2012 Awards for Excellence
Article Type: 2012 Awards for Excellence From: International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Volume 6, Issue 1
The following article was selected for this year's Outstanding Paper Award for International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
“Breaking out of the straitjacket of project research: in search of contribution”
Mattias JacobssonUmeå School of Business, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden
Anders SöderholmMid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a different and partly new strategy is needed in order to make research on projects relevant and interesting to a wider scientific community, including organisation and management theory.
Design/methodology/approach – The aim is accomplished through a mystery-focused process that identifies what is not explained and continuously confronts empirical data with theoretical explanations in an interactive manner.
Findings – Based on a phenomenology-stimulated meta-analysis of the field of project research, the paper outlines an alternative view of the field of project research and four streams of research, each ofwhich is represented by its own scope, focus, audience and “taken-for-granted”assumptions. The streams are: in search of bestpractice, in search of legitimacy, in search of inspiration and in search of contribution.
Research limitations/implications – The paper suggests that, in order to make an true impact on management and social science theories in general, projects must be redefined as objects of study rather than the raison d'être. The inherent paradox, and theconclusion of the paper is that, in order to become more relevant fora broader research community, projects must be reduced to an empirical illustration, a case among others.
Originality/value – The paper provides a meta-analysis of the project management research field and offers new insights into challenges that need to be addressed in order to make project management research relevant for a wider management research community.
Keywords Future development, Management research, Perspectives,Project management, Projects
www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/17538371111144139
This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 3, 2011, pp. 378-88 International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
The following articles were selected for this year's Highly Commended Award
“A project manager's optimism and stress management and IT project success”
D.C. Smith, M. Bruyns and S. Evans
This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 1, 2011, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
“The social reality of organisational project management at the interface between networks and hierarchy”
Monique Aubry
This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 3, 2011, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
“How actor-network theories can help in understanding project complexities”
Daniel Sage, Andrew Dainty and Naomi Brookes
This article originally appeared in Volume 4 Number 2, 2011, International Journal of Managing Projects in Business
Outstanding Reviewer
Dr Kirsi AaltonenAalto University, Finland
