The effect of decision risk and project stage on escalation of commitment

He, Xin; Mittal, Vikas

doi:10.1016/j.obhdp.2007.01.002

Cited by 55 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Amongst other factors, deescalation is associated with reduced tolerance for failure and more awareness of problems with projects arising from greater clarity in success criteria, more regular evaluations and more outcome orientated evaluations (Keil and Robey, 1999;Montealegre and Keil, 2000). He and Mittal (2007) In contrast, analysis of PMO involvement in specific practices in the project life-cycle revealed that PMOs can contribute to both success and satisfaction. Those practices where PMO involvement is positively associated with both overall project success and management satisfaction are at the two ends of the project life-cycle.…”

Section: Discussion Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of project management offices (PMOs) in IS project success and management satisfaction

Ward

Daniel

2013

Journal of Enterprise Information Management

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School (OUBS). Prior to joining OUBS in 2005, she worked in the IS ResearchCentre at Cranfield School of Management. Elizabeth's research has addressed a number of areas including benefits management and IS in marketing and supply chains. Recent work has included studies of home based online businesses and the uses of consumer and employee data. She has published many papers in leading academic journals and a number of management reports. 2 AbstractPurpose: Organisations are increasingly using project or programme management offices (PMOs) to co-ordinate activities across information system (IS) projects. This paper explores how the presence of PMOs and their involvement in IS projects relates to project success and to senior management satisfaction with those projects.Design/methodology/approach: The study uses an exploratory survey method to consider the relationship of both the presence of a PMO and the involvement of the PMO in five key practices that span the project life-cycle on project success and management satisfaction. Findings:Counter-intuitively, it is found that the presence of a PMO reduces senior management satisfaction with IS projects and has no effect on the overall success rates of those projects. The study draws on ideas of escalation of commitment to explain this finding. Practical implications:The findings suggest that it is more important for PMOs to be involved at the start and at the review stage of projects, rather than in the on-going monitoring, which is where much of their current focus is. Originality/value:This study is the first that we are aware of, to identify a reduced level of management satisfaction associated with the presence of a PMO. It is also the first study to consider PMO involvement at the level of key project practices and hence to be able to suggest how to understand and address the reduced management satisfaction identified.

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Section: Discussion Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of project management offices (PMOs) in IS project success and management satisfaction

Ward

Daniel

2013

Journal of Enterprise Information Management

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“…At the same time there is a tendency of senior management to mentor their pet projects excessively, thereby allocating more resources than justifiable according to strategy or even sticking to a lost cause, known as "escalation of commitment" (Biyalogorsky et al, 2006;Brockner, 1992;He and Mittal, 2007;Schmidt and Calantone, 2002). Balachandra (1984) has shown this phenomenon also in a project management context, where the probability of project termination decreases with increasing support of top management.…”

Section: Senior Management Involvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enforcing strategic fit of project portfolios by project termination: An empirical study on senior management involvement

Unger

Kock

Gemünden

et al. 2012

International Journal of Project Management

128

120

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“…This confirmed their expectation that a firm's desire to complete an innovation project actually does increase as project completion gets nearer (Conlon and Garland, 1993, p. 410). Since then, the project completion effect has been examined in eight other RBP experiments (Garland and Conlon, 1998;Moon, 2001aMoon, , 2001bMoon et al, 2003;He and Mittal, 2007;Harvey and Victoravich, 2009). The results of these experiments were similar to the results of the two experiments by Conlon and Garland.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Together on the path to construction innovation: yet another example of escalation of commitment?

Rutten

Dorée

Halman

2014

Construction Management and Economics

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Collaborative innovation projects are projects in which firms join forces to cooperate in the development and commercialization of a new building product, system, or service. They represent an example of the type of inter-firm relationships that are said to enhance construction innovation. Organizational behaviour research, however, suggests that firms participating in such innovation projects run the risk of escalating commitment and may continue to invest for irrational reasons. It is therefore relevant to examine whether Dutch firms that invest, in collaboration with other firms, in the development and commercialization of a new building product, system, or service are susceptible to this escalation. Two escalation effects were investigated: the effect of expected loss of sunk costs, and the effect of perceived project stage. A survey was undertaken of 154 firms participating in 25 collaborative innovation projects. The results suggest that firms in the population under study are unlikely to fall victim to either of the two escalation effects. Rather, the negative association found between the expected loss of sunk costs and likelihood of continuing investment raises the question as to whether firms become more cautious when they have spent a lot.

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The effect of decision risk and project stage on escalation of commitment

Cited by 55 publications

References 42 publications

The role of project management offices (PMOs) in IS project success and management satisfaction

The role of project management offices (PMOs) in IS project success and management satisfaction

Enforcing strategic fit of project portfolios by project termination: An empirical study on senior management involvement

Together on the path to construction innovation: yet another example of escalation of commitment?

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