up time. The presented results in this work were based in a single case, which can limit the expected results of the application of this methodology.

This approach enables a constant alignment among experts and a better deployment of resources.

This work provides a practical tool to promote better resource allocation in a portfolio. It can also be an enabler of innovation projects once it finds resources potential to fund the more front end work.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationships as to complementarities and redundancies of the main quality programs in large Brazilian companies by a comparative and critical analysis of their implementation in those companies.

In the paper the survey methodology was utilized. The data collection was done from “Ranking Valor 1000” list, which comprises the 1,000 largest Brazilian companies; the assumption was that in these companies the embryos of the emerging models in quality management were to be found. The data collected from questionnaires were analyzed through statistical methods.

The findings showed that the large organizations in Brazil have been investing in quality programs.

This paper presents the limitations which are inherent to the research method applied, that is, the results should not be generalized because the collected data are not originated in a probabilistic sample.

The paper shows that the companies where the Six Sigma program was implemented are those with the strongest tradition in the market; the companies that most invested in quality by adopting these programs were successful according to the quality performance indicators as well as concerning the return on investment; and the main causes of failure in the quality programs analyzed in this study were shortage of financial resources for the proper implementation of the programs and the fragile support given by the company management.

This paper may prove to be significantly helpful to a better and deeper understanding of the factors influencing the quality programs adopted by Brazilian companies.