Special Issue "Improving Risk Management to Increase Sustainability in Project Management"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Isabel Ortiz-Marcos
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Organization Engineering, Business Administration and Statistics, ETSI Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: project management; risk management; stakeholders management; knowledge management; project management competencies; leadership and change management
Prof. Dr. Rocío Rodríguez-Rivero
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Organization Engineering, Business Administration and Statistics, ETSI Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: project management; risk management; international development; intercultural projects; project management competencies

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability seeks original manuscripts for a Special Issue on ‘‘Improving risk management to increase sustainability in project management’’, scheduled to appear in 2021, and with a deadline of November 30, 2021.

Sustainability is a field of growing interest in project management (PM). The literature is abundant, and approaches sustainability in project management from different perspectives. Silvius G. [1] carried out a systematic literature review, and presented sustainability as a new school of thought in PM. On a global scale, regardless of the sector, Gareis et al. [2] suggest a model for sustainable development and PM based on the process-oriented principles of sustainable development. If we consider the different areas of knowledge in PM, their link with sustainability has been discussed recently in different studies. Just to name a few of them, Uribe et al. [3] presented the symbiotic relationship between stakeholder theory and sustainability; Martínez-Perales et al. [4] exposed an interesting approach in the field of the use of certification as a tool to develop sustainability in PM; Rodriguez-Rivero et al. [5, 6] discussed the importance of risk management to achieve project success, and how risk management helps to deal with intercultural differences.

Given the conditions of the moment we are living in, risk management has become a must. It was David Hillson [7] who said that "risk is an uncertainty that matters", because it can affect projects’ objectives. Living through the COVID-19 pandemic is a clear example of how uncertainty may affect project results. On the other hand, uncertainty also stimulates project management research toward new opportunities and innovations [8-10]. With this Special Issue, we want to highlight how uncertainty may also stimulate the increase in sustainability in project management, given the need for a better world. Therefore, we particularly welcome papers that help to clarify the link between risk management and sustainability in projects.

References

  1. Silvius, G. Sustainability as a New School of Thought in PM. J. Clean. Prod. 2017, 166, 1479–1493. doi: 1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.121.
  2. Gareis, R.; Huemann, M.; Martinuzzi, A. Relating sustainable development and PM: A conceptual model. In Proceedings of the PMI®Research Conference 2010: Defining the Future of PM, Washington DC, USA, 11–14 July 2010; PM Institute: Newtown Square, PA, USA, 2010.
  3. Uribe, D.; Ortiz-Marcos I.; Uruburu, A. What Is Going on with Stakeholder Theory in Project Management Literature? A Symbiotic Relationship for Sustainability. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1300. doi:3390/su10041300
  4. Martínez-Perales, S.; Ortiz-Marcos, I.; Juan Ruiz, J.; Lázaro, F. J. Using certification as a tool to develop sustainability in project management. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1408. doi: 3390/su10051408
  5. Rodríguez-Rivero, R.; Ortiz-Marcos, I.; Romero, J.; Ballesteros-Sánchez, L. Finding the links between risk management and project success: evidence from international development projects in Colombia. Sustainability 2020, 12(21), 9294. doi: 3390/su12219294.
  6. Rodríguez-Rivero, R.; Ortiz-Marcos, I.; Ballesteros-Sánchez, L.; Martínez-Beneitez, X. Identifying risks for better project management between two different cultures: the Chinese and the Spanish. Sustainability 2020, 12(18), 7588. doi: 3390/su12187588.
  7. Hillson, D. What is a risk? Identifying real risks is critical for effective risk management. Available online: https://infoworks.com/what-is-a-risk/ (accessed on 10 January 2021).
  8. Böhle, F.; Heidling, E.; Schoper, Y. A new orientation to deal with uncertainty in projects. J. Proj. Manag. 2020, 34 (7), 1384–1392. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.002.
  9. Feinstein, O. Development and radical uncertainty. Development in Practice 2020, 30(8), 1105–1113. doi: 1080/09614524.2020.1763258.
  10. Huemann, M.; Martinsuo, M. In project management, uncertainty is a great opportunity. J. Proj. Manag. 2016, 34(6), 1026–1027. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.001.

Prof. Dr. Isabel Ortiz-Marcos
Prof. Dr. Rocío Rodríguez-Rivero
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • project management
  • risk management
  • sustainability in projects

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

Article
Harnessing Machine Learning for Classifying Economic Damage Trends in Transportation Infrastructure Projects
Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 6376; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13116376 - 03 Jun 2021
Viewed by 633
Abstract
Given the highly visible nature, transportation infrastructure construction projects are often exposed to numerous unexpected events, compared to other types of construction projects. Despite the importance of predicting financial losses caused by risk, it is still difficult to determine which risk factors are [...] Read more.
Given the highly visible nature, transportation infrastructure construction projects are often exposed to numerous unexpected events, compared to other types of construction projects. Despite the importance of predicting financial losses caused by risk, it is still difficult to determine which risk factors are generally critical and when these risks tend to occur, without benchmarkable references. Most of existing methods are prediction-focused, project type-specific, while ignoring the timing aspect of risk. This study filled these knowledge gaps by developing a neural network-driven machine-learning classification model that can categorize causes of financial losses depending on insurance claim payout proportions and risk occurrence timing, drawing on 625 transportation infrastructure construction projects including bridges, roads, and tunnels. The developed network model showed acceptable classification accuracy of 74.1%, 69.4%, and 71.8% in training, cross-validation, and test sets, respectively. This study is the first of its kind by providing benchmarkable classification references of economic damage trends in transportation infrastructure projects. The proposed holistic approach will help construction practitioners consider the uncertainty of project management and the potential impact of natural hazards proactively, with the risk occurrence timing trends. This study will also assist insurance companies with developing sustainable financial management plans for transportation infrastructure projects. Full article
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