Global Projects: A Conceptual Review on Execution Attitude in Multinational Corporations

• Published in: Procedia, social and behavioral sciences social and behavioral sciences, 2015-07, Vol.194, p.125-133
• Main Author: Mossolly, Mounir
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cross-Border Cooperation; Execution Attitude; Global Projects; Global Virtual teams; Multinational Corporations; Project Execution; Project Management; Strategy
• ISSN: 1877-0428; 1877-0428
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.125

Global projects are remarkably emerging all around the world, whether at the mega level such as Oil & Gas projects or at the micro level such as in specific R&D projects. Global Projects can be very complex or can be quite simple, they might involve huge investments or rather be at low budget, they can have a diverse spectrum of stakeholders or a limited community of beneficiaries. Accordingly the definition of Global Projects is actually far from being obvious. It is suggested that several factors are favoring the emergence of Global projects, such as globalization of business environment, cost driven project execution strategies, national requirements for local presence, dispersion of expertise, joint venture projects and corporate mergers & acquisitions. However Global Projects are thought to be associated with some side effects, such as integration and/or coordination difficulties, statutory and regulatory issues, uncertainty in project controls, and the drawbacks of remoteness and potential cultural differences. Through this conceptual paper, the gap in knowledge about Global Projects is highlighted and areas for potential academic research are suggested. The paper also proposes a series of research questions that are formulated from the literature review conclusions. The outputs of this conceptual literature review & analysis suggest that there are insufficient research and academic publications written on the subject. The discussions presented in the literature about global projects are actually fragmented and segregated with a clear biased drift toward the focus on cross-cultural aspects, virtual teams and project organization. It is intended that this conceptual research paper help researchers and projects stakeholders in international business environment better understand the opportunities and threats in global project execution, such as on innovation, on inter-transfer of knowledge and organizational resources and their relation to value creation in multinational corporations.