Project benefits co-creation: Shaping sustainable development benefits

Abstract Sustainable development (SD) envisions business and their projects to deliver benefits to a broad group of stakeholders. Yet, projects are challenged to realize benefits to meet individual organization business objectives and value concerns. Given the benefits focus of SD, benefits realization helps to understand how SD can be integrated in the management of projects, linking it to strategy. This paper offers benefits co-creation as a strategy for creating benefits for a broad group of stakeholders reflecting holistic SD. The study presents an exploratory case study through a conceptual framework, illustrating one possible approach based on adaptation and emergence. The findings demonstrate how stakeholder co-creation enables the shaping of project SD benefits, addressing stakeholder value concerns and suggest the need to consider a two dimension conceptual approach to benefits realization—benefits creation and benefits capture, reducing the conceptual distance between projects and benefits realization.

[1]  Ruediger Kuehr,et al.  Strategic sustainable development — selection, design and synergies of applied tools , 2002 .

[2]  Stephen Jenner,et al.  Benefits management: Lost or found in translation , 2015 .

[3]  A. Badewi.  The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM) practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance framework , 2016 .

[4]  Jean-Louis Denis,et al.  Strategizing in pluralistic contexts: Rethinking theoretical frames , 2007 .

[5]  Thomas Dyllick,et al.  Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability , 2002 .

[6]  Pedro Serrador,et al.  The Impact of Planning on Project Success - A Literature Review , 2013 .

[7]  Terry Cooke-Davies,et al.  The “real” success factors on projects , 2002 .

[8]  Unced.  Rio Declaration on Environment and Development , 1992 .

[9]  Artemis Chang,et al.  Reconceptualising mega project success in Australian Defence : recognising the importance of value co-creation , 2013 .

[10]  Shelley L. Brickson.  Organizational identity orientation: The genesis of the role of the firm and distinct forms of social value , 2007 .

[11]  A. J. Gilbert Silvius,et al.  Sustainability in project management: A literature review and impact analysis , 2014 .

[12]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Of strategies, deliberate and emergent , 1985, Strategic Management Journal.

[13]  Anders Söderholm,et al.  A theory of the temporary organization , 1995 .

[14]  J. Rotmans,et al.  The transition in Dutch water management , 2005 .

[15]  Matt Eyring,et al.  Nuevos modelos de negocios en los mercados emergentes , 2011 .

[16]  Kevin G. Corley,et al.  The Coming of Age for Qualitative Research: Embracing the Diversity of Qualitative Methods , 2011 .

[17]  K. Samset,et al.  Issues in Front-End Decision Making on Projects , 2010 .

[18]  Mark Winter,et al.  Directions for future research in project management: The main findings of a UK government-funded research network , 2006 .

[19]  Stéphanie Missonier,et al.  Stakeholder analysis and engagement in projects: From stakeholder relational perspective to stakeholder relational ontology , 2014 .

[20]  Ofer Zwikael,et al.  Project benefit management: a conceptual framework of target benefit formulation , 2015 .

[21]  A. Martinuzzi,et al.  Corporations, Stakeholders and Sustainable Development I: A Theoretical Exploration of Business–Society Relations , 2005 .

[22]  R. Kemp,et al.  Transition management as a model for managing processes of co-evolution towards sustainable development , 2007 .

[23]  Ali Bagheri,et al.  Planning for sustainable development: a paradigm shift towards a process-based approach , 2007 .

[24]  Andrew D.F. Price,et al.  Conceptualizing stakeholder engagement in the context of sustainability and its assessment , 2008 .

[25]  Risto Rajala,et al.  Managing inter-organizational networks for value creation in the front-end of projects , 2016 .

[26]  Peter W. G. Morris,et al.  Reconstructing Project Management , 2013 .

[27]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Toward a conceptual foundation for service science: Contributions from service-dominant logic , 2008, IBM Syst. J..

[28]  C. S. Holling.  Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems , 2001, Ecosystems.

[29]  J. Turner.  The Handbook of Project-based Management: Leading Strategic Change in Organizations , 2008 .

[30]  K. Artto,et al.  From the front end of projects to the back end of operations: Managing projects for value creation throughout the system lifecycle , 2016 .

[31]  S. Benn,et al.  Organizational Change for Corporate Sustainability , 2014 .

[32]  Azlan Amran,et al.  The Stakeholder Approach: A Sustainability Perspective , 2011 .

[33]  Chad Lin,et al.  The practice of IS/IT benefits management in large Australian organizations , 2003, Inf. Manag..

[34]  R. Ackoff.  The Future of Operational Research is Past , 1979 .

[35]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[36]  Frank Birkin,et al.  A new business model for sustainable development: an exploratory study using the theory of constraints in Nordic organizations , 2009 .

[37]  Richard Breese,et al.  Benefits realisation management: panacea or false dawn? , 2012 .

[38]  Christian Rammel,et al.  Evolutionary policies for sustainable development: adaptive flexibility and risk minimising , 2003 .

[39]  Alan C. Brent,et al.  Sustainable project life cycle management : aligning project management methodologies with the principles of sustainable development , 2004 .

[40]  Per Svejvig,et al.  Taking stock of project value creation: A structured literature review with future directions for research and practice , 2016 .

[41]  M. Porter,et al.  Creating Shared Value , 2019 .

[42]  D. Bryde.  Methods for Managing Different Perspectives of Project Success , 2005 .

[43]  Ken G. Smith,et al.  Value Creation and Value Capture: A Multilevel Perspective , 2007 .

[44]  D. Silverman.  Doing Qualitative Research , 2009 .

[45]  D. Mahr,et al.  Stakeholder co-creation during the innovation process: Identifying capabilities for knowledge creation among multiple stakeholders , 2016 .

[46]  Elizabeth Daniel,et al.  Benefits management : delivering value from IS & IT investments , 2005 .

[47]  Christoph H. Loch,et al.  Implementing Strategy through Projects , 2011 .

[48]  Karlos Artto,et al.  Investment project as an internal corporate venture , 2012 .

[49]  P. Eskerod,et al.  Stakeholder Inclusiveness: Enriching Project Management with General Stakeholder Theory1 , 2015 .

[50]  C. Prahalad,et al.  Co-creation experiences: The next practice in value creation , 2004 .

[51]  Jean Garner Stead,et al.  Sustainable Strategic Management , 2003 .

[52]  Nicholas Dew,et al.  What to Do Next? The Case for Non-Predictive Strategy , 2006 .

[53]  Alan C. Brent,et al.  Environmental and social impact considerations for sustainable project life cycle management in the process industry , 2005 .

[54]  M. Kunc,et al.  Benefits Realisation Management and its influence on project success and on the execution of business strategies , 2015 .

[55]  Gerald Bradley,et al.  Benefit Realisation Management: A Practical Guide to Achieving Benefits Through Change , 2006 .

[56]  S. Hart,et al.  Creating sustainable value , 2003 .

[57]  R. Yin.  Case Study Research: Design and Methods , 1984 .

[58]  T. Andersen.  Integrating Decentralized Strategy Making and Strategic Planning Processes in Dynamic Environments , 2004 .

[59]  Martina Huemann,et al.  Integrating Project Strategy for Sustainable Development: A Conceptual Framework , 2013 .

[60]  A. J. Gilbert Silvius,et al.  Sustainability in Project Management Competencies: Analyzing the Competence Gap of Project Managers , 2014 .

[61]  Gail Whiteman,et al.  Business Strategies for Transitions Towards Sustainable Systems , 2007 .