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The purpose of this study to shed light on the importance of social media hosted content related to socially-motivated discussions. Moving from the field of communication for development, the research leverages social media as a powerful tool for collecting and analyse peer-to-peer communication towards the conceptualization of eVoices of Unheard. The deep understanding of these conversation can generate recommendations for organizations and governments designing and providing interventions fostering local socio-economic development.

The study presents a large-scale analysis of social media interactions on the topic “#favela” to generate insights into a social network structure, narrative contents and meaning generated.

Structurally, the analysed networks are comparable with those presented in current academic literature; automatic text analysis confirmed the promise of the inner value of communication for development opening the floor to conceptualization of the “eVoices of unheard”, which is the collective and conscious use of social media to mediate community discussions about tangible and intangible issues related to socio-economic development.

Framed within the rise of interactive communication for development this research show that social media an support the notion of voice proposed by Couldry (2010) moving from process (i.e. the recording of the voice) towards value (i.e. the possibility of giving an account of one’s life and its conditions to have an impact on human life and resources) thereby understanding intangible issues related with socio-economic development.

The purpose of this paper is to understand and identify the nature of evaluation criteria, levels and associations among levels of project success in development projects by NGOs in Sri Lanka.

The setting for this study is Sri Lanka, a country currently recovering from civil war and natural disasters and host to a large number of national and international NGOs involved in development projects. Data collection was conducted using a quantitative survey which obtained 447 responses. Multivariate analysis of data was conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling.

The study confirmed that overall project success in NGOs could be assessed in three levels: project management (PM) success, project success and NGO success. The results conclude that there are strong associations among the three levels of project success; moreover, PM success and project success are indispensable for achieving NGO success.

This study extends existing research to confirm the presence of the three levels of project success and the interconnections among them. These findings can support subsequent research on development projects and also support the design of holistic evaluation tools to support project practices in NGOs.

Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) natural language processing may see the emergence of algorithmic word of mouth (aWOM), content created and shared by automated tools. As AI tools improve, aWOM will increase in volume and sophistication, displacing eWOM as an influence on customer decision-making. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the socio technological trends that have encouraged the evolution of informal infulence strategies from WOM to aWOM.

This paper examines the origins and path of development of influential customer communications from word of mouth (WOM) to electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and the emerging trend of aWOM. The growth of aWOM is theorized as a result of new developments in AI natural language processing tools along with autonomous distribution systems in the form of software robots and virtual assistants.

aWOM may become a dominant source of information for tourists, as it can support multimodal delivery of useful contextual information. Individuals, organizations and social media platforms will have to ensure that aWOM is developed and deployed responsibly and ethically.

aWOM may emerge as the dominant source of information for tourist decision-making, displacing WOM or eWOM. aWOM may also impact online opinion leaders, as they may be challenged by algorithmically generated content. aWOM tools may also generate content using sensors on personal devices, creating privacy and information security concerns if users did not give permission for such activities.

This paper is the first to theorize the emergence of aWOM as autonomous AI communication within the framework of unpaid influence or WOM. As customer engagement will increasingly occur in algorithmic environments that comprise person–machine interactions, aWOM will influence future tourism research and practice.

The aim of this study is to examine the configuration of project resources in organizations operating in a post-conflict country environment using a Resource-Based View (RBV) perspective.

Data collection was undertaken using a quantitative survey study of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) involved in development projects in Sri Lanka, which obtained 445 responses. An Exploratory Factor Analysis and subsequent Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed to identify and confirm the Project Management (PM) resource profile composition of these organizations.

The study identified resource profiles incorporated items at the team, organizational and collaborative social resource levels and did not differ significantly by organization type. This suggests that the current focus of PM RBV research that implicitly uses a competitive advantage derived framework may need to be adapted for contexts such as post-conflict environments.

For organizations seeking to deliver projects in developing countries, the findings indicate that relational capacity in the form of a collaborative social resource may be required to adapt team and organizational resources to post-conflict environments.

The lessons learnt from NGOs can be of value to other organisations seeking to operate in post-conflict environments. The findings from this research reveal that organizations in Sri Lanka establish resource profiles that meet domestic and external requirements. For the management of these organizations, recognition of the inherent contradictions of this strategy can enable the optimization of resource profiles, improving organizational efficiencies.

The study has used insights from NGOs involved in international and local development projects to extend current knowledge of PM resources. While NGOs are distinctive, the critical PM resources identified here may be of value to private and public organizations seeking to develop project resource profiles adapted to emerging markets.

While the area of project management maturity (PMM) is attracting an increased amount of research attention, the approaches to measuring maturity fit within existing social science conventions. This paper aims to examine the potential contribution of new data collection and analytical approaches to develop new insights in PMM.

This paper takes the form of a literature review.

The current trends of rapidly growing digital data collection and storage may have the potential to develop approaches to PMM assessment that overcome the limitations of existing qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Future research in PMM can employ techniques such as social network analysis and text analysis to develop insights based on the flow and content of information in organizations.

Adoption of data analytical approaches from big data can enable the creation of new types of holistic and adaptive maturity models. Holistic maturity models provide insights based on both structured and unstructured data within organizations. Adaptive maturity models provide rapid insights based on the flow of information within an enterprise.

The recent trend towards digitising of organizational knowledge and interactions has created the possibility to apply new analytical approaches and techniques to the understanding of PMM in firms. This paper identifies possible tools and approaches that can be applied to create new types of maturity models based on structured and unstructured data.

The conceptual and modularization of project management maturity models is based on the principle of process control. This research was designed to challenge these boundaries to reveal non-process factors. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A multimethod research design was used with a “qual⇒Qual” sequence. This is a development in MM design theory, with its reliance on an initial qualitative stage that, despite being first, is insufficient to collecting sufficient data to answer the research question. A second stage, involving a more dominant qualitative, is necessary.

Multiple non-process factors are attributed to a mature project management capability responsible for undefined projects. They include “human factors” such as trust, attitude, motivation and attitude, along with increased customer involvement and a more adaptable organizational environment.

The challenge put forward in this research was for project management maturity theorists to recognize the possibility of finding maturity in a project management capability responsible for undefined projects. This challenge has been met. The focus can now turn to other environments where other project types (undefined or not) are also being managed using processes (and/or practices) that are not necessarily definable, repeatable, predictable and unique to that setting.

An adaptable model has been created that contains multiple factors that can be used in their current relationships or changed to accommodate multiple project and project management scenarios. Further work will create weights for each factor that will further specify the relative value of each, thereby enhancing the adaptable nature of the model.