Programs are frequently highlighted for their ability to enable the implementation of strategic transformation amidst rapidly changing and unpredictable business environments. This study explores the creation of routines within a strategic program in the Danish construction industry and the subsequent transfer of these routines to the parent organizations. It identifies three sequential patterns of action: entrenching, dis-embedding, and re-embedding routines. Through an interpretive case study, the study reveals how these routines emerge and adapt in alignment with diverse organizational capabilities and relations. The findings highlight the importance of routine transfer and integration in parent organizations, emphasizing their adaptability to distinct needs and their significance for achieving strategic objectives. The discussion presents a process model and elaborates on the three sequential patterns of action. The paper contributes to the program literature by exploring the dynamics of how routines emerge through their own enactment and in relation to other actions at the program level.

Project-focused structures in infrastructure endeavors involve the execution of simultaneous efforts with shared resources. This research highlights to what end such organizational structure is complex to manage. The study focuses on project governance structures’ impact over project-oriented organizations, particularly by exploring the ineffective co-operation/interaction between project(s) and the program. The paper is based on a single case study carried out at a Railway Infrastructure Companies’ programs located in Northern Europe, involving two embedded projects. From the study, it becomes possible to understand the relevance of the governance approaches in projects and programs. Moreover, some guidance is proposed in order to help in the accommodation procedure.

Over the last two decades, large-scale project endeavors or major programs that typically deliver a substantial physical infrastructure or a complex product with a lifetime that can extend for decades and across industries have become the norm for many utility sectors, such as transport, energy, water, or food. The allure of ever-larger projects shows no sign of fading away in the face of sustainable development and grand societal challenges – quite the contrary. A significant policy perspective and the trend points to the new generation of large-scale projects, which in contrast to the early industrial era in the US and Europe, compels efforts that require management to minimize affecting the surrounding societal environment. Besides, today's modern infrastructure projects tend to involve a more complex network of organizations – “global” organizations – yielding a dynamic component in project organizing. Large-scale projects are complex endeavors embedded in highly institutionalized social structures and technologies, including public and private actors with various rationalities, modes of collaboration, and project management competencies. These projects evolve, arising as inherently societal concerns, and then shift to technical problems and vice-versa, introducing inertia, organizational path-dependency, and lock-ins. Thus, large-scale projects pose enormous temporary organizing challenges under conditions of institutional complexity, creating “wicked problems” for their management. Hence, the questions of how these large-scale projects as inter- organizational collaboration unfold, and how they can be organized despite these challenges have become crucial in academia and practice alike. Scholars from different disciplines have picked up these questions of organizational, and technological issues in large-scale infrastructure project organizing and have put forth valuable insights into such endeavors. Through the exploratory and elaborated case-based research, this thesis contributes to the debate on large-scale project organizing by advancing an institutional perspective. In line with the overall research aim and conceptual framing, the research design has a qualitative nature and relies on a process approach. The thesis draws from in-depth case studies of project-based processes in the division of Adif - the Spanish Administrator of Rail Infrastructure and ProRail (Adif’s counterpart, the manager responsible for rail infrastructure in the Netherlands), among other principal contractors and suppliers involved in the project(s). The thesis provides a rich empirical examination; it shows that to understand large-scale project organizing, there is a need to change the ontological priorities that underpin the mainstream literature on behavioral studies in project management. The thesis develops nascent theorizing on how the in-between temporary and permanent (inter-) organizational nature of large-scale projects in the presence of institutions narrates the emergence of processes, e.g., path-dependence, and lock-in. A conceptualization of path- shaping and project actors’ agency that bridges the gap between the intra- organizational and institutional level efforts is promoted. The managerial implications of this thesis are two-fold. First, the appended papers put forth among other frameworks and process models that are indeed useful to be utilized. They outline ideas relevant because they lay the groundwork for project managers to extend their efforts beyond the micro- managing of tasks. In particular, Paper A develops the lock-in process model that can be useful for project managers. Secondly, the thesis gives countless advice and managerial implications. The most important being the consideration of heterogeneity in large-scale project contexts in the multi- organizational setting and their interdependencies in broad project networks. They represent the sources of variation in the desired outcomes. Accordingly, Paper B suggests attention needs to be directed to the understanding of the industry – as the field-level institution and its (inter-) organizational components in the context as an essential feature of project management practice. In other words, this thesis suggests that embeddedness in large-scale infrastructure projects is of crucial importance. To this end, Paper C and D propose means for a responsive and active project owner organization, that are essential for effectively interacting with other actors, and for selecting and managing both contractual and trust-based mechanisms effectively.Conclusively, the thesis suggests that project managers’ institutional knowledge in large-scale project settings is equally important, if not more, than the economic or engineering expertise.

Despite wide-ranging research on large-scale infrastructure project performance, little is known about the role that project public institutional context and project owner’s response capability plays in the governing process. Building on a theoretically driven approach and a case study, we first established a set of propositions and then substantiated this set through empirical illustrations. This study investigated the multiactor Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line (HSL) project (1990–2017) with the use of social network analysis supplemented by qualitative evidence. The findings show that actors’ behavior is affected by the project public institutional context, coupled with contractual commitments. A closer examination of the data found two factors that drive the escalation dynamics: (1) the timing mismatches—a ubiquitous feature of public sector project owner’s organization—leading to the incapacity to influence governance during the project front-end and (2) owner’s passive behavior during implementation. From the management perspective, an active owner with high project response capability is necessary for effectively interacting with contractors, and for selecting and managing both contractual and trust-based governance mechanisms effectively. Based on the findings, the authors offer theoretical and managerial implications for promoting the effectiveness of owner-contractor collaboration in large-scale infrastructure projects.

Over the last two decades, new forms of collaboration involving a network of a larger variety of actors across institutional settings have become more prevalent. These more fluid forms of collaboration as ecosystems and platforms allow organisations to collaborate at arm’s length with organisations and individuals searching for knowledge, developing complementary products, and services in project patterns. In this paper, we provide an exploratory understanding of the process of knowledge-work in such a new multi-actor organising platform (CLOSER) in Sweden. Taking a process perspective, we explore how the actors in the transport sector and forest industry, find difficulties to search for and transform the program network-related knowledge in a coopetitive context. Building on an in-depth longitudinal case study, we do that by shedding light on the High-Capacity Transport (HCT) program organizing and its (dis-) embeddedness in the platform. Based on the longitudinal analysis, the paper sets forth context features linking the search for and knowledge transformation activities within the multi-organisational network and among the participant organisation based on the interplay between industrial settings and the underlying conditions suggesting implications for practice in such new forms of collaboration and beyond.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the emergence of lock-inin large-scale projects. Although large-scale projects have been studied for decades, most studies have applied economic or psychological perspectives to emphasize decision-making processes at the project front-end. Of those studies, some have focused on poor decision-making due to lock-in and the escalating commitments of decision-makers to ineffective courses of action. However, little is known about the way that project decisions are affected by organizational and inter-organizational contexts and the actors involved. Understanding decisions from a process viewpoint with a long-term (inter-) organizational perspective will lead to a better understanding of lock-in and the overall performance of large-scale projects. This qualitative research is based on a case study. The research setting is the multi-actor Madrid–Barcelona High-Speed rail Line (HSL) project in Spain. Through observations, interviews, several project documents, and report analysis, we explore the processual nature of the choices made during the course of the project. We consider the contextual conditions that give rise or support the emergence of lock-in in relation to pre- and post-project effects, institutional influences, and management practices that create action spaces at the project level. Our findings suggest that lock-in emergence requires the recognition of the long-term (inter-) organizational perspective regarding mechanisms and effects rather than confining decisions to the individual or single actor control in the front-end of projects. Based on organizational theory, the main contribution of this paper is to enrich our understanding of the emergence of lock-in using process theories.

Research in large scale infrastructure projects have argued that the overall project performance is subject to lock-in, yet this is little understood empirically and more research is needed. Recently studies reported that lock-in can occur both at the decision-making level and at the project execution level respectively. The underlying patterns influencing project scope transformation, due to evolving expectations and/or stakeholder’s perspective and the occurrence of lock-in influence in project performance. This paper explores the relationship between project scope and lock-in within large infrastructure projects in the context of cost over-run. Based on empirical data from 20 High Speed Rail (HSR) projects in Spain with multinational sets of actors, and anchored in the Management of Project (MoP) paradigm, the paper shows that a holistic perspective is essential for successful outcome. Methodologically, the paper uses data mining and a case study approach to explore mechanisms that underlie lock-in in relation with scope demarcation – tracked through contract change. It suggests that an investigation of lock-in in relationship to scope demarcation and through the lens of path dependence contributes to the understanding of cost over-run emergence. Preliminary findings highlight contract type and its content to have a great influence in cost over-run.

This paper provides an exploratory understanding of the process of knowledge-work in the inter-organisational setting of a large-scale infrastructure project. Taking a process perspective, it explores why an autonomous project-owner organisation in the rail industry sector finds difficulties to transform and exploit the project network-related knowledge in a coopetitive context. The paper builds on a case study of a High-speed Rail Line (HSL) project in Spain. Based on the longitudinal qualitative secondary analysis, the authors put forth a contingency framework that proposes four contexts linking the transformation and exploitation of the knowledge from the inter-organisational network to the project-owner organisation; whether (i) the interplay between industrial setting and the project arrangement empowers product or process knowledge and (ii) the senior, and programme management awareness to feed-forward learning relies on individual- or institutionalised-based learning. These four contexts and their underlying conditions pose different knowledge-work related problems and suggest implications for practice in inter-organisational collaboration and beyond.

The transport sector accounts for a large share of global Co2 emissions. To mitigate the impact of climate change, several sustainability-oriented large-scale infrastructure projects such as electric road systems and expanding rail systems have recently been on the policy agenda. A parallel development that is expected to accelerate the transition of the transport sector is digitalization, which, although ongoing for many decades, has recently been augmented by concepts such as artificial intelligence (AI) and smart city technologies. The integration of these digitalization tools at the organizational level poses not only opportunities but also some challenges for the actors involved in infrastructure projects. An approach that is currently promoted in the infrastructure sector is the Building Information Model (BIM), which is a decision-making instrument that leverages various digitalization tools and applications. However, although the economic implications of BIM are widely discussed in the literature, the (inter-) organizational dynamics involving multiple actors in infrastructure projects are not fully grasped. Large infrastructure projects are sociotechnical endeavors embedded in complex institutional frames; hence the institutional norms, practices and logics in them are significant. Responding to this, this paper adopted an institutional analysis and put the BIM approach in the (inter-) organizational context in infrastructure delivery. Drawing on empirical data from three organizations in infrastructure delivery in Spain, this paper analyzed the tensions among actors during BIM adoption and implementation.

Tackling the societal challenges we are facing requires collaboration among many actors with quite different backgrounds and interests. Indeed, these challenges call for systemic and cross-sector collaboration. However, such collaboration is associated with several problems, concerning the creation and distribution of value among the actors involved. We need a new way of thinking about how value should be created and distributed among the involved actors to be able to make the necessary system-wide shifts that are needed. This article presents findings from an in-depth field study of the High-Capacity Transport (HCT) project and focuses on the system-wide shift towards more sustainable models within the transportation sector in Sweden. The article highlights four pressing challenges that may negatively influence collaboration, search, ideation, and value creation processes, and identifies four corresponding value pathways for effective system transformation projects. It offers advice on how to maneuver through these four challenges in system transformation projects to produce socially valuable outcomes.

While projects in the Information Technology (IT) domain have been studied extensively, not much is known about the practices of knowledge work that is needed for IT projects to be brought together and enacted as temporary organisational structures. Building on the knowledge-as-practice perspective, we set out to explore collaborative work, which occurs through dialogic practices across knowledge domains in IT projects. Drawing upon multiple case study research in the IT industry, we run a qualitative analysis based on semi-structured interviews with the management level staff of six IT organisations. Based on the insights on IT projects in the six case organisations that varied in size and the degree of knowledge structure we develop a practice-based understanding of the collaborative practices of knowledge work. We identify three main practices of knowledge work in IT projects: a) expressing differences, b) co-creation, and c) mutual alignment, directing domain expert knowledge work at the collective level and towards shared project objectives. The practices emerged in the form of collaboration and as a function of cross-domain multi-disciplinary teams’ alignment in IT projects. We offer novel insights into the essential role of the dialogue in collaborative knowledge work practices in IT projects, and their respective parent organisations.

Collaboration involving large variety of actors across sectors, industries, and institutional settings have become prevalent in searching and creating new knowledge for variety of wicked and complex problems. These fluid forms of collaboration – labelled as knowledge ecosystems – allow organizations to collaborate with other organizations and individuals in a quest to search for and create new knowledge. The literature has thus far helped recognize the prevalence of knowledge ecosystems and their potential benefits, but is relatively silent on their origins and emergence. To bridge this gap, in this paper we theorize knowledge ecosystems as meta-organizations that pursue organizationality via establishment of organizing elements that aim for joint search of new knowledge. By virtue of this foundation, we analyze a longitudinal case study of High-Capacity Transport ecosystem in Sweden, and demonstrate the key organizational elements that emerged over the course of over ten years. We distinguish a process model explaining how three elements of organizationality in a knowledge ecosystem – participation, identity, and actorhood – emerge sequentially and by building iteratively on each other. The process model contributes to the theory, practice, and policy of knowledge ecosystems emergence.

Heeding recent calls for more studies on the relationship between projects and institutions, this paper reports on a collaborative case study to shed light on the recursive relations of large-scale projects and their institutional fields. Given the industry as the field-level institution, this study explores how two project organizations experienced the industry changes, its influence on the arrangement of large-scale projects, and the management response used to legitimize these arrangements. The qualitative secondary data analysis of two High-Speed rail projects in Spain and The Netherlands is based on semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis. This paper provides the institutional fields’ contextual detail and deepens our understanding of temporal institutional complexity that bound large-scale project arrangements. The findings suggest that in both cases the management responses altered across time and evolved depending on the salience of the institutional pressure, through the interplaywith 1) regulative, 2) normative, and 3) dynamic cultural-cognitive forces, resulting in cycles of project legitimacy.

In the context of complex and digitalized engineering projects, effectively orchestrating meta-knowledge that encompasses awareness of diverse expertise presents a significant challenge, as it requires crossing various boundaries. Situated expertise plays a critical role in this process, connecting individual or group-level meta-knowledge to wider expertise systems in projects. We report a case study exploring how group expertise boundaries influence situated expertise development in the oil and gas front-end project context. Through qualitative analysis, we underscore the role of permeable group expertise boundaries in fostering open situated expertise systems, allowing for meta-knowledge about individuals, groups, and digital technologies. This permeability is especially critical in innovative and non-contractual contexts. We identify four elements—strategy, structural design, interaction molding routines and roles, and digital boundary objects—that contribute to open situated expertise development. Our findings show that while digital boundary objects can mediate expertise boundaries by enabling communication and navigation of expertise in projects, the reach of situated expertise largely depends on interaction molding elements, particularly boundary-spanning roles. This study concludes by recommending that practitioners expand their meta-knowledge, rethink their strategic approaches to situating and utilizing expertise in projects, and carefully establish routines for using digital technologies to record and retrieve expertise.

The front-end customer–supplier collaborative creation processes are attracting increasing interest from project scholars. We still know little of these processes, however, which are increasingly being digitalized. Drawing from a qualitative case study of customer–supplier knowledge collaboration (KC) at the front-end phase of oil and gas projects in Norway, we explore why collaborative actors struggle to achieve KC openness in the digital age. We develop a model displaying how the fragmented ambient awareness networks and the coexisting collaborative and digital logics exacerbate the subjectivity of the project actors, giving rise to sharing–protection tensions. We offer novel insights for project management and interorganizational relations literature by showing how logic complexity challenges the project organizations’ inherent efforts to achieve open, digitally driven KC at the projects’ front end. Our results also suggest that logic complexity and double talk around KC showcase a hypocritic organizational response to the enduring openness challenge in customer–supplier project relations in the digital age.

Digitalization, with its potential to enhance the openness of client–contractor knowledge collaboration (KC) at the front end of complex engineering projects, is gaining traction among project scholars and practitioners. Despite this growing interest, project actors still struggle to bring client and contractor experts into an open, digitally enabled collaborative space where they can freely access and cocreate project-related knowledge. In this context, our case study explores client–contractor KC in the front-end phase of oil and gas projects in Norway to understand why project actors struggle to achieve KC openness in the digital age. Based on our qualitative analysis, we developed a model that displays two intertwined aspects giving rise to tensions between knowledge sharing and protection. First, we show that these tensions stem from fragmented awareness of the expertise in the collaborating project organization. Second, we highlight how intrainstitutional complexity, instantiated in coexisting conflicting logics of digital and collaborative action, underlies divergent beliefs and behavior toward client–contractor KC and its digitalization. We offer novel insights into the project management literature by showcasing how organizational heterogeneity, in terms of expertise and institutions, challenges project organizations' pursuit of open, digitally enabled client–contractor KC during the front-end project phase.

The digital transformation of society is ubiquitous, and even well-established educational institutions are affected. Universities need to adapt to the ongoing digital transformation, both to stay relevant but also to prosper. Yet, many public sector universities face obstacles when aiming to transform their business into a digital one, and this calls for research into the strategic organizational elements and related factors that hinder or aid the process. Drawing from an in-depth case study, it analyses data collected via a survey and multiple interviews to explore the organizational challenges a university faces when starting to adapt to digital transformation. The study shows that an organization's collective understanding of its business logics is a prerequisite to advancing digital transformation. The study of a university also shows that the digital transformation focus is skewed towards increasing efficiency rather than the innovation of new practices.