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Large dam projects (i.e., those exceeding 15 m) often make headlines for their poor performance and their negative social and environmental impacts. The world register characterizes dams by height, purpose (e.g., irrigation), and type (e.g., rock-fill). Thus, large dams differ in many technical ways, but because practitioners still lack a framework to sort them into different types for management purposes, they tend to manage them in a one-size-fits-all manner. Shenhar and Dvir's NTCP (novelty, technology, complexity, and pace) model (2007) may be a good fit as large dams experience high unforeseen technological uncertainty. In this paper, through observations, a case study, a qualitative analysis of 42 interviews with project managers, and a quantitative analysis, we examined 30 large dam projects in Africa and sorted them into different categories according to the NTCP model. Going beyond the rather static NTCP, we identified their underlying NTCP characteristics and the variety of roles that their project managers played throughout the lifecycle, and highlighted the dynamic fit between the roles and NTCP characteristics. Since different characteristics and project manager's roles are prominent at different phases, project managers should sort dams into different types based on the NTCP model at different phases, and tailor their roles accordingly for more success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In practice, product design decisions in a buyer–supplier setting can be either centralized or decentralized. Yet, it is unclear in what circumstances either of these settings can result in higher new product performance. In this study, we show that the choice of the level of centralization of product design decisions should be made contingent to the product complexity and behavioral factors of project managers involved in the decisions. In particular, we examine the influence of the cognitive ability, resistance to change, and cognitive effort of the project managers on the choice of the level of centralization of product design decisions. A methodology coming from complexity science is adopted and a simulation analysis is carried out. Results confirm that product complexity affects the relationship between the level of centralization of the product design decisions and product performance. Furthermore, we show that the benefit of centralized product design decisions is influenced by the level of cognitive effort, cognitive ability, and resistance to change of project managers. The analysis is performed in two different contexts characterized by varying levels of trust between the buyer and supplier. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]