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This article identifies problems in managing multiple internal development projects. The research methodology employed organisation-specific interviews, surveys and workshops on two case project portfolios. Project portfolio management studies provide one view on existing knowledge in this area.The study results in six relevant problem areas: 1) Inadequate project level activities, 2) Lacking resources, competencies and methods, 3) Lacking commitment, unclear roles and responsibilities, 4) Inadequate portfolio level activities, 5) Inadequate information management, and 6) Inadequate management of project-oriented organisation. The article suggests further analysis and development of managerial practices on these areas.

Projects involve inter-organizational networks that are central to collaborative projectbased value creation. Interest in value creation in the project lifecycle is mounting, and the front-end stage of projects is gaining increasing attention in the research literature. However, little is known about how network management activities facilitate value creation in the frontend and how such activities push a project toward higher end-states of value. The purpose of this research is to identify activities that facilitate the development of inter-organizational networks and augment value creation among multiple organizations in the front-end of projects. To this end, we conduct a qualitative empirical case study of the front-end of a health care campus development project. We identify four activities and five network attributes that explain how inter-organizational network can be managed for value creation in the front-end. These findings contribute to research on management of the front-end of projects and management of inter-organizational networks in projects.

Morris (2013) calls for value creation for project stakeholders using project outcomes. This is an attempt to link the front end of the system lifecycle -the project phase -to the back end, i.e. the operations phase. Little is however known about how value creation occurs through developing project outcomes which have the capacity to continue value-creating activities even decades after a project is completed. We establish that projects are multi-organizational systems which transit from the project phase to the operations phase in system lifecycles, and we use the systems view to analyze value creation mechanisms within the system lifecycle. We carry out empirical research into the lifecycle of a shopping center. Four distinct value-enhancing integration mechanisms in the operations of this multi-organizational system are identified, and propositions for four new project management approaches that create value during the project and have long-term value-enhancing impacts in the operations phase are derived.

This research addresses management control in the front end of innovation projects. We conceptualize and analyze PMOs more broadly than just as a specialized project-focused organizational unit. Building on theories of management control, organization design, and innovation front end literature, we assess the role of PMO as an integrative arrangement. The empirical material is derived from four companies. The results show a variety of management control mechanisms that can be considered as integrative organizational arrangements. Such organizational arrangements can be considered as an alternative to a non-existent PMO, or to complement a (non-existent) PMO's tasks. The paper also contrasts prior literature by emphasizing the desirability of a highly organic or embedded matrix structure in the organization. Finally, we propose that the development path of the management approach proceeds by first emphasizing diagnostic and boundary systems (with mechanistic management approaches) followed by intensive use of interactive and belief systems (with value-based management approaches). The major contribution of this paper is in the organizational and managerial mechanisms of a firm that is managing multiple innovation projects. This research also expands upon the existing PMO research to include a broader management control approach for managing projects in companies.

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We analyze governance in two contemporary nuclear power plant projects: Olkiluoto 3 (Finland) and Flamanville 3 (France). We suggest that in the governance of large multi-firm projects, any of the prevalent governance approaches that rely on market, hierarchy, or hybrid forms, is not adequate as such. This paper opens up avenues towards a novel theory of governance in large projects by adopting a project network view with multiple networked firms within a single project, and by simultaneously going beyond organizational forms that cut across the traditional firm-market dichotomy. Our analysis suggests four changes in the prevailing perspective towards the governance of large projects. First, there should be a shift from viewing multi-firm projects as hierarchical contract organizations to viewing them as supply networks characterized by a complex and networked organizational structure. Second, there should be a shift in the emphasis of the predominant modes of governance, market and hierarchy towards novel governance approaches that emphasize network-level mechanisms such as self-regulation within the project. Third, there should be a shift from viewing projects as temporary endeavors to viewing projects as short-term events or episodes embedded in the long-term sphere of shared history and expected future activities among the involved actors. Fourth, there should be a shift from the prevailing narrow view of a hierarchical project management system towards an open system view of managing in complex and challenging institutional environments.

International projects present really dif®cult logistics challenges. In international investment projects, a vast number of individualised deliveries has to be managed through a large supply network in a tight timeframe. This article investigates how the logistic challenges of international projects can be solved by utilising advanced web technologies and product identi®cation. The paper presents a control system being built at Helsinki University of Technology, which is based on distributed programming, and wireless identi®cation technologies. The aim of the system is to change the controlling mechanisms of project deliveries by giving the deliveries themselves the means with which to control their route. This enables the material¯ows in the project delivery chains to be controlled from the inside of the material¯ow itself. #