Over roughly the last three decades, governments worldwide have implemented public private partnerships (P3s) to mobilize both private funds and public resources to develop transportation infrastructure, which has provided private entities contemporary opportunities to design, finance, construct, operate and maintain these important assets. Typically, P3s are large and complex undertakings that involve and impact many stakeholders, including public officials, financiers, builders, business owners and taxpaying citizens. Consequently, their efficacy depends – to a great extent – on how well they meet the interests of this array of stakeholders. Hence, effective assessment of P3s is crucial to determine whether these infrastructure initiatives and project outcomes satisfy these stakeholders' interests throughout a P3's life-cycle. Researchers and practitioners have considered various aspects of P3s when considering their performance. In general, the current research landscape related to P3 performance includes two major areas: (1) the identification and implementation of critical success factors (CSFs) and key performance indicators (KPIs), and (2) the development of frameworks that conceptualize approaches to measure P3 performance. Numerous studies have focused on CSFs that are the "ingredients" of effective P3s. More recent studies have emphasized KPIs that are metrics to assess them. Alternatively, some research has taken a life-cycle approach to propose approaches for P3 evaluation that are more comprehensive than assessments of P3 delivery time and cost. While this research has produced useful insights, limited emphasis has been placed on assessing P3 performance comprehensively and beyond the public and private sector dichotomy. Therefore, this research develops a framework that identifies and assesses key stakeholder interests in P3s as a means to characterize their performance. Subsequently, this framework was employed in a case study of four P3 projects to evaluate how well these cases met stakeholder expectations and ultimately performed. The research to develop the framework and conduct the case study was organized in three integrated studies. The first study employed a systematic literature review of CSFs and KPIs where the extant literature remains largely segmented and fragmented. Synthesis of the literature helped to identify and characterize various CSFs and KPIs and their current employment within the P3 performance domain. This led to the development of a CSF-KPI framework that integrates these factors and indicators throughout a P3 project's lifecycle. The outcome of the first study served as the foundation for the second study where the framework to assess stakeholders' interests was constructed. In this process, the second study followed a systematic approach by integrating key components to assess performance. The development process involved several key steps: (1) identification of the key stakeholders – specifically the state (elected bodies and executive agencies), investors (equity providers), producers (project service providers) and users/citizens (individuals or groups impacted by a project); (2) characterization of their principal interests; (3) selection of indicators of these interests; (4) linkage of the indicators with 11 performance dimensions ranging from project environment to revenue and operations; and (5) connection of the performance dimensions with four levels of performance: planning, project management, business, and future potential. The framework was demonstrated and substantiated using data from the I-495 Capital Beltway Express project. The application confirmed the replicability of the framework. The final study utilized the framework to evaluate P3s effectiveness in serving stakeholders goals and objectives. A multiple case study was conducted of four P3 highway projects in the United States: I-495 Capital Beltway Express, LBJ Expressway, SR 125 (South Bay Expressway), and SH 130 (5and6) to examine the extent that state, investor, producer, and user/citizen interests were fulfilled. Overall, I-495 and LBJ Expressway met stakeholder interests more effectively than SR 125 and SH 130 (5and6); these two cases had stronger planning, project management, and business performance. Notably, the I-495 case was an unsolicited (or market lead) proposal that followed a collaborative planning process to shape and define the project to meet mutual interests while the LBJ Expressway case utilized a competitive best-value procurement to generate an innovative technical solution that reduced the project's cost and footprint. Whereas SR 125 and SH 130 (5and6) experienced various issues that led to their bankruptcy; the new owners of both projects have taken steps to improve their outlook. Overall, the research deepens understanding of the factors that impact stakeholder interests and their expectations of P3s, presents a holistic framework for P3 assessments, and provides evidence of how well multiple P3s performed, moving beyond conceptual frameworks that are currently found in the literature. / Doctor of Philosophy / Public-Private Partnerships (P3s) have been adopted extensively to facilitate the development of transportation infrastructure. The need for more efficient and effective P3 projects makes performance assessment increasingly important, especially with respect to stakeholder interests and expectations. Also, effective and efficient assessment of P3 performance is crucial to determine whether this infrastructure development strategy meets owners and stakeholders needs throughout the P3 project lifecycle. The absence of an effective and comprehensive approach to evaluate P3 performance can result in reliance on anecdotal evidence, which may inaccurately portray the outcomes of these projects. While numerous studies have examined multiple facets of P3s over the last two decades, limited emphasis has been placed on comprehensively assessing their performance. Consequently, the purpose of this research is to advance the state of knowledge of P3 project performance in the transportation sector. To realize this purpose, this dissertation performed three integrated studies. The first study examined the current literature to identify factors that influence P3 outcomes and metrics that measure them. The second study developed a performance assessment framework, which captures various phases of a project's life cycle and considers the perspectives and objectives of the range of stakeholders involved in or impacted by P3s. Further, the framework was demonstrated and substantiated using data from the I-495 Capital Beltway Express project. Finally, the third study examined four cases in the US market – I-495, LBJ Expressway, SR 125 (South Bay Expressway), and SH 130 (5and6) – to examine to what extent state, investor, producer, and user/citizen interests were fulfilled. The case study illustrated that I-495 and LBJ Expressway met stakeholder interests more effectively than SR 125 and SH 130 (5and6); I-495 and LBJ Expressway fulfilled their implementation, financial and service expectations whereas SR 125 and SH 130 (5and6) experienced implementation issues and financial distress. Overall, these studies support improved understanding of the factors that impact stakeholder interests in P3s and provide evidence of how well four P3s projects performed over time.

No / Supply chain management (SCM) is a major issue in many industries as organisations begin to appreciate the criticality of creating an integrated relationship with their suppliers and customers, as well as all other stakeholders. Managing the supply chain has become a way of improving competitiveness by reducing uncertainty and enhancing customer service. The concept of value chain management (VCM) is becoming quite prevalent in industry. Despite this popularity, there is little evidence of the development of accompanying theory in the literature. Without theory development, it is difficult to identify specific hypotheses and propositions, which can be tested, resulting in research that lacks focus and is perhaps irrelevant. This paper analyses the merits and limitations of SCM and provides broader awareness of VCM, its critical success factors and proposes a model, which covers four key elements supported by a drive on agility and speed.

Yes / This study extends the debate surrounding the components of IS project success by reviewing success factors from the perspective of their interdependency and influence on each other. This research utilises interpretive structural modelling as the methodology and framework to develop the relationships between the selected factors. This approach is presented as a mechanism that can provide greater insight to the underlying causal interrelationships associated with IS project success and the successful transition to operations. The findings identify a number of key outcomes that have significant driving influence on other interconnected factors in the final model. This study highlights the benefits of an interpretive approach where IS factor interrelationships can be modelled to demonstrate potential influence on other connected factors thereby, increasing the chances of project success.

Yes / Using compulsory e-government services is increasingly difficult and challenging given the impact of corruption, political instability, armed conflict, and a chaotic environment. Post the 2011 uprising, Libya experienced serious and deep-rooted conflicts. The chaos destabilized and dismantled government institutions throughout the country. Utilizing the lens of institutional theory, this paper presents the pressures experienced by the formal institutions in the absence of law and safety, to implement the necessary e-government services and provide it to citizens all over the country. In addition, to explore the role of informal institutions in providing and using the compulsory services offered by the government and to what extent alternative services could be made available. Two qualitative pilot studies, conducted in 2015 and 2016, explored the feasibility of implementing e-government from both the government officials and the citizens’ perspectives, respectively. From the e-services provided during this time period, only the E-passport and National Identity number were found to be the only successful. Critical Success Factors - CSF of e-government implementation were defined from conducting an in-depth literature review; these were compared with our findings. Both the government officials and the citizens found corruption, infrastructure and geographical nature to be influencing factors. The social collaboration between citizens was found to be the driving factor in the success of the e-passport, despite the difficult geographical nature and the limited infrastructure all over the country.

The research explores how Swedish apparel companies are integrating Circular Economy (CE) principles into the product design phase and identifies Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for circular and profitable apparel products. It uses a multiple case study approach, interviewing employees from five companies involved in the Vinnova project. Key findings include the importance of design for durability, balancing recycled content with quality, and the need for measurable CE principles. The study highlights the need for KPIs to track circular design performance and suggests managers prepare for upcoming EU ESPR legislation. Limitations include its focus on Swedish companies and the short research timeframe. Future research should further explore the impact of ESPR and develop more KPIs for CE in the apparel industry.

As a result of the advances in information and communication technology, E-Learning has been integrated as an essential element in educational settings. Despite its successful implementation, a significant number of E-Learning projects fail to achieve their goals. This has motivated researchers and practitioners to study the reasons for failure and success and the factors that impact E-Learning. This research attempts to investigate the factors that influence the implementation and development of E-Learning and the most appropriate framework for secondary schools in Bahrain. The research adopted a quantitative approach to examine both teachers’ and students’ perceptions of critical factors in secondary schools in the Kingdom of Bahrain. A total of 540 respondents completed the survey-based questionnaire. The results revealed that there are four sets of factors which influence the success of E-Learning in the school education sector. These are: students’ characteristics (computers skills; motivation and attitudes); teachers’ characteristics (attitudes; control of technology and pedagogy and teaching style); technology (quality of technology and effectiveness of infrastructure) and design and content (perceived ease of use and quality of content). In addition, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst teachers according to gender, specialization, teaching experience and E-Learning experience. Similarly, the findings show that there are some differences in perceptions amongst students according to gender, specialization and level of study (years in school). The main contribution of this research is that it addresses the success of E-Learning in the schools sector in Bahrain and in the Arab region as this area of research lacks theoretical and empirical studies. In addition, the research proposes a conceptual framework that integrates the critical factors and demographic variables. The proposed conceptual framework contributes to the knowledge of E-Learning success by creating a guide for educational institutions and governments for better development and implementation, serving as a planning tool for new E-Learning projects and as an assessment mode for the efficacy of existing projects.

The purpose of this study is to provide recommendations to further develop and improvements of models which can be applied to IT governance models for system maintenance. The work investigates gaps in the implementation and using phase of the model pm3 and also models which are inspired in pm3. The aim of the present paper is to answer the research questions which are related to (1) which critical success factors that have an impact on the governance of system maintenance management and also for the model pm3 and (2) how maintenance management models can further be developed and improved. This qualitative study is a case study in which a questionnaire and interview in two steps have been completed. The sample of respondents have been made with a specific purpose that reflects the selected qualities and relevance of the study and also with a geographical distribution. The study resulted in a number of critical success factors for the model pm3 where some of these can be considered as general for all maintenance management models. The results shows the need of a maintenance management model that is designed for the agile working method and suitable for all types and sizes of organisations. It is an area where maintenance management models and pm3  need to develop within. / Syftet med denna studie är att kunna ge rekommendationer till utveckling och förbättringar av modeller som kan tillämpas vid IT-styrning av modeller för systemförvaltning. Arbetet undersöker brister i införandet och användandet av modellen pm3 samt modeller som är inspirerade av pm3. Studiens mål är att besvara frågeställningarna som behandlar (1) vilka kritiska framgångsfaktorer som har en påverkan för styrning av systemförvaltning samt för modellen pm3 och (2) hur förvaltningsstyrningsmodeller och pm3 kan utvecklas och förbättras. Den kvalitativa studien är en fallstudie där en enkätundersökning och två olika intervjusteg har utförts. Urvalet av respondenter har gjorts med ett specifikt syfte som speglar de utvaldas kvaliteter och relevans för studien samt med en geografisk spridning. Studien resulterade i en mängd kritiska framgångsfaktorer för modellen pm3 där en del av dessa kan anses som generella för alla förvaltningsstyrningsmodeller. Resultatet påvisar även behovet av en förvaltningsstyrningsmodell som är anpassad för det agila arbetssättet samt behovet av en modell anpassad för olika storlekar av organisationer. Vilket är ett område som förvaltningsstyrningsmodeller och pm3 bör utvecklas inom.

Critical success factors (CSFs) are those things that must be done correctly for a project to be successful; however, CSFs are not sufficient by themselves to guarantee success. CSFs, as identified in the literature, vary from study to study. In addition, previous studies have not typically included contextual details for the projects studied. As a result, it is difficult to know how the particulars of a project impact (or not) CSFs. Researchers have suggested that CSFs can be affected by contextual details. Knowledge about the effect of contextual factors on CSFs would allow organizational leaders and project managers to more effectively use resources to achieve project success. Enterprise system implementation projects have exhibited high failure rates. Both Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Electronic Health Record (EHR) system implementations have proven to be challenging for organizations. For enterprise system implementation projects, a variety of contextual factors may be important. Examples of contextual factors include the number of software modules implemented, the number of sites undergoing implementation, the geographic dispersion of the sites, the number of people in the organization, and the percentage of personnel in the organization whose daily tasks are disrupted by the new enterprise system. This research was designed to shed light on the role of contextual factors on CSFs for enterprise system implementation projects. A survey was created to evaluate the effects of contextual factors on CSF ratings. The survey included questions related to 17 CSFs, 14 of the CSFs included in the study have been well-cited in the project management literature. Three additional CSFs were also included in the study to capture important elements of change management, which more recent studies have shown to be relevant to enterprise system implementations. The survey included questions related to eight contextual variables for ERP projects and 11 contextual variables for EHR system projects. The research focused on small to medium-size organizations, which have been less studied than larger organizations. The target respondents for the survey were enterprise system (ERP or EHR) project managers from software companies or consulting firms and government project managers whose implementation projects were within six months of completion. Data were collected on 17 ERP projects and 26 EHR system implementation projects in 43 different organizations. The survey data and subsequent analyses provided evidence that EHR system implementation projects are impacted by contextual factors. The results for the ERP implementations are not conclusive. The results suggest that contextual factors should be taken into consideration when determining how best to manage enterprise system implementations. In addition, the results of this research did not support previous research findings, which indicated that similar CSFs exist for ERP and EHR system projects. CSFs were found to vary substantially in a number of key areas, especially with respect to training. The User Training and Support CSF for the ERP projects included in this study was rated less important than prior research results suggest (Finney & Corbett, 2007). One of two CSFs included in the survey to capture change management requirements, Early Adopter/Super-user, was found to be an important CSF for the ERP projects included in this study. The EHR system projects were found to be affected by contextual factors, with nine different instances of significant relationships identified between individual CSFs and one or more contextual factor. Eight of the 17 CSFs for the EHR system implementation projects in this study were affected by contextual factors. Contextual factors impacted the ERP and EHR system implementations quite differently, suggesting that more research is needed to better understand the phenomenon leading to these differences. The findings from this research can be used by organizational leaders and project managers to more effectively achieve project success. These results provide project managers and organizational leaders in small and medium-size organizations with a much deeper and relevant understanding of the factors that are most important to manage in successfully implementing either ERP or EHR system projects. As this study focused on small and medium-size organizations and both ERP and EHR system implementation projects, the findings are relevant across a wide range of organizations. As smaller organizations have not typically been the focus of CSF research, this study makes an important contribution to the understanding of CSFs for both ERP and EHR system implementation projects. More generally, this research also expands the broader body of knowledge on the identification of CSFs, as this study has provided empirical evidence for the important role played by contextual factors. Every project is carried out within a broader organizational setting. This broader organizational setting appears, based on the results of this study, to have a strong effect on the importance of CSFs for each specific project and as such, may explain some of the seemingly contradictory findings related to CSFs in the existing literature. While further research is needed to understand the means by which contextual factors impact CSFs, this study has provided a significant contribution in validating the relationship between contextual factors and CSFs for a broad range of enterprise system projects in a wide range of industries. / Graduation date: 2012

Complex projects often fail even when formal project management systems are in place. Project management processes and methodologies are well defined and described in academic and business literature. There is however less published research on the socio-cultural factors that are critical for project success. This study investigated whether project stakeholders view communication as one of the critical success factors for project success. Critical project success factors were identified from a literature study and ranked by 34 project stakeholders. The data was analysed using the Instant Priorities method and Analytical Hierarchical Process. A workshop on the use of communication within projects was observed. The results were translated into a project success factor model that explains the importance of communication in project success. Furthermore, a serious games based training tool is proposed. The aim of the training will be for participants to understand the communication preferences of themselves and the people they interact with in large projects. The proposed tool will require the participant to map typical stakeholder behavioural preferences. The well-known Marston DISC behavioural model is used as basis for understanding the behavioural preferences of different stakeholder groups. This research project supports the view that communication training across stakeholder groups should be used as a project risk mitigation tool. An increased understanding of the communication preferences of project stakeholders has the potential to shape a project culture that will stimulate teamwork combined with high levels of personal motivation as well as have the capacity to quickly identify and address project risks. / MSc (Computer Science), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2014

This research studies the competencies of International Development (ID) project managers from their perspectives, taking into consideration the contextual factors and the challenges that they face when managing ID projects. The study adopts a constructionist ontological viewpoint and an interpretivist epistemological philosophical assumption. The nature of the research is exploratory with an inductive approach, using qualitative research method. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with experienced project managers in International Development projects. Template analysis strategy was used to analyse the data. The findings show that contextual factors have a significant influence on the challenges that ID project managers face when managing projects. Contextual factors are operating environment, large network of stakeholders and intangible goals of ID projects. Five challenges were identified as the results of the context, namely stakeholder management challenge, beneficiary needs analysis challenge, the challenge of balancing strategic and operational views, capacity building and training challenge and sustainable funding challenge. To overcome these challenges, seven ID project manager competencies were identified management skills, personal qualities, interpersonal skills, stakeholder engagement skills, capacity building skills, and change management skills. These competencies are found to be interrelated and complementary. While the role and responsibilities of ID project managers were also uncovered during the research, the findings on contextual factors, challenges and competencies help to better understand the ID project manager role and responsibilities. This study makes the contributions from both theoretical and practical point of view. With regards to theoretical contribution, our findings expanded on ID project manager competencies as well as relating them to the context and challenges in ID projects. The role and responsibilities of ID project manager is another theoretical contribution in this study. From a practical point of view, this thesis’s findings would be useful for various organizations who deliver ID projects, particularly human resources management. In addition, it can act as knowledge sharing with ID project managers and help in designing and enhancing educational programmes in ID project management. Overall, this could result in better delivery and overcoming the challenges of International Development projects.