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The Illusion of Control, Project Data, Computer Algorithms and Human Intuition for Project Management and Control
No full textThis book comprehensively assesses the growing importance of project data for project scheduling, risk analysis and control. It discusses the relevance of project data for both researchers and professionals, and illustrates why the collection, processing and use of such data is not as straightforward as most people think. The theme of this book is known in the literature as data-driven project management and includes the discussion of using computer algorithms, human intuition, and project data for managing projects under risk. The book reviews the basic components of data-driven project management by summarizing the current state-of-the-art methodologies, including the latest computer and machine learning algorithms and statistical methodologies, for project risk and control. It highlights the importance of artificial project data for academics, and describes the specific requirements such data must meet. In turn, the book discusses a wide variety of statistical methods available to generate these artificial data and shows how they have helped researchers to develop algorithms and tools to improve decision-making in project management. Moreover, it examines the relevance of project data from a professional standpoint and describes how professionals should collect empirical project data for better decision-making. Finally, the book introduces a new approach to data collection, generation, and analysis for creating project databases, making it relevant for academic researchers and professional project managers alike
Assessing renewable gas policies using a long-term equilibrium energy system model
No full textThe European Union’s ambition to be climate neutral by 2050 implies an unprecedented transformation of the energy system to substantially reduce the use of fossil energy sources. Economists have identified several potential simultaneous market imperfections – market failures, policy failures, and political economy constraints – to consider that may provide an economic rationale for introducing several climate and energy related policies. Market failures in electricity markets are widely studied in academic literature. Still, insufficient attention has been given to describe potential market failures in a future decarbonized energy system characterized by increased sector coupling and renewable gas technologies. This dissertation assesses renewable gas policies using economic analysis to substantiate the presence of a market failure or evaluate either the costs or benefits of market interventions in response to a market failure, thereby highlighting the need for or impact of second-best solutions. In each chapter of this dissertation, we apply a stylized numerical case study to simulate an energy system using techno-economic input data and inform the policy assessment
Academy of Management Proceedings
No full textResearch on independent work has provided key insights into the identity challenges that gig workers face, and the identity processes they engage in to overcome those challenges. While understanding how gig workers develop a sense of identity is important, in this research we suggest it is just as important for gig workers to come to an understanding of who they are not, and that disidentification with targets are also a key dimension of the work-self. To better understand the disidentification processes that gig workers engage in, we develop a grounded model of how workers use disidentification to thrive in the gig economy. Using qualitative data from 69 independent workers, we find that workers cultivate a repertoire of “unwanted selves” (i.e., who and what they are not) based on their states of disidentification with targets. This repertoire helps workers to free their work-self by understanding who and what they are not; and protect their work-self through engaging in boundary work tactics. Together, this contributes to enhancing workers’ thriving in the gig economy. Our grounded model thus offers an initial exploration of the role of disidentification in cultivating positive identity outcomes, and complements the research that has predominantly explored the identification processes that gig workers engage in
Does constructive feedback improve idea quality in idea contests? Exploring the role of hierarchy and feedback overlap
No full textTo fuel the innovation process with high‐quality ideas, firms are increasingly soliciting ideas from their employee workforce and involving them in idea contests. During an idea contest employees suggest ideas on a firm‐internal, digital idea platform. Once submitted, idea holders can receive constructive feedback from colleagues on their ideas – which has been advanced as positive instrument for stimulating idea improvement and idea quality. Examining three firm‐internal, multi‐staged idea contests that generated 395 ideas from a global management consulting firm, we examine under what conditions constructive feedback positively influences idea quality. We focus on the hierarchical roles of feedback providers and receivers and the role of feedback overlap (which indicates whether feedback focuses on similar issues). We find that the effect of constructive feedback on idea quality is larger when feedback providers have a higher hierarchical rank, but that this effect does not depend on the hierarchical rank of feedback recipients. Further, we show that (partial) feedback overlap strengthens idea quality. Our results generate new insights for both idea‐contributing employees and innovation managers about the important role of managing feedback during idea contests
Multi-project scheduling: A benchmark analysis of metaheuristic algorithms on various optimisation criteria and due dates
No full textThis paper reviews a set of ten existing metaheuristic solution procedures for the resource-constrained multi-project scheduling problem. Algorithmic implementations are constructed based on the description of the original procedures in literature. Equivalence is verified on the original test instances for the original objective and parameters through a comparison with the reported results. An extensive benchmark analysis is performed on a novel, publicly available dataset for a variety of optimisation criteria and due date settings for which the original algorithms have not been tested earlier. The impact of the different objectives, due dates and test instance parameters is analysed and an overall ranking of the metaheuristic solution methods for different situations is discussed. Key insights into the structure of competitive solutions for disparate objectives and due date settings are presented and effective algorithmic components are revealed
Data Science for Entrepreneurship
No full textAlthough digital disruption has become a buzzword, we still lack a comprehensive understanding of what digital disruption actually is and what strategies can be employed to make it happen. Therefore, this chapter starts off by explaining the notion of digital disruption and consecutively illustrating its pervasiveness using a number of detailed examples. It then offers a sneak peek of the processes happening behind the scenes of digital disruption. Specifically, it explains business model innovations, innovation ecosystems, and platforms and network effects as the core strategic concepts that are of paramount importance for understanding the digitalization dynamics. The chapter ends with the state-of-the-art insights towards future challenges and avenues for further research
Beyond the buzz: A study of the mode of actualization of agile-inspired organization design
No full textBusiness meetings in a postpandemic world: When and how to meet virtually
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic that erupted in 2020 forced businesses across the world to adopt virtual meetings. With many people working from home, software platforms like Zoom and Teams became ubiquitous, but their widespread use also revealed many weaknesses and limitations. While technologies for virtual meetings have existed for decades, these technologies have advanced significantly in recent years, and today range from audioconference facilities to telepresence rooms with high-resolution video and sophisticated virtual presence features. The available alternatives differ significantly in costs, complexity and capabilities, and choosing the most effective technology for each meeting setting is not always easy. This is important, since after the pandemic, virtual meetings will move from being a necessity brought on by the pandemic to being a widely accepted alternative to traditional face-to-face meetings. Consequently, the questions of when and how to meet virtually will become even more significant. In this article, we describe a decision-making framework for choosing when and how to meet virtually, based on matching the appropriate communication capabilities with various meeting objectives and taking into account meeting size and duration. The framework is based on extensive empirical research conducted in partnership with several major U.S. and European companies