Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2005. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Feb. 17, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

Research collaboration between academia and industry is a form of knowledge creation in construction industry project management. This research collaboration is motivated by the intent to provide solutions to issues and problems that industry faces through research expertise and a scientific approach. Notwithstanding the potential benefits acknowledged by researchers, collaborative academia-industry research has not been sufficiently explored and there only exist a few studies addressing research success and success factors. Several main reasons for this include; 1) the success of collaborative academia-industry research has not been well defined, 2) there exist limited empirical studies, and 3) the research process of collaborative academia-industry research has not been systematically investigated. The primary purpose of this study is to improve the process of the collaborative academia-industry research for construction industry project management by identifying key process attributes and success factors. First, this study suggests a definition of the success and success criteria of collaborative academia-industry research based on literature review. Then this study evaluated more than 150 research efforts of the Construction Industry Institute (CII), a non-profit research organization sponsoring academia-industry collaborative research for more than 30 years, against the established success criteria to identify successful and less than successful research efforts. Multiple methods were adopted for the evaluation including web-based surveys, research product dissemination data, journal citation counts, and expert group assessment. By analysis and triangulation of the data collected from those multiple sources, this study identified 11 research efforts for further analyses. In-depth cases studies on the 11 research efforts were conducted focusing on the research process through interviews with a total of 39 academics and industry practitioners who participated in those research efforts. Information from interviews and other relevant data were analyzed for each case as well as across the 11 cases to identify key process attributes and factors contributing to research success. Consolidated findings from the cross-case analyses generated 9 key process attributes and associated success factors with significant potential to improve the research process of collaborative academia-industry research. / text

Despite their recognized significance for project success and innovation, the management of the early project phases is still an under-researched area in project management. For organizations to secure a continuous stream of innovation, the utilization of capabilities is crucial for managing the early phases of R&D projects. The purpose of this dissertation is to advance the understanding of the management of the early project phases in hypercompetitive environments. The thesis addresses the research question of how organizations manage the early project phases of R&D in hypercompetitive environments for frequent innovation by taking a dynamic capabilities perspective. The first conceptual study reviews the literature covering organizational change in hypercompetitive environments with a focus on projects as the vehicle to create the necessary flexibility. The study found that organizational aspects and capabilities have to go hand in hand as enabler and facilitator for a successful emergent change process. The second qualitative study investigates how organizations organize the early project phases of R&D in the pharmaceutical industry for an outcome of frequent innovation. The findings show that an optimization of combinative capabilities that balances dynamic, project and multi-project capabilities can be used as a powerful leverage to boost the outcome of frequent innovation. The third study investigates the philosophical stances and related methodologies used within the last 15 years of project management research at the example of IRNOP conferences. The findings show that ontological subjectivism and epistemological interpretivism are dominating. Moreover, case studies and qualitative methods were the most common methods, whereas mixed method studies were lacking despite their value for developing an increasingly complex research field. The final mixed method study explores how absorptive, innovative and adaptive capabilities within the early phases of pharmaceutical R&D affect project and portfolio performance. Based on the results of quantitative study, the set of capabilities has an overall effect on the set of performance outcomes and thus confirms the results of the qualitative study that a distinct capability mix is needed in the pharmaceutical R&D process. To conclude, the dissertation has comprehensively explored the management of the early project phases through four studies and by applying a multitude of methodologies.