Context and Motivation

Large, multinational, knowledge-intensive organizations such as technology companies or international consultancy firms need to govern and integrate their information resources and share knowhow to effectively manage and facilitate their global projects. Spending on centralized and standardized information sharing platforms, e.g., based on Content Management Systems, has dramatically increased in recent years. Additionally, self-organizing tools, e.g., based on social media technologies, are increasingly used as emergent information sharing strategies. It is believed that integration and knowledge sharing improves intra- and inter-organizational activity coordination in projects and operations. However, research findings suggest that most organizations fail to achieve their information integration targets, which are in particular challenged in global and cross-cultural contexts.

Research Aim

The purpose of this research project is to investigate how information governance and integration methods over different project stages are acquired, assimilated, transformed and exploited by firms in global projects across borders according to their specific internal and external conditions. A central question is how the effective and efficient use of information in enabling a project to achieve its goals is governed and controlled. We expect a successful transformation and exploitation of information to create valuable and heterogeneous capabilities, which should be immobile according to the resource based view. These capabilities are embedded in the project processes and should lead integrated projects to superior performance by creating differential business value when compared to their non-integrated counterparts in their industry.