Scientific Research Management Research Articles

Strategic Management of Research and Innovation Projects: A Systematic Literature Survey

The informality of Strategic Research Project Management procedures is still a reality in several health science and technology institutions in Brazil, with a recognized negative impact on innovation management. The objective of this work is to verify the scientific and academic production related to the methodologies of strategic management of research projects and innovation in health in the databases of journals in the last 10 years, in the period from 2011 to 2021. The methodology used was the systematic review of literature based on the criteria of Tranfield, Denyer, and Smart (2003) to ensure the scope and impartiality of the research. The question that guided the selection of articles in this study was: “What are the main methodological references for the strategic management of research projects and innovation in health proposed in the scientific literature?” The databases defined for searches were Pubmed, SciELO, and Lilacs. 90 records were screened and reviewed by crossing keywords, descriptors, and eligibility criteria listed in research and innovation. The data collected for screening referred to specific information on the source/article/document (title, authors, journal, year, language) and main characteristics of the study (population profile, research context, objective, methodology used), as well as identification of emerging themes and additional notes. We conclude that, despite the interest in publications on the subject in question, the application of strategic management in research and innovation projects in Health is still emerging not only in Brazil but also in other countries recognized for the development of this area of study. The systematic review made it possible to identify the main practices described in scientific articles, which may help in assessing the implications and benefits generated using these strategies.

A proposal of indicators for the development of Brazilian scientific research in the perception of specialists

This study proposes indicators that guide the induction, contraction and monitoring of scientific research whose funding source is government resources. The bibliographic research methodology enabled the mapping of a set of variables through the application of questionnaires to specialists and the use of the Fuzzy Delphi technique in order to analyze the selected variables selected validated by the specialists. The results identified 34 important indicators that can guide the induction, contracting, monitoring and results of scientific research to reduce any discrepancies in the analysis of research projects financed by organizations and instances that promote scientific research. Such validated indicators can serve as important public policy indicators to optimize the use of research resources. It is possible to conclude that the proposal favors the development of a research project management flow as reflected in the systematic use of indicators.

Evaluation of Scientific Research in Universities Based on the Theories for Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Under the background of insufficient scientific research funding, evaluating the level of scientific research from the perspective of sustainable development is necessary. The study aims to develop an evaluation index system based on the theories for sustainable competitive advantage (SCA), which could be used to evaluate the sustainable development trend of scientific research in universities. In this study, 42 world-class universities in China are used as examples to calculate their SCA performance in scientific research using the entropy and equal weights methods. The scores of scientific research in different universities in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) in 2021 are used to verify the effectiveness of the evaluation index system. The results show that the evaluation index system can effectively predict the scientific research performance of universities in the future. It could be deduced from the results that universities with better scientific research performance meet the needs of the external market better and have more valuable, rare, imitable, and ambiguous resources but a lower level of scientific research dynamic ability. The evaluation index system makes up for the lack of emphasis on the potential scientific research capacity of the university in the current evaluation methods. It can help university administrators formulate relevant scientific research management regulations.

Project and Process Approaches in Science

The comparison of the project and process approach to the management of the scientific sector is carried out. The classification of projects in terms of their scale, financial instruments for supporting scientific research in project and process approaches, the regulatory framework for the implementation of the project approach, the interests of participants in the organization of scientific research in terms of their interest in the project version of science management are considered. It is shown that the project and process approaches to management are not antagonists and the science management system should combine both of them. At the same time, the lack of infrastructure for the organization of large scientific and technical projects, the experience of organizing such activities among the majority of participants in the management and implementation of scientific research, the interest of the majority of participants in the project approach was noted. The organization of large complex scientific and technical projects cannot be financed in the same way as the formation of small and medium-sized projects is financed, for the organization of large complex projects a higher level of management organization is required, which is currently absent.

Vaccine Allocation and Distribution: A Review with a Focus on Quantitative Methodologies and Application to Equity, Hesitancy, and COVID-19 Pandemic

This review focuses on vaccine distribution and allocation in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The implications discussed are in the areas of equity in vaccine distribution and allocation (at a national level as well as worldwide), vaccine hesitancy, game-theoretic modeling to guide decision-making and policy-making at a governmental level, distribution and allocation barriers (in particular in low-income countries), and operations research (OR) mathematical models to plan and execute vaccine distribution and allocation. To conduct this review, we adopt a novel methodology that consists of three phases. The first phase deploys a bibliometric analysis; the second phase concentrates on a network analysis; and the last phase proposes a refined literature review based on the results obtained by the previous two phases. The quantitative techniques utilized to conduct the first two phases allow describing the evolution of the research in this area and its potential ramifications in future. In conclusion, we underscore the significance of operations research (OR)/management science (MS) research in addressing numerous challenges and trade-offs connected to the current pandemic and its strategic impact in future research.

High-Resolution Quantitative Retrieval of Soil Moisture Based on Multisource Data Fusion with Random Forests: A Case Study in the Zoige Region of the Tibetan Plateau

Accurate high-resolution soil moisture mapping is critical for surface studies as well as climate change research. Currently, regional soil moisture retrieval primarily focuses on a spatial resolution of 1 km, which is not able to provide effective information for environmental science research and agricultural water resource management. In this study, we developed a quantitative retrieval framework for high-resolution (250 m) regional soil moisture inversion based on machine learning, multisource data fusion, and in situ measurement data. Specifically, we used various data sources, including the normalized vegetation index, surface temperature, surface albedo, soil properties data, precipitation data, topographic data, and soil moisture products from passive microwave data assimilation as input parameters. The soil moisture products simulated based on ground model simulation were used as supplementary data of the in situ measurements, together with the measured data from the Maqu Observation Network as the training target value. The study was conducted in the Zoige region of the Tibetan Plateau during the nonfreezing period (May–October) from 2009 to 2018, using random forests for training. The random forest model had good accuracy, with a correlation coefficient of 0.885, a root mean square error of 0.024 m³/m³, and a bias of −0.004. The ground-measured soil moisture exhibited significant fluctuations, while the random forest prediction was more accurate and closely aligned with the field soil moisture compared to the soil moisture products based on ground model simulation. Our method generated results that were smoother, more stable, and with less noise, providing a more detailed spatial pattern of soil moisture. Based on the permutation importance method, we found that topographic factors such as slope and aspect, and soil properties such as silt and sand have significant impacts on soil moisture in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. This highlights the importance of fine-scale topographic and soil property information for generating high-precision soil moisture data. From the perspective of inter-annual variation, the soil moisture in this area is generally high, showing a slow upward trend, with small spatial differences, and the annual average value fluctuates between 0.3741 m3/m3 and 0.3943 m3/m3. The intra-annual evolution indicates that the monthly mean average soil moisture has a large geographical variation and a small multi-year linear change rate. These findings can provide valuable insights and references for regional soil moisture research.

Assessing Good Practices in Construction Safety and Phasing Plans

Construction Safety and Phase Planning (CSPP) is a crucial document to have an impact on normal airport operations for any airport construction project. The basic intent of every CSPP is to minimize risk and to ensure that airport operations are not hindered at the time of construction activities taking place on the site. It is important to have such documents readily planned and prepared before initiating any construction activity at the airport. However, the requirements for such documents vary significantly around the world. International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) helps to create a mutual understanding of aviation policy, framework, and guidance. There is a lack of data identifying the differences between ICAO and CSPP. This can be challenging in terms of participating in the overseas market for consultancies and engineering firms for the very first time. Eventually, to perform the best practice for CSPP development, a lot of practicing firms find it arduous as there is little data available on understanding the best practice. This paper provides data that discusses and questions the possibility of best practices for CSPP development within the current industry and is further bolstered by case studies, surveys, and other empirical research found in project management research. The paper also confers the key differences present in the current practicing CSPP developments and the requirements published in ICAO states.

What theory is – A late reply to Sutton and Staw 1995

Theory plays a central role in research in management science, with theoretical contribution an essential measure for evaluating research. However, the many ambiguities regarding the use of the theory concept make judgments imprecise and, to an extent, arbitrary. The discussion of the concept of theory in management science has remarkably little anchoring in the findings of the philosophy of science. This article presents some of these findings and discusses the concepts of explanation and theory on this basis. In particular, Sutton and Staw's (1995, p. 385) notion that theory should provide a logical explanation of causal relationships formulated in hypotheses is critically questioned.

A Manifesto for project management research

AbstractProject management research has evolved over the past five decades and is now a mature disciplinary field investigating phenomena of interest to academics, practitioners and policymakers. Studies of projects and project management practices are theoretically rich and scientifically rigorous. They are practically relevant and impactful when addressing the pursuit of operational, tactical and strategic advancements in the world of organisations. We want to broaden the conversation between project management scholars and other scholars from cognate disciplines, particularly business and management, in a true scholarship of integration and cross‐fertilisation. This Manifesto invites the latter scholars to join efforts providing a foundation for further creative, theoretical and empirical contributions, including but not limited to tackling grand challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and global poverty. To this end, we identify five theses:Projects are often ‘agents of change’ and hence fundamental to driving the innovation and change required to tackle grand challenges.Much project management research leverages and challenges theories across disciplines, including business, organisation and management studies, contributing to developing new theories, including those specific to projects and temporary organisations.‘Projects’ are useful units of analysis, project management research is ideal for scientific cross‐fertilisation and project management scholars welcome academics from other communities to engage in fruitful conversations.As in many other fields of knowledge, the project management research community embraces diversity, welcoming researchers of different genders and various scientific and social backgrounds.Historically rooted in ‘problem‐solving’ and normative studies, project management research has become open to interpretative and emancipatory research, providing opportunities for other business, management and organisational scholars to advance their knowledge communities.

Guest editorial: Second special issue on action research and variants in project studies and project management

Guest editorial: Second special issue on action research and variants in project studies and project management

Joint Impact of Diversity in Functional Duties, Separation in Institutional Values and Economic Discrepancy on Organizational Conflicts

The purpose of this research is to examine how complex organizations function in conflict circumstances. This research aims to explain how a project firm, a collection of firms that work to accomplish a goal, maintains its associations with the partners who make up the organization and with external stakeholders. In analyzing these complex organizations, the authors create a theory that explains how and why basic traits, such as conflict, influence the potential for success, as well as how and why their composition and governance differ for enterprises with partners. To answer these concerns, the study used a dataset from 2009 to 2019 that included about 3000 project groups with more than 100,000 partners operating in 135 countries. Therefore, this study presents a contingency theory of project organization governance by performing an empirical analysis of the project firm on a size and scale not before studied in project management research. This study explores three forms of diversity: functional duties, separation of institutional values, and economic inequality, in order to identify how each type promotes conflict between project participants and external stakeholders. In addition, this research indicates that teamwork between diverse persons may minimize competition. This paper proposes a contingency theory of project organization governance by addressing the absorption of resources and connections that cause conflict and affect the project organization's performance.

A Dataset of Service Time and Related Patient Characteristics from an Outpatient Clinic

Outpatient clinics’ productivity largely depends on their appointment scheduling systems. It is crucial for appointment scheduling to understand the intrinsic heterogeneity in patient and service types and act accordingly. This article describes an outpatient clinic dataset of consultation service time with heterogeneous characteristics. The dataset contains 6637 consultation records collected from 381 half-day sessions between 2018 and 2019. Each record includes encrypted session and patient IDs, consultation start and (approximated) end times, the month and day of the week, whether it was on a holiday, the patient’s visit count for a specific medical condition, gender, whether the consultation was cancer-related, and the distance from the patient’s mailing address to the clinic. These features can be used to classify patients into heterogeneous groups in studies of appointment scheduling. Therefore, this dataset with rich, heterogeneous patient characteristics provides a valuable opportunity for healthcare operations management researchers to develop, test, and benchmark the performance of their models and methods. It can also be used for studying appointment scheduling in other service industries. More generally, it provides pedagogical value in areas related to management science and operations research, applied statistics, and machine learning.

Multicriteria Decision Making as Interdisciplinary Research

In their excellent recounting of the development of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) from its early history to the 21st century, Koksalan et al. (2011) proposed that MCDM is both old and new. It is old because decision makers have always had to make tradeoffs with objectives when making decisions; the authors refer to Benjamin Franklin’s approach to making decisions by trading off benefits and costs during the 1700’s. However, MCDM as an important sub-field of Management Science or Operations research is rather new and began in the late 1950s. The elements of decision making fundamentally consist of the “decision”, a “decision-maker” and a “decision analysis methodology.” This is the reason that the MCDM field is inherently interdisciplinary.

Impact pathways: managing relational risk in project operations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess how we implement new ways of managing relational risk at the operational level of outsourced projects and to provide guidance to project management (PM) policy makers and practitioners seeking to ensure project operations consistently deliver project relational risk management (PRRM) strategies.Design/methodology/approachThrough exploratory study data were obtained from a panel of six experts in PM and from a pilot survey of PM practitioners. The data reveal future directions and vectors for scholarship and research activity in terms of the impact of PRMM-related mechanisms and deliverables on project success and the implementation process to enhance PRRM as a key PM capability.FindingsDeliverables for PRRM need to part of a multidimensional framework that includes mechanisms besides the contract. Such a framework enables the codification of PM knowledge so that PRRM contributes to project success. With knowledge codified, PRRM strategies can be consistently delivered at the operational level. The framework is novel in that it integrates hereto disparate elements that are encompassed under the broad umbrella of relational governance mechanisms.Practical implicationsPM policy makers and practitioners recognise the importance of effective relationships to deliver projects successfully, yet they lack practical solutions to address the negative effects of dysfunctional relationships. The authors provide a list of PM deliverables for effective PRRM, including deliverables besides those related to the contract, which can be used in practice to bring the gap between PRRM strategy development and implementation. This will enable client organisations that outsource their projects to an external contractor to enhance their PRRM capability and increase the likelihood of project success.Originality/valueThe authors provide insights into how PRRM is practised at the project operations’ level where PM is outsourced. These insights lead to three pathways of impactful Operations Management (OM)/PM scholarship and research, namely, the following: 1) How PM deliverables act as a key success factor for effective PRRM? 2) How the duality of roles carried out by PM actors influences PRMM practices? 3) How companies innovate to enhance their PRMM capability? These pathways will enable PM research and scholarship to address disconnects between PRMM strategy and operations and hence go beyond answering “what” PRMM is to encompass “how” it is implemented.

Exploring and Validating Performance Measurement Domains of Community Pharmacists Using Structural Equation Modeling: Implications and Recommendations for Research

Background: Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a widely used quantitative technique among social and management science researchers. Self-reported questionnaires are in prevalent use among researchers in pharmacy management. But validity and measurement invariance measures of questionnaires are not commonly reported in research studies.
 Objectives: To determine the construct validity and invariance validity of the research instrument. To provide guidelines for applying confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in pharmacy management research.
 Methods: A cross-sectional study with an anonymously structured questionnaire randomly administered to six hundred community pharmacists in southwestern, Nigeria. The CFA algorithm in SEM software was used to develop a measurement model and test hypotheses.
 Results: The measurement model satisfied the model and construct validity benchmarks. The measurement invariance parameters were adequate.
 Conclusion: The study concluded that the theoretically developed constructs- economic, operational, and social performance were valid representations of theory. Mandatory inclusion of validity and measurement invariance test reporting in pharmacy management research is advocated.

AIRank: An algorithm on evaluating the academic influence of papers based on heterogeneous academic network

Evaluation of papers’ academic influence is a hot issue in the field of scientific research management. Academic big data provides a data treasure with the coexistence of different types of academic entities, which can be used to evaluate academic influence from a more macro and comprehensive perspective. Based on academic big data, a heterogeneous academic network composed of links within and between three types of academic entities (authors, papers and venues) is constructed. In addition, a new academic influence ranking algorithm, AIRank, is proposed to evaluate papers’ academic influence. Different from the existing academic influence ranking algorithms, AIRank has made innovations in the following two aspects. (1) AIRank distinguishes the influence transmission intensity between different node pairs. Different from the strategy of evenly distributing influence among different node pairs, AIRank quantifies the intensity of influence transmission between node pairs based on investigating the citation emotional attribute, semantic similarity and academic quality differences between node pairs. Based on the intensity characteristics, AIRank realises the distribution and transmission of influence among different node pairs. (2) AIRank incorporates the influence transmission from heterogeneous neighbours in evaluating papers’ influence. According to the academic influence of author nodes and venue nodes, AIRank fine-tunes the iteration formula of paper influence to obtain the ranking of papers under the joint influence of homogeneous and heterogeneous neighbours. Experimental results show that, compared with the ranking results based on citation frequency and PageRank algorithm, AIRank algorithm can produce more differentiated and reasonable academic influence ranking results.

College EFL teachers' demotivation to conduct research: A dynamic and ecological view.

Competences for conducting research is vitally important for college EFL teachers' career development, but many college English teachers are demotivated in academic research. To investigate teachers' motivation on academic activities, this study firstly explored motivational changes of college EFL teachers (mean age 37.39, SD 9.77) for conducting research in their teaching career, and then delved into the factors underlying their demotivation by sending questionnaires. In the end, several English teachers and officers managing research projects were interviewed to elicit solutions to overcome EFL teachers' demotivation to conduct research. This study found that college EFL teachers had large possibilities to suffer from demotivation to conduct research. Exploratory factor analysis indicated five factors causing their demotivation, including weak research ability, negative emotions and attitudes, poor research surroundings, research management problems and insufficient resources. Thematic analysis demonstrated that ecological solutions should be taken by different stakeholders in EFL teachers' working ecology, including universities, research communities, government, and publishers. This study problematized the static view on teachers' demotivation to conduct research and provided some insights and implications for reasons and solutions for demotivation.

Features of research project management in European higher education institutes

ABSTRACT Strong project management is increasingly recognised as essential to achieve impactful outcomes in externally-funded research projects hosted in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs). However, the characteristics of research project management, and how it differs from project management in other environments, have not been sufficiently explored. Key factors in research projects lead us to question the applicability of standard project management methodologies, and to explore optimum organisational approaches to project support. In this paper, from a practitioner perspective we consider the factors that influence forms of research project management and prior literature on the topic. We report on the results of a survey of project management modes and maturity undertaken among research project management professionals in EU, EEA and UK HEIs. Insights derived from the results provide a better understanding of how organisational research project management is currently implemented, and identify avenues for improvement, increasing fundamental understanding of this emerging professional domain.

Analysis on the Management Measures of University Scientific Research Funds under the Background of "Delegation, Regulation and Service

Under the background of "decentralization, management and service", with the transformation of the management mode of scientific research funds from supervision and management to supervision and management and standardized services, from the responsibility system of project leaders to the responsibility system of legal persons, from process control to results oriented, and from fine budget to lump sum budget, the focus of internal control of scientific research funds has also changed, from project level risk to unit level risk. How to better control the internal control of scientific research funds at present? This paper analyzes the effectiveness of comprehensive budget performance management on the internal control of scientific research funds, proposes to combine the assessment indicators of comprehensive budget performance management with the internal control risk points, guide the scientific research management departments and researchers to improve the internal control measures by completing the assessment indicators, so as to achieve the internal control objectives, and discusses the above situation with case method.

The strategy of implementing effective scientific research management system in colleges using DEA method under the analysis of multiple cases

As the priority direction of modern university research activities, research management is an important factor that directly affects the ability to stimulate the potential of university research activities and improve its competitiveness in the field of education. Therefore, modern universities must implement advanced scientific research management concepts, innovate, optimize and improve the contents and methods of scientific research management, improve the scientific research management system, provide high-quality services for scientific researchers, and meet the needs of scientific research success. This paper will analyze and study the case analysis and data collection of the innovation and development of university scientific research management, combined with the effectiveness of the case analysis strategy. The results show that the strategy has good effect in scientific research management and has broad application prospects.