Most project management research to date has developed extended theories and concepts that de-contextualize projects from their cultural and institutional surroundings. Such decontextualization tends to highlight instrumental factors and considerations, while at the same time downplaying norms, practices, ideologies, and other cultural, institutional and psychological effects related to projects and their management. We claim that cultural and institutional variation becomes significant in relation to what we call "global projects". These are large-scale and complex business or military ventures and engineering projects that involve participants from more than one country, great geographical distance, and cultural and institutional differences. Global projects often carry high expectations to resolve local or global ills. Global projects have also been criticized as to how their management often appears to have shortcomings, however. To date, little research knowledge exists on global projects. In relation to improving project performance, increasing understanding of debates concerning ways that global projects are managed, and resolving at least some of these debates, we review in this introductory article the editorial starting points for the research articles in this special issue. The introductory editorial article ends with suggestions for future research.. Article Outline Introduction "Problem of cultural differences": Embeddedness of a project in more than one national context "Other" perspectives on perceived problems and solutions The four research articles in the special issue Origins, framing, and focusing of this special issue Suggestions for future research
Based on the related literature in economics, organizational sociology and the sociology of finance, this article constructs a novel conceptual explanation for corporate short-termism, that is, the tendency of corporate managers to sacrifice long-term investments to improve short-term earnings (STEs). We theorize about how such corporate short-termism emerges, at least partly, from systemic, self-reinforcing processes across various communities of actors including investors, the media and managers themselves. In doing so, we refute the common notion that corporate short-termism is caused by an inherent preference of investors or other actors to focus on STEs. Consequently, the systemic perspective offered by this article questions some conventional assumptions about the roots of corporate short-termism and emphasizes the influence of coordination mechanisms and behavioural biases in giving rise to self-reinforcing loops.
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