Kam Jugdev, PhD
Associate Professor, Athabasca University
Gita Mathur, PhD
Associate Professor, San José State University
Dr. Tak Fung, PhD
Professor, University of Calgary
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Presentation Outline
 Research Objective
 Conceptual Model
 Methodology: Survey Tool
 EFA Findings
 Contributions
 Discussion
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Competitive Advantage from
PM Assets
 Research program since 2003
 Resources (assets)
 Financial, human, organizational, physical,
social, technological; tangible (explicit) or
intangible (tacit)
 Subset are strategic resources

PM research focus - tangible resources e.g., tools,
techniques, methodologies over intangible PM
assets - e.g., knowledge-based practices
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Competitive Advantage (Barney’s
VRIO model predicts the links)
Valuable
No
Rare
Difficult
to
Imitate
-
-
Organizational
Support
Competitive
Implications
Performance
Competitive
Below
Disadvantage Normal
Competitive
Parity
Normal
Yes No
Temporary
Competitive
Advantage
Above
Normal
Yes Yes
Sustained
Competitive
Advantage
Above
Normal
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
-
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Conceptual model
Characteristics of Project Management Asset
Valuable
Degree of Competitive
Advantage from Project
Management Process
Rare
Inimitable
Organizational
Support
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Resource Based View of the
Firm (Barney)
 P1: PM assets that are Valuable (V) will result in the
PM process having competitive parity, in the
presence of Organizational Support.
 P2: PM assets that are Valuable (V) and Rare (R)
will result in the PM process having temporary
competitive advantage, in the presence of
Organizational Support.
 P2: PM assets that are Valuable (V), Rare (R), and
Inimitable (I) will result in the PM process having
sustained competitive advantage, in the presence of
Organizational Support.
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Methodology: Survey Tool (a)
 What are the factors that comprise the
competitive characteristics of PM resources
(to link them to PM performance)
 Survey tool based on literature and focus
group discussion
 17 structured and 8 open-ended questions
on characteristics of various PM resources,
project and firm performance, demographics
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Methodology: Survey Tool (b)
 Online survey of 198 North American PMI members
 Randomly generated list of 4,000
 240 interested
 198 final sample size
 Participants
 80% PMI certified; 3:1 Male/Female; 55%
advanced degrees
 Top Industries: IT, financial, government, health
care, industrial
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Exploratory Factor Analysis
 SPSS v.15, Principal Components
extraction method with Varimax rotation; all
factor loadings >0.5
 7 factors for characteristics of PM asset (IV)
 3 factors for organizational support
(Moderator)
 2 factors for performance outcomes (DV)
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Valuable Characteristics
(65% variance explained)
 Valuable PM resources (structured knowledge):
7 items
 PMOs, shadowing, methodologies, databases,
templates, printed material
 Valuable PM resources (unstructured
knowledge): 3 items
 Social capital, tacit PM knowledge, COPs
 Valuable IT resources: 2 items
 Computer hardware, software
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Rare Characteristics (64%
variance explained)
 Rare knowledge sharing PM
resources (processes): 6 items
 Job shadowing, mentoring, COPs
 Rare knowledge sharing PM
resources (tools): 6 items
 Software, computer hardware, methodologies,
templates
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Inimitable characteristics
(65% variance explained)
 Inimitable codified PM resources
(knowledge practices): 7 items
 Software, computer hardware, databases,
methodologies, printed material, templates,
PMOs
 Inimitable uncodified PM resources
(knowledge practices): 5 items
 Social capital, tacit PM knowledge, COPs,
mentoring, job shadowing
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Organizational Support
(moderator)
 PM Alignment (84% variance explained): 3 items
 Importance of PM to mission, services, and products
 PM Communication (83% variance explained): 3
items
 Communicate upward in the project hierarchy, company
hierarchy, openly on the project
 PM Integration (72% variance explained): 5
items
 Environment of knowledge / information sharing, learning, trust,
working together, management support in critical project phases
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Performance Outcomes
 Achieve project scope, schedules,
customer expectations, quality of
deliverables, costs (79% variance
explained): 5 items
 Firm-level performance (70% variance
explained): 6 items
 Achieve sales targets, customer loyalty,
profitability levels, market share, continuous
innovation, customer satisfaction
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Contributions
 Improved understanding of
characteristics of PM assets that
contribute to competitive advantage of
a firm
 Application of resource-based-view of
firm to PM area
 Focus on importance of knowledgebased resources in PM
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Study Limitations and Next
Steps
 Sample size, response rate, self-
report bias
 Path analysis to analyze relationships
between factors
Thank you
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