Current Research

PMI^® Academic Resources supports research projects all over the world in the area of Project Management. Each year, PMI welcomes new proposals for research projects. PMI seeks active research projects to support in the area of Project Management on an annual basis. Learn how you can submit a proposal for 2012 research funding.

2013 Call for Proposals Schedule:

Current PMI-Sponsored Research Projects

Sustainable Development & Project Management
Roland Gareis, Ph.D, WU Vienna
This research will explore whether sustainable development is implicitly considered in project management, conceptualize how sustainable development can be explicitly considered and analyze which challenges and potentials may arise when sustainable developed is considered. The research will also draft instruments for explicitly attending to sustainable development in project management.

Building Options in the Project Front-End: Integrating Strategy, Execution and Option Fees
Nuno Gil, PhD, University of Manchester
This project aims to develop, test, and validate a method that can guide project teams to integrate front-end strategizing, execution, and option fees in asset acquisition projects, large-scale infrastructure and defense systems.

Key Determinants of Effectiveness in Project Portfolio Management: A Context-Specific Perspective
Peerasit Patanakul, Ph.D., Stevens Institute of Technology
This research seeks to discover the key determinants of PPM effectiveness and measures of effectiveness in a variety of business contexts. The study will go beyond traditional PPM research by focusing on executive level activities, especially the decision making process. Other organizational factors that may influence PPM effectiveness will also be considered. Studying PPM in different contexts, the research will suggest a contingency theory in portfolio management.

The Gestalt of Project Opportunities Recognized and Exploited During Implementation
Thomas G. Lechler, Ph.D. and John C. Byrne, Ph.D., Stevens Institute of Technology
This research aims to analyze the Gestalt of project opportunities to identify specific classes of opportunities and specific contextual situations under which they occur. It will also contribute to the development of a new project management paradigm that allows for a better explanation of specific phenomena as well as achieving better project results.

International Development Project Management: A Survey of Non-Governmental Organizations
Paolo Landoni, Politecnico di Milano University
The research work focuses on studying the guidelines proposed by development agencies to manage ID projects and on understanding if and how they are used and evaluated inside non-governmental organizations.

Studying the Implementation of Project Management as an Organizational Innovation
Janice Thomas, Ph.D., Athabasca University
This study makes contributions to both PM and organizational change literatures. From a practical PM perspective, we will also highlight the strategic capability delivered through effective and sustainable organizational PM and provide guidance for its implementation.

Global Perspectives on Project, Program, and Portfolio Management in Government
Young Hoon Kwak, George Washington University
This research will analyze the performance of past and on-going government projects by identifying factors of success/failure of government projects and programs from a global perspective. The key lessons learned of managing government projects will be captured and classified into a comprehensive database of worldwide government projects and programs that can be used for both practitioners and academics.

What is there to share? – On the problems of sustained expertise in project-based organizations
Karin Bredin, Ph.D. and Cecilia Enberg, Ph.D., Linköping University
This research project aims at exploring organizational solutions for retaining and developing specialist knowledge in the long run in companies that rely on interdisciplinary and co-located projects.  Hence, the study addresses a well-known paradox, namely the conflicting requirements of the project’s need for interdisciplinarity in the short run and its equally important need for sustained disciplinary expertise in the long run.

Improving Portfolio Decision Making through Effective Visual Representation of Information
Joana Geraldi, Ph.D., University College London
This research aims to contribute to understanding how portfolio decisions are made, what cognitive and sense making processes are performed and how to improve them.  Specifically, the research explores if and how visual representations can enhance the quality of decisions.

Rethinking Project and Program Stakeholder Management
Martina Huemann, Ph.D., WU Vienna
In our research we aim to rethink stakeholder management for project and programs by

• Considering new insights from modern stakeholder theory, for instance the managing for stakeholders approach
• Integrating sustainability principles into project and program stakeholder management
• Developing adequate working forms for a more holistic stakeholder management approach suitable to projects and programs
• Reflecting potentials and limitations of the further developments project and program stakeholder approach

The Project as a Tool of Policy Implementation: The Role of Project Management in Health
Jill Owen, Ph.D., University of New South Wales
The project will be conducted in two phases: a bibliometric study covering policy implementation, health policy and its implementation, and project management as a tool for policy implementation; and an exploratory case study of a health policy implementation using secondary data sources.

Project Alliances, Relationship-based Project Procurement
Derek H.T. Walker, RMIT University
We aim to help narrow the project procurement knowledge gap in the PMBOK for collaborative approaches to project procurement through publications flowing from our current and proposed worked.  The outcome of this research would enable alliance forms to be compared and contracted.

Project Management for Artists and Creative Endeavors
Barbara Edington, MBA, PMP, St. Francis College
This case study will offer insight into the arts community and the creative process; particularly the unique hurdles artists face (logistical, financial and regulatory) as they strive to complete high quality work.  A rigorous – yet flexible – project management framework could offer substantial value to artists.

Currently in the Publication Queue

The Contextualization of Project Management Outcomes and Practices
Brian Hobbs, PhD, PMP, and Claude Besner, PhD, PMP, University of Quebec at Montreal
The objectives of this study are to provide guidance to:

• Define the specific challenges and best practices of project management by industry
• Identify contextual factors that may increase or displace the effects of industry type in defining best project management practices
• Articulate regional differences in project management best practices

The Effect of Cultural Perspectives in Perceptions of IS/IT Project Success and Failure
Udechukwu Ojiako, PhD, University of Southampton
While globalization of projects and project teams represents an exciting development in project management, cultural differences within projects can create a platform for uncertainty, which, if not addressed, can lead to negative consequences or project failure. This research will explore the influences of culture on individuals' perspectives on failure in IS/IT projects. A multi-cultural team will used a mixed methods approach with a large international sample of respondents.

Procurement and Supply in Projects: Misunderstood and Under-Researched
Douglas MacBeth, MSc, CEng, MIET, MCMI, MCIPS, FRSA, University of Southampton
This project will investigate the current levels of understanding of procurement management in major projects and the impact procurement performance has on successful project completion. A two-phase, mixed method approach, yielding both qualitative and quantitative data will be used.

Team Learning in Projects
Chantal Savelsbergh, MS and Peter Storm, PhD., Open University of the Netherlands/Kennis & Co
This project represents the follow-up on the previous, PMI-sponsored investigation, "Coping with stress in organizational roles through team learning." The earlier descriptive, study showed that role stress, team learning, and team performance are significantly related to one another. The current follow-up study is aimed at testing the assumption that the positive effects of team learning can be enhanced to carefully designed interventions within a project team.

The Project Portfolio Change Management Process in Dynamic Environments
Brian Hobbs, PhD, PMP, and Yvan Petit, M.Eng, PhD, University of Quebec at Montreal
The study will explore how managers in dynamic environments regulate changes that affect their This research investigates the following research question: How is uncertainty affecting project portfolios managed in dynamic environments? An uncertainty management perspective is adopted instead of the more established practice risk management.

Stress and Performance in Health Care Project Teams
François Chiocchio, PhD, PMP, CHRP, Université de Montréal
Project work in project-mature industries is often stressful. Projects undertaken by multidisciplinary teams of physicians and other health care professionals pose even more acute risks of generating stress because team members' involvement in projects occur over and above “normal”, already pressure-intense health care delivery work. Using a sound and tested theoretical framework—the Demand-Control-Support model—this study will be the first to address stress in multidisciplinary project work undertaken in non-traditional fields.