Managing strategic resources in petroleum industry projects

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore how strategic resources in petroleum industry projects are to be best managed and exploited in order to deliver enhanced project performance and sustained business competitiveness. Framed upon the Resource-Based View ('RBV') theory, these resources should be 'Valuable', 'Inimitable', 'Rare' and be able to draw on 'Organisational support' ('VIRO'). Qualitative data were collected from petroleum industry organizations operating in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman between 2017 and 2019. The analysis shows that at the project level, 'Value' and 'Organisational support' attributes of resources were positively related to competitive advantage and both impacted by dynamic capabilities and innovative environment. However, the 'Rareness' and 'Inimitability' attributes showed less evolution. We also find that at the project level, the main characteristics of organizational resources were that they are 'Valuable', 'Organizationally supported', and that they could be 'Uniquely exploited' while being 'Readily available'. The results suggest a desire by project-oriented organizations to replace the 'Rareness' and 'Inimitability' attributes within VIRO with two alternative attributes, namely 'Unique exploitation' and 'Timely availability' of resources.

Project managing in post-conflict environments: an exploration of the resource profiles of Sri Lankan non-governmental organizations involved in development projects

“…For the first contribution, earlier work classified project management as a strategic firm asset (Jugdev, 2004), the characteristics of PM resources (Jugdev and Mathur, 2006b) along with the associations between PM resource characteristics and PM process outcomes (Perkins et al, 2019). More recent work has explored the nature of strategic resources in a single sector of organizations (Energy) in a region (Al-Hanshi et al, 2020). This study extends these contributions to identify the resource combinations of tangible and intangible resources in organizations a post-conflict country environment.…”

The impact of economic and political imperatives on the successful use of public-private partnership (PPP) in projects

“…The choice of such a group was critical to our study as we deemed it important to draw upon the expertise of a group possessing sufficient appreciation of the literature, balanced with practical experience, as to enable their critical evaluation of the face validity of PPP factors derived from literature. Although as in the case of Al-Hanshi et al (2022), our study was undertaken in the gulf region where the official language is Arabic, our study was not focused on any particular influences of national culture (e.g. see Chipulu et al 2014).…”

“…Al-Hanshi et al (2022) who conducted their study within the Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates in English, we conducted our survey in Saudi Arabia in Arabic, because in Saudi Arabia (as compared with the Sultanate of Oman and the United Arab Emirates), English is not an unofficial business language. Also, in conducting the survey in Arabic, we avoided possible mistranslations(Douglas and Craig 2007).…”

A complexity perspective of dynamic capabilities in enterprise project organizations

“…Utilising a similar approach to Chipulu et al (2014) and Al-Hanshi et al (2022), identification and recruitment of the interviewees in our study was predominantly undertaken within the extensive professional networks within the construction industry maintained by the authors. Thus, the data was drawn mainly from interviews of 21 construction SME owner-managers based in Scotland and Northern Ireland.…”

“…1107;Day 2011;p. 186) may be explained by reference to their ability to effectively and efficiently exploit and leverage resources which are 'Valuable', 'Inimitable', 'Rare' and drawn upon on 'Organizational support' ('VIRO') (see Al-Hanshi et al 2022). Together, these resources serve as the foundation to the Resource-Based View ('RBV') of the firm.…”