Service delivery and solution selling both strive to achieve increased value through co-creation. However, the concept of value co-creation is a macro concept that still lacks precise empirical ...grounding and accurate operationalisation. To uncover the microlevel processes of co-creation, we examined 15 sales cases via the lens of uncertainty management. We used design thinking and actor-network theory to explore how certainty evolves between a seller and the buyer. We argue that the common industrial logic for addressing and tackling customer problems in solution selling, hitherto portrayed as either deductive or inductive, is incomplete. Indeed, our research shows that solution selling and value co-creation both require a different, abductive epistemology to address the uncertainty. Our study also provides an empirical extension to the value co-creation literature.
•Service delivery and solution selling strive towards increased value through co-creation.•Design thinking and actor-network theory is used to explore how certainty evolves between the seller and the buyer.•The industrial logic for addressing customer problems, which has been portrayed as deductive or inductive, is incomplete.•Solution selling and value co-creation require a different, abductive epistemology to encompass uncertainty.
There exists little research into how value is effectively generated by temporary projects from the wider perspective of a permanent organisation. This paper investigates empirically how ‘Governance ...of Projects’ – the way in which a single, permanent organisation identifies, creates, and subsequently harvests value through multiple projects – occurs in four private-sector case companies. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with a wide range of employees and from internal operational documents. These data were codified and analysed as evidence of the types and intensity of links between organisational elements. The results illuminate the complex interplay of links that are imperative if the permanent organisation is to derive value from its projects, and shows that these links are context-dependent and vary between organisations. It is that the links exist, and not what the type of link is, that matters most. That these links extend beyond the project's execution is critical for maximising value. The paper demonstrates the advantages of adopting an organisational perspective in order to properly understand how Governance of Projects generates value within a permanent organisation.
•Governance of Projects link projects with their permanent organisation to generate value.•Governance of Projects (GoP) spans the entire value process.•Five elements of GoP have been identified as central for value generation.•The network of links between the elements of GoP is a driver of value generation.•Types of links between elements and between domains are context-dependent.
Despite the focus on collaborative project delivery models (CPDMs) in the construction industry, it remains unclear how it promises bases for delivering better value for money than many traditional ...models. In view of the importance of knowledge about CPDM delivery, this study aims to explore governance mechanisms that underline the relationship between principal and agent and how this relationship is impacted by the alignment of organisational tools and methods. We argue that there is an interrelationship between agency theory and stewardship theory that provides an important theoretical foundation for CPDMs; additionally, alignment of organisational tools and methods can contribute to overcoming the principal-agent problem in projects if aligned with the functions in CDPMs. An empirical analysis of an exploratory case study supports these assumptions and highlights how CPDM's success can occur through removing and reducing the fundamental principal-agent problem and illustrates the performance and dangers of CPDM tools. Our findings deepen the theoretical understanding of CPDM delivery and provide new insights into the strategic fit in CPDMs alignment in projects.
Project management education is well suited for active learning through serious games, and a lot of research has been published on the use of serious games for project management education. Earlier ...reviews have focused on the content and features of project management serious games. The objectives for using those serious games have been less reviewed. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review to better understand the objectives of using serious games in project management education, with the following research question: Why are project management serious games used in higher education? A systematic review was performed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). A systematic search enabled us to identify 175 articles, of which forty-three met the eligibility criteria. An inductive content analysis of those articles showed that project management serious games are used mainly for pedagogical and practical reasons. From a pedagogical perspective, serious games are mainly used to develop specific skills that are difficult to acquire in classic ex cathedra lectures, such as practical competencies and soft skills. From a practical perspective, serious games are mainly used for proposing a risk-free trial environment. Based on our analysis, we propose a taxonomy of reasons for using PM games in higher education. Our study also reveals that few studies assess whether serious games meet all their objectives, and that more research is needed on how to implement them into a coherent pedagogical scenario.
While many studies have been published about project management serious games, most of them mainly describe characteristics and features of the games themselves. In those studies, little is found on ...the pedagogical implementation of serious games and on how they have impacted project management education. In this article, we both discuss how serious games have impacted project management education and how they are implemented from a pedagogical perspective. We used an empirical research approach, based on qualitative observations. Observations included authors’ own usages of a project management serious game (the PM-Game) complemented with a synthesis of 10 years of observations and discussions with other teachers who had used this same PM-Game. Results showed that serious games may lead to educational changes such as moving toward active pedagogies, developing new competencies such as soft skills, and changing teachers-students relationship. For the pedagogical implementation, results showed that the serious game was implemented as an integrated concept including hybrid simulation modalities, and combining virtual and augmented learning aspects. In conclusion, serious games have the potential to trigger a change in project management education. But to fully benefit from the potential advantages of this change, they have to be designed, developed and implemented as an integrated gaming and learning concept.
•Serious games can trigger pedagogical change in project management education.•Use of serious games in education change students-teachers relationships.•Serious games change the way project management is learned.•Serious games can enable the development and acquisition of soft skills.•Serious games must be designed and used within an integrated pedagogical concept.
Why and how new migration routes emerge remain fundamental questions in ecology, particularly in the context of current global changes. In its early stages, when few individuals are involved, the ...evolution of new migration routes can be easily confused with vagrancy, i.e. the occurrence of individuals outside their regular breeding, non-breeding or migratory distribution ranges. Yet, vagrancy can in theory generate new migration routes if vagrants survive, return to their breeding grounds and transfer their new migration route to their offspring, thus increasing a new migratory phenotype in the population. Here, we review the conceptual framework and empirical challenges of distinguishing regular migration from vagrancy in small obligate migratory passerines and explain how this can inform our understanding of migration evolution. For this purpose, we use the Yellow-browed Warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) as a case study. This Siberian species normally winters in southern Asia and its recent increase in occurrence in Western Europe has become a prominent evolutionary puzzle. We first review and discuss available evidence suggesting that the species is still mostly a vagrant in Western Europe but might be establishing a new migration route initiated by vagrants. We then list possible empirical approaches to check if some individuals really undertake regular migratory movements between Western Europe and Siberia, which would make this species an ideal model for studying the links between vagrancy and the emergence of new migratory routes.
Lay Summary In migratory birds, males generally precede females during migration to breeding areas in the spring. So far, we do not know whether males do this by wintering closer to the breeding ...area, starting spring migration earlier, and/or migrating faster than females. Here, we highlight the significance of the latter 2 mechanisms for explaining sex-specific seasonal timing in wheatears. Surprisingly, the importance of these 2 mechanisms differed between subspecies with contrasting migration challenges.In many migratory birds, males precede females during migration and arrival at the breeding sites. Three proximate mechanisms are proposed to explain this phenomenon of protandry: males 1) winter closer to breeding sites, 2) start spring migration earlier, and/or 3) migrate faster than females. So far, the relative contribution of these mechanisms to protandry is unknown. The present study investigated the importance of each of the 3 proximate mechanisms of protandry for a songbird migrant wintering in Africa, the northern wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). Two subspecies co-occur in Europe on migration, of which the leucorhoa northern wheatears breeding from Iceland to Canada have to cross the North Atlantic, whereas the nominate form breeding in Europe does not face any significant sea barrier. We show that the leucorhoa subspecies had a significantly higher degree of protandry at stopover sites across Europe than the oenanthe subspecies (-6 vs. -2 days). Leucorhoa northern wheatear's higher degree of protandry was associated with a larger age effect, in which old males preceded young males, and greater sex-specific differences in wing shape and refueling yielding higher migration speeds in males than females. In oenanthe northern wheatears, light-level geolocators revealed that males did not winter closer to the breeding sites or migrate faster than females, but initiated spring migration earlier. Our results demonstrate that the significance of the mechanisms causing protandry can differ between related taxa and highlight the importance of the advancement in male arrival date with age as a potential factor shaping the degree of protandry.
Introducing product-service-software systems (PSSS) to the market requires forming an enabling ecosystem, which can be largely based on incumbent business ecosystems. Creating value through PSSS with ...autonomous capabilities will likely encounter numerous challenges related to the lock-ins in current ecosystem structure. We use institutional theory as a lens and autonomous ships as the case to shed some light on types and impacts of these barriers. We identify a set of institutional barriers pertinent to regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars of institutions. We further analyze how institutional barriers affect creating, delivering, and capturing value of autonomous ships, ultimately shaping the ecosystem formation around PSSS. The main contribution of the paper is the depiction of early ecosystem dynamics as the mutual adaptation of the PSSS value proposition and the structure of the incumbent ecosystem.
•Autonomous capability on ships brings new value creation potential.•Value creation by autonomous ships is constrained by institutional barriers.•Value creation that stems from unmanning faces stronger barriers.•We demonstrate two-way dynamic between PSSS evolvement and ecosystem formation.
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