The Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management

7.6. Conclusion

This chapter covered a variety of topics, both old and new, on project and portfolio management. We first described the literature on project selection methods, followed by portfolio methods. Most of this voluminous (and still growing) literature remains unapplied in practice. We then described two current practitioner contexts, including management in an industry with excessively skewed returns and management in an industry where much research and development takes place outside of the firm.

Based on the current state of the literature and our descriptions of current practice, we prescribe four areas for future research. First, we suggest that academics build models more thoroughly grounded in managerial and behavioral reality, even though this will increase their analytical difficulty. Second, we outline an academic research agenda that would help managers in industries with highly skewed returns, though we note that breakthroughs might need to wait until we have a better understanding of the causal mechanisms of chaotic and interdependent systems. Building on the interdependence theme, we suggest that all project and portfolio research would benefit from a more thorough consideration of tightly coupled projects. Finally, we suggest that future research explore the opportunities of managing networked portfolios across firm boundaries; understanding the interdependence between projects remains an attractive though difficult goal. Hopefully the next literature ...