Multi-project management in inter-organizational contexts

Governance, institutional and economic frameworks for Urban Forests as a Nature-Based Solution in Europe

Urban forests as nature-based solutions (UF-NbS) play a crucial role for promoting the health and well-being of urban populations. Despite increasing recognition of their importance, knowledge gaps remain regarding UF-NbS implementation, particularly with respect to their performance, their perception, and on decision-making and governance practices for their implementation and management. Grounded in a project-as-practice approach and based on sixteen UF-NbS case histories, this paper seeks to gain insights into UF-NbS project actualities by an identification of characteristic trends as a function of a projects' scope and purpose, or challenge-orientation, respectively. A particular emphasis is on project structure and coordination, on the scope and depth of participation and stakeholder involvement, and on funding mechanisms. Identified trends reveal centrally coordinated, single-responsible public authorities as the most common project structure, but with certain feature contents, i.e., regeneration and reclamation, as being associated with more decentralised forms of governance. It is concluded that irrespective of challenge-orientation, comparatively broad participation appears to be realised within the UF-NbS framework, however, the depth of participation differs considerably. With respect to funding, a strong reliance on public capital is asserted for the UF-NbS context, however, various forms of private contributions appear reasonably common across the assessed case histories. Recommendations for policy-making and avenues of future research are identified, including the validation of identified trends, the fostering of collaboration, the dispersal of decision-making authority, the encouragement for implementing non-tokenistic modes of participation in UF-NbS governance, and the promotion of potentially under-utilised funds.

How do project managers' competencies impact project success? A systematic literature review

Despite the existence of systematic literature reviews focused on examining the factors contributing to project success, there remains a scarcity of reviews addressing the relationship between the project managers' competencies and project success. To fill this gap in the literature, this review aimed to evaluate peer-reviewed articles, published between 2010 and 2022, and analyze the impact of project managers' competencies on project success. The Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and ProQuest electronic databases were first consulted in September 2021, with an update in August and October 2022. A total of 232 titles were analyzed. Ten articles met the criteria and were fully reviewed. A content analysis and a citation network were carried out to analyze the included articles. The analysis revealed that the existing literature has primarily explored the influence of competencies from the personal and social dimensions, such as leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence, on project success. Conversely, competencies from other dimensions have received less attention in the literature. In addition, this review contributes to the literature by providing a holistic categorization of competencies associated with project success and examining and organizing project success criteria into three dimensions.