From Projects to Strategy: How Project Management Drives Strategic Decision-Making in Modern Business

Dear Colleagues,

Project management and strategic decision-making have become critical cornerstones for business organizations operating in an increasingly complex and uncertain global environment (Dhir, 2019; Restrepo-Morales et al., 2024; Nowińska & Pedersen, 2024). Companies face rapidly changing market dynamics, technological disruptions, sustainability challenges, and intensifying competition, all of which demand well-structured processes and adaptive leadership (Chughtai 2023; Nöthel et al., 2023; Thommes et al., 2024). Against this backdrop, project management is no longer merely a technical discipline of planning and controlling resources, but a strategic capability that directly influences organizational competitiveness and long-term value creation (Nanthagopan, 2020; Theyel & Theyel, 2022; Silva et al., 2023; Huang et al., 2023).

This Special Issue on Project Management and Strategic Decision-Making in Business Organizations aims to bring together contributions that explore the intersection of managerial practice, organizational strategy, and project-based work (Turner & Miterev, 2019; Martinsuo & Ahola, 2022; Aversa et al., 2024; Mariani et al., 2025). Our goal is to provide both theoretical insights and practical perspectives on how project-oriented approaches can support strategic alignment (Brito et al., 2021; Haniff & Galloway, 2022), improve decision-making under uncertainty, and enable firms to navigate transformational change (Kaye et al., 2020; Few et al., 2022; Ivanova, 2023; Shafizadeh, 2024).

We invite high-quality scientific research papers that address, among others, the following topics:

• Integration of project management into corporate strategy;
• Decision-support models and tools for managers;
• Governance and risk management in project portfolios;
• Innovation and agility in strategic project environments;
• The human and intercultural dimensions of project-based decision-making.

Case studies offering evidence from diverse industries and organizational contexts are also welcome. This Special Issue can serve as a platform for advancing scholarly dialog and for deepening our understanding of how project management contributes to effective strategic decision-making.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–500 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor or to the Administrative Sciences editorial office (zoya.zhang@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the guest editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer-review.

Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 July 2026

Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 31 August 2026

References

Brito, J.V. da C.S. de, Medeiros Júnior, J.V. de. 2021. Alignment strategic in project-based businesses: a review of the literature. Revista Ibero-Americana De Estratégia, 20(1), e17902. https://doi.org/10.5585/riae.v20i1.17902.

Chughtai, M.S., Syed, F., Naseer, S., Chinchilla, N., 2023. Role of adaptive leadership in learning organizations to boost organizational innovations with change self-efficacy. Curr Psychol. 2023 Apr 27:1-20. doi: 10.1007/s12144-023-04669-z.

Dhir, S. 2019. The changing nature of work, leadership, and organizational culture in future ready organizations CMC Senior Theses. 2064. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2064.

Ivanova, E. 2023. Adaptive Leadership in Times of Uncertainty: Embracing Change and Fostering Collective Growth. Abbottabad University Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 1(02), pp.133-138.

Few, S., Bonjean Stanton, M.C., Roelich, K. 2023. Decision making for transformative change: exploring model use, structural uncertainty and deep leverage points for change in decision making under deep uncertainty. Frontiers in Climate. 5:1129378. doi:10.3389/fclim.2023.1129378.

Haniff, A.P., Galloway, L. 2022. Modeling strategic alignment in project networks, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 40, no. 5, pp. 517-530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.05.001.

Huang, G., Lee, S-M., Clinciu, D.L. 2023. Competitive advantages of organizational project management maturity: A quantitative descriptive study in Australia. PLoS ONE 18(6): e0287225. International Journal of Project Management, Volume 40, Issue 7, 2022.

Mariani, C., Caccialanza, A., Bugarčić, M., Slavkovic, M., Mancini, M. 2025. Enhancing project-based organization performance through ESG practices: the role of organizational agility. Management Decision, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-04-2024-0967.

Martinsuo, M., Ahola, T. 2020.  Multi-project management in inter-organizational contexts, International Journal of Project Management, pp. 813-826, ISSN 0263-7863, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.09.003.

Nanthagopan, Y. 2020. Evolution from operations project management to strategic project management: a systematic review. Journal of Business Studies. https://doi.org/10.4038/JBS.V7I2.63.

Nöthel, S., Nübold, A., Uitdewilligen, S., Schepers, J., Hülsheger, U. 2023. Development and validation of the adaptive leadership behavior scale (ALBS). Front. Psychol. 14:1149371. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1149371.

Nowińska, A., Pedersen, T. 2024. Project Managers and Decision Making: Conditional Cognitive Switching and Rationally Stepping Up. Long Range Planning, 57(1), Article 102414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2024.102414.

Aversa, P., Bettinelli, C., Levanti, G., Li Destri, A.M., Picone, P.M. 2024. Leveraging intersections in management, Journal of Management & Governance, Springer; Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(3), pp. 687-705, September.

Pham Thi, T.D., Pham, V.K., Duong, N.T. 2025. Impacts of Competitive Pressure and Organizational Context on Organizational Structure: A Role of Knowledge Management. Sage Open, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251339859.

Restrepo-Morales, J.A., Echavarria, J., Durango-Yepes, C. 2024. Strategic decision-making in project management: Applying FAHP to select research agendas. Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development. 8(9): 4627. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v8i9.4627.

Shafizadeh, H. 2024. Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: How Organizations Adapt to Environmental Changes? Journal of Resource Management and Decision Engineering, 3(1), 4-10. https://doi.org/10.61838/kman.jrmde.3.1.2.

Silva, C.S., Pereira, C., Magano, J. 2023. The value of project management to competitiveness: key factors from a holistic and practical perspective. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, Vol. 16 No. 1 pp. 67-91, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-02-2020-0042.

Theyel, G., Theyel, N. 2022. Relationship Management for Recurrent Project Value Creation. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4276541 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4276541.

Thommes, M.S., Uitdewilligen, S., Rico, R., Waller, M. J. 2024. Switching gears: How teams co-construct adaptive leadership style transitions in dynamic contexts. Organizational Psychology Review, 14(4), pp. 542-570. https://doi.org/10.1177/20413866231214238.

Turner, R., Miterev, M. 2019. The Organizational Design of the Project-Based Organization. Project Management Journal, 50(4), pp. 487-498. https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972819859746.

Dr. Ágnes Csiszárik-Kocsir
Dr. János Varga
Guest Editors

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• project management
• strategic decision-making
• organizational competitiveness
• sustainability challenges
• risk management
• innovation and agility
• governance
• transformational change