دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی پیچیدگی پروژه و ظرفیت جذب در سطح تیمی به عنوان محرکان عملکرد مدیریت پروژه - الزویر 2018

Abstract

Many believe that project complexity reduces project management performance. However, so far research has failed to establish this causal relationship conclusively. We extend research on project complexity by introducing the concept of team-level absorptive capacity and by studying its role as mediator between project complexity and project management success. Applying structural equation modelling to a sample of 285 respondents, we find an unequivocal, direct and positive statistical association between project complexity and delays and overspending. Further, we show that team-level absorptive capacity is critical for successful project management, but also that absorptive capacity can only partially offset the harmful impact of project complexity. Beyond adding to project management theory, the paper contributes to the wider management literature. We establish complexity as an antecedent of absorptive capacity and demonstrate how each dimension of absorptive capacity has unique determinants and outcomes.

6. Concluding remarks

6.1. Summary

Our research has established empirically the relationships between project complexity and project management performance in terms of unscheduled delays and overspending. Importantly, the mediating effect of team-level absorptive capacity was determined, confirming the relevance of this construct to project teams' performance. We found, first, that the adverse effect of complexity overrides the alleviating influence of absorptive capacity on project management success. Second, absorptive capacity does, nevertheless, play a critical mediating role, and its relevance was quantified at 23.1%. We propose that this effect is a generalisable, albeit approximate, estimation of absorptive capacity's importance in comparable settings. Finally, the individual dimensions of absorptive capacity were found to display unique antecedents and outcomes. For theory, this means that absorptive capacity should predominantly be maintained as a multi-dimensional construct, as originally posited by Cohen and Levinthal (1990). In consequence, our results unveil an extensive research agenda where the unique dimensions of absorptive capacity take centre stage. Both the drivers and the outcomes of the individual dimensions merit scholarly attention, with Volberda et al.’ (2010) integrative framework and identified research gaps offering a useful starting point. More specifically, the complementarity of Lane et al.’ (2006) funnel perspective on absorptive capacity, Nonaka and Von Krogh's (2009) knowledge conversion model and the traditional project life-cycle literature look set to offer rich insights into how team-level knowledge processes determine project management performance. With regard to complexity's effect on team outcomes, the concept of complexity resistance (Hanisch and Wald, 2014) and the possibility of curvilinear relationships deserve further exploration. Moreover, insights from the field of cognitive psychology are likely to improve our understanding of the micro-organisational antecedents of team-level absorptive capacity (cf. Cohen and Levinthal, 1990).