Organising methods enabling integration for value creation in complex projects

Sexual selection theory assumes that maximizing fitness is the ultimate goal in every mating decision. Fitness can be maximized directly by increasing the number of offspring (direct benefits) or indirectly by maximizing offspring's lifetime reproductive success (indirect benefits). Whereas there is considerable evidence in the literature for the influence of mating decisions on direct benefits, indirect benefits have been more elusive. Here, we review the variables that influence mating decisions made by females of freshwater fish and how these affect their fitness directly, as well as indirectly. Females enhance their fitness by matching their mating decisions to current environmental conditions, using a wide range of pre‐ and post‐copulation mechanisms that enable them to maximize benefits from mating. Male sexual traits and courtship displays are signals used by females as a way of assessing male quality in terms of both direct and indirect benefits. Polyandry is very common among freshwater fish species, and indirect benefits have been hypothesized as drivers of its predominance. Despite intensive theoretical work, and multiple suggestions of the effects of indirect benefits, to date no study has been able to demonstrate experimentally the existence of indirect benefits in freshwater fish species. Additionally, most studies of direct benefits measure short‐term benefits of mating decisions. In both cases, lifetime reproductive success is not assessed. Therefore, we are led to conclude that evidence as to whether female mating decisions result in direct and/or indirect benefits in freshwater fish species is still lacking. These results should be considered in light of the ongoing debate about the significance of indirect benefits in female mating decisions.

Health policy is only one part of social policy. Although spending administered by the health sector constitutes a sizeable fraction of total state spending in most countries, other sectors such as education and transportation also represent major portions of national budgets. Additionally, though health is one important aspect of economic and social activity, people pursue many other goals in their social and economic lives. Similarly, direct benefits—those that are immediate results of health policy choices—are only a small portion of the overall impact of health policy. This chapter considers what weight health policy should give to its “spillover effects,” namely non-health and indirect benefits. This chapter defends the view that indirect and non-health benefits should not be given lower priority than direct health benefits in the context of priority-setting in global health.

This paper is a part of the multi‐country study carried out by the author at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in collaboration with national partners in six Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam) during 2001–2002. Based mainly on primary data collected from 5400 households in 26 irrigation systems, the study examines in detail the benefits and potential disbenefits of irrigation. The results indicate that irrigation benefits vary widely across systems, and depend on a range of factors including local conditions, system management, irrigation policy, and broader economic and political factors. The study suggests that indirect irrigation benefits could be larger than direct benefits through the multiplier effect. The distribution of irrigation benefits also varies widely by type of the benefit and the socio‐economic status of the beneficiaries. The direct benefits generally accrue to landholders while a significant part of the indirect benefits accrue to the landless and small farmers, positively contributing to their livelihoods. Further, the overall benefits of irrigation are large when irrigation‐ improving interventions, investments in infrastructure, improvements in system management and service delivery to farmers, are implemented in an integrated manner.On the other hand, the paper also suggests that irrigation can also lead to some negative or adverse social, health and environmental impacts. Such potential disbenefits of irrigation include displacement of people as a result of new irrigation development, public health risks from water‐related diseases, irrigation‐induced land and water degradation, loss of biodiversity and river health risks from increased river water withdrawals for irrigation. Often, negative social and environmental consequences adversely affect the poor more than the non‐poor people. Most potential adverse impacts of irrigation are not due to irrigation water per se, but due to inadequacies and ineffectiveness of institutions and management to address them. Moreover, many of the potential adverse impacts can be avoided or minimized with effective planning, design and management of the projects.This paper develops and offers a generic typology of direct and indirect benefits and potential disbenefits of irrigation that can be used to identify and influence different types of irrigation benefits and disbenefits for enhancing net benefits to the poor. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Measuring the comprehensive benefits of meteorological satellite observation systems in typhoon monitoring, early warning and disaster prevention and mitigation have become a key basis for formulating the development plan and strategic layout of the new generation of meteorological satellites. This paper takes FY-3A as an example and combines the propensity score matching (PSM)-difference-in-differences (DID) model with the input–output model to measure the comprehensive benefits generated by meteorological satellite services in reducing the losses caused by typhoon disasters. Research findings are as follows: 1) Significant direct benefits: Meteorological satellite services have reduced the direct economic losses of a single typhoon event in the coastal areas of the mainland by 1.78%, equivalent to an economic benefit of 535.4 million yuan. 2) The indirect benefits vary greatly among different industries: construction industry; transportation and warehousing industry; agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industry; metal smelting and rolling processing industry, etc. have the highest indirect benefits generated by meteorological satellite services, the indirect benefit value generated by meteorological services during typhoons amounts to as much as 1.6154 billion yuan. 3) Screen out the top 10 highly sensitive industries affected by meteorological satellite services, namely, construction industry; transportation and warehousing industry; agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery industry; metal smelting and rolling processing industry, chemical industry; manufacture industry of nonmetallic mineral products; petroleum processing, coking, and nuclear fuel processing industry; the production and supply industry of electricity and heat; oil and gas extraction industry; and coal mining and washing industry. Finally, policy suggestions are put forward. The research method of this paper can provide reference for the comprehensive benefit measurement of other meteorological satellites, and the research results can provide reference for the government and meteorological departments. Significance Statement Based on the existing literature, this study makes the following contributions to the service benefits of measuring meteorological satellites for typhoon disasters: 1) The weather service benefits brought by meteorological satellites to typhoon disasters were divided into direct benefits and indirect benefits. 2) At the method level, the propensity score matching (PSM)-difference-in-differences (DID) model combined with the input–output model is used. 3) The top 10 highly sensitive industries were obtained by comparing the proportion and value of indirect benefits of meteorological satellite services. 4) The direct and indirect weather service benefits of FY-3A were 535.4 million yuan and 1.6154 billion yuan, respectively.

The purpose of this study is to: 1) identify various types of direct and indirect benefits of mangrove forests, and 2) estimate the total economic value of the mangrove forest in Sarawet Village. This type of research is descriptive and quantitative using survey methods. Data analysis in this study uses descriptive and quantitative analysis. Descriptive analysis is used to explain the activities of utilizing natural resources of mangrove ecosystems, while quantitative analysis is used to calculate the total economic value of mangrove ecosystems. The selection of respondents used the purposive sampling method, with a total of 76 respondents. Analysis of the total economic value for the value of direct benefits using market prices, and the value of indirect benefits using replacement costs. The results showed that the people of Sarawet Village use the mangrove forest ecosystem directly in the form of mangrove wood used as firewood and fence stakes, leaves Nipah are made with roofs, and the community carries out fishing and crab activities around mangrove waters.Analysis of the total economic value of the mangrove forest in Sarawet Village amounted to Rp. 6.884.344.178,-/year. The total economic value is obtained from the value of direct benefits including utilization as firewood Rp. 4,160,000,- /year; fence pegs Rp. 87.500,-/year; roof of the house Rp. 330.000,-/year; fishing Rp. 769.174.000,-/year; crab fishing is Rp. 190.320.000,-/year, and the value of indirect benefits is as a barrier to abrasion and seawater waves Rp. 5.920.272.678,-/year. The large economic value of the total mangrove forest ecosystem in Sarawet Village shows that the mangrove ecosystem provides great benefits to the community.Keywords: direct benefit value, indirect benefit value, total economic value, MangroveAbstrakThe purpose of this study is to: 1) identify various types of direct and indirect benefits of mangrove forests, and 2) estimate the total economic value of the mangrove forest in Sarawet Village. This type of research is descriptive and quantitative using survey methods. Data analysis in this study uses descriptive and quantitative analysis. Descriptive analysis is used to explain the activities of utilizing natural resources of mangrove ecosystems, while quantitative analysis is used to calculate the total economic value of mangrove ecosystems. The selection of respondents used the purposive sampling method, with a total of 76 respondents. Analysis of the total economic value for the value of direct benefits using market prices, and the value of indirect benefits using replacement costs. The results showed that the people of Sarawet Village use the mangrove forest ecosystem directly in the form of mangrove wood used as firewood and fence stakes, leaves Nipah are made with roofs, and the community carries out fishing and crab activities around mangrove waters.Analysis of the total economic value of the mangrove forest in Sarawet Village amounted to Rp. 6.884.344.178,-/year. The total economic value is obtained from the value of direct benefits including utilization as firewood Rp. 4,160,000,- /year; fence pegs Rp. 87.500,-/year; roof of the house Rp. 330.000,-/year; fishing Rp. 769.174.000,-/year; crab fishing is Rp. 190.320.000,-/year, and the value of indirect benefits is as a barrier to abrasion and seawater waves Rp. 5.920.272.678,-/year. The large economic value of the total mangrove forest ecosystem in Sarawet Village shows that the mangrove ecosystem provides great benefits to the community.Keywords: direct benefit value, indirect benefit value, total economic value, Mangrove.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the influence of stakeholder integration and project complexity on information technology (IT) projects in Kenya. The following research question guided our inquiry: what is the influence of project complexity and stakeholder integration on the performance of IT projects in Kenya?Design/methodology/approachTo advance the current understanding of the effect of stakeholder integration and project complexity on IT projects, multiple regressions were used to predict how project complexity and stakeholder integration influence project performance. Both government-funded and privately funded IT projects from a developing country were examined.FindingsThe study found that any project’s complexity and stakeholder integration levels offer a distinctive contribution to its success. Theoretically, the study contributes to linkages between stakeholder integration and project complexity concerning IT project performance. Through the adoption of actionable research and theoretical elaboration, we have shown that the successful execution of IT projects is driven by the successful integration of stakeholders and monitoring the level of complexity at each phase of the project.Originality/valueThe findings of this study add to the burgeoning literature on the performance of IT projects and come with several managerial implications as well. It brings to the fore the concept of stakeholder integration as an essential element of project success. The findings suggest that the inclusion of stakeholder integration into corporate decisions, strategies and policies can be an asset to the production of sustainable competitive advantages needed during the implementation of IT projects in government entities and organisations. As shown in this study, all the above require a collaborative platform allowing for data sharing among diverse stakeholders to ameliorate distrust or lack of information.

When allocating scarce healthcare resources, the expected benefits of alternative allocations matter. But, there are different kinds of benefits. Some are direct benefits to the recipient of the resource such as the health improvements of receiving treatment. Others are indirect benefits to third parties such as the economic gains from having a healthier workforce. This article considers whether only the direct benefits of alternative healthcare resource allocations are relevant to allocation decisions, or whether indirect benefits are relevant too. First, we distinguish different conceptions of direct and indirect benefits and argue that only a recipient conception could be morally relevant. We analyze four arguments for thinking that indirect benefits should not count and argue that none is successful in showing that the indirectness of a benefit is a good reason not to count it. We conclude that direct and indirect benefits should be evaluated in the same way.

Sexual conflict between males and females over mating is common. Females that copulate with extrapair mates outside the pair-bond may gain (i) direct benefits such as resources or increased paternal care, (ii) indirect genetic benefits for their offspring, or (iii) insurance against infertility in their own social mate. Few studies have been able to demonstrate the different contexts in which females receive varying types of benefits from extrapair mates. Here, I examined sexual conflict, female extrapair mate choice, and patterns of extrapair paternity in the cooperatively breeding superb starling Lamprotornis superbus using microsatellite markers. Although extrapair paternity was lower than many other avian cooperative breeders (14% of offspring and 25% of nests), females exhibited two distinct mating patterns: half of the extrapair fertilizations were with males from inside the group, whereas half were with males from outside the group. Females with few potential helpers copulated with extrapair mates from within their group and thereby gained direct benefits in the form of additional helpers at the nest, whereas females paired to mates that were relatively less heterozygous than themselves copulated with extrapair mates from outside the group and thereby gained indirect genetic benefits in the form of increased offspring heterozygosity. Females did not appear to gain fertility insurance from copulating with extrapair mates. This is the first study to show that individuals from the same population mate with extrapair males and gain both direct and indirect benefits, but that they do so in different contexts.

Female crickets can potentially gain both direct and indirect benefits from mating multiple times with different males. Most studies have only examined the effects of small numbers of matings, although female crickets are capable of mating many times. The goal of this paper is to examine the direct and indirect benefits of mating large numbers of times for female reproductive success. In a previous experiment, female Gryllus vocalis were found to gain diminishing direct benefits from mating large numbers of times. In this study I attempt to determine whether mating large numbers of times yields similar diminishing returns on female indirect benefits. Virgin female Gryllus vocalis crickets were assigned to mate five, ten or 15 times with either the same or different males. Females that mated more times gained direct benefits in terms of laying more eggs and more fertilized eggs. Females that mated with different males rather than mating repeatedly with the same male did not have higher offspring hatching success, a result that is contrary to other published results comparing female reproductive success with repeated versus different partners. These results suggest that females that mate large numbers of times fail to gain additional genetic benefits from doing so.

Many evaluations of infrastructure projects rely on methods that ignore the complexity of the projects. Although case studies are attentive to project complexity, it is difficult to identify general patterns that would apply to a larger sample of projects. Qualitative comparative analysis is a method that preserves the complexity of projects and generates insights across cases. In this contribution, we discuss our experiences with using qualitative comparative analysis for the evaluation of the planning and implementation of complex infrastructure projects. We will provide a short introduction into the main properties of the method (complex causality, systematic comparison) as well as describe some of the main operations (calibration, truth table analysis, interpretation). This will serve to demonstrate why qualitative comparative analysis is a fitting evaluation method in project development and implementation. Next, we will show how we used the method in a research project that aimed to find out under what conditions unplanned events in the implementation of infrastructure projects were dealt with satisfactorily, that is, what it took to respond to these events in an apt manner. Based on our experiences, we will summarize main lessons learned for conducting qualitative comparative analysis proper and provide suggestions for further reading.

This study tried to examine econometric analysis of local community’s perception towards protected area management in the case of Borena Sayint National park. Specifically, the study aims to estimate the direct economic value of natural forest, response on the indirect and option values and, econometric analysis of local community’s perception and/or attitude measured based on use value index. The research was conducted in Borena and Mehal Saynt Woredas with severe deforestation and biodiversity loss. Cross sectional research design and stratified-random sampling method were used, following agroclimatic zonation technique. Primary and secondary data were collected from various sources. Data were gathered from a gross total of 396 respondents. Household survey with 360 interviewees using questionnaire, key informants interview with 21 using checklist and, focus group discussion with 15 target individuals using guiding questions. Secondary data obtained from published and unpublished materials, i.e. books, journals and reports, were used. Analysis was performed using analytical tools, descriptive and order logistic regression econometric model in particular. Descriptive analyses tell us to understand the rank of community priorities of the direct, indirect and option benefits. From the direct benefits, honey, livestock, job opportunity, wood, farm tools, housing poles, tourism, timber, hunted meat, medicine, biodiversity, fruit, coffee orderly have been listed from the highest to lowest local community benefits. Similarly, common pole, biodiversity, water source, community heritage, medicine, robbery, wood fuel, carbon sequestration, tourism, livestock feed are orderly selected as their highest to lowest benefits among direct and option benefits. Hence, Local community prefers indirect benefit of park than direct benefits. The econometric analysis of local community‘s perceptions towards protected area management of the natural forest, ‘Denkoro-Chaqa’ in English means “Deaf-Forest”. Information obtained from order logistic regression (Ologit) based on response rate of households to infer the intrinsic value showed consistency between perception, selective socioeconomic and location variables. This implies that education, married, old-aged and location-2 as most important factors that respondents agreed with significant degree, and hence the most constructive idea to enhance local community’s perception in view of major conservation plans. Reputedly, family base awareness creation with formal and informal education, and other media should be done in core area, buffer zone, transitional zone areas of conservation of natural forest along with take full advantage of local community benefits.

Latino youth participation in community-based participatory research to reduce teen pregnancy disparities

Project management is primarily practitioner-oriented and loaded with many critical success factors (CSFs), and although these are well-evidenced in theory, they do not deliver as efficiently as factors of interest to project professionals during execution. The present study explores the perceptions of senior project managers (PMs) about project success, CSFs and complexity in large construction projects. Data from project practitioners were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using content analysis. The participants were selected with convenience sampling method given the complex understanding of the domain and included highly experienced PMs from the global community with expertise in project management. PMs perceive a small number of CSFs in contrast to the large exhaustive CSFs listed in the questionnaire surveys. Though important, traditional constraints of the Iron Triangle are considered inadequate in defining project success. Project professionals are seen as relying more on other performance indicators for defining a project as a success. They perceive complex construction projects in terms of a large number of interfaces, complex working systems and uncertainty. The findings of this paper suggest that project practitioners perceive differently about the CSFs and project success.

In cooperative breeders, the extent to which helpers at the nest adjust their contributions in accordance with direct and indirect (kin-selected) fitness payoffs remains an open question. In a long-term study of the western bluebird, Sialia mexicana, helpers were exclusively male and helped at nests of both parents, a parent and stepparent, or a brother and unrelated female. This natural variation in the context of helping facilitated comparison of observational data on groups in which one type of fitness benefit (current direct, future direct, or indirect) varied, whereas the other two were constant. Helpers reduced their share of provisioning as they got older, so comparisons were restricted to groups with yearling helpers. When potential direct fitness benefits were identical, but relatedness was reduced by half owing to the presence of a stepparent, yearling helpers failed to reduce their share of feeding trips to the nest. The potential for future direct fitness benefits via possible mate and territory inheritance was low, and did not influence the helper’s share of provisioning in a comparison of groups with similar relatedness and opportunities for current direct fitness benefits. Even though cobreeding to gain current direct fitness benefits was infrequent (17% of nests with brother-helpers), it was associated with an increase in the helper’s share of provisioning, suggesting that a helper’s feeding allocation responds positively to increased opportunity for parentage in the nest. The current study demonstrates a useful framework for separating direct and indirect benefits with respect to helping decisions, and indicates that western bluebird helpers adjust their feeding rates in response to the potential for direct fitness benefits in the current nest, not indirect benefits or future direct fitness payoffs. Although past studies of this population showed that indirect benefits play a role in whether or not helpers help, the current study indicates that they do not play a role in how frequently helpers feed at the nest.

The relative force of direct and indirect selection underlying the evolution of polyandry is contentious. When females acquire direct benefits during mating, indirect benefits are often considered negligible. Although direct benefits are likely to play a prominent role in the evolution of polyandry, post-mating selection for indirect benefits may subsequently evolve. We examined whether polyandrous females acquire indirect benefits and quantified direct and indirect effects of multiple mating on female fitness in a nuptial gift-giving spider (Pisaura mirabilis). In this system, the food item donated by males during mating predicts direct benefits of polyandry. We compared fecundity, fertility and survival of singly mated females to that of females mated three times with the same (monogamy) or different (polyandry) males in a two-factorial design where females were kept under high and low feeding conditions. Greater access to nutrients and sperm had surprisingly little positive effect on fitness, apart from shortening the time until oviposition. In contrast, polyandry increased female reproductive success by increasing the probability of oviposition, and egg hatching success indicating that indirect benefits arise from mating with several different mating partners rather than resources transferred by males. The evolution of polyandry in a male-resource-based mating system may result from exploitation of the female foraging motivation and that indirect genetic benefits are subsequently derived resulting from co-evolutionary post-mating processes to gain a reproductive advantage or to counter costs of mating. Importantly, indirect benefits may represent an additional explanation for the maintenance of polyandry.