nep-ppm New Economics Papers
on Project, Program and Portfolio Management
Issue of 2020‒03‒23
five papers chosen by
Arvi Kuura
Tartu Ülikool

  1. DESIGNING EXPERIENTIAL TRAINING IN LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT: A COLLABORATION BETWEEN INDUSTRY & ACADEMIA By Eric Blanco; Stéphanie Bérard; Sylvie Blanco; Pierre Chévrier; Emmanuelle Heidsieck; John Kenwright; Virginie Verges
  2. On the Capacity to Absorb Public Investment: How Much is Too Much? By Daniel Gurara; Kangni R Kpodar; Andrea F Presbitero; Dawit Tessema
  3. Secondary raw material markets in the C&D sector: Study on user acceptance in southwest Germany By Volk, Rebekka; Kern, Christian Frederik; Schultmann, Frank
  4. Women’s empowerment in agriculture: Lessons from qualitative research By Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; Rubin, Deborah; Elias, Marlène; Mulema, Annet Abenakyo; Myers, Emily
  5. Measurement properties of the Project-Level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index By Yount, Kathryn M.; Cheong, Yuk Fai; Maxwell, Lauren; Heckert, Jessica; Martinez, Elena M.; Seymour, Gregory

  1. By: Eric Blanco (G-SCOP_CC - CC - G-SCOP - Laboratoire des sciences pour la conception, l'optimisation et la production - UJF - Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - INPG - Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes); Stéphanie Bérard (GEM - Grenoble Ecole de Management); Sylvie Blanco (GEM - Grenoble Ecole de Management); Pierre Chévrier (G-SCOP_CC - CC - G-SCOP - Laboratoire des sciences pour la conception, l'optimisation et la production - UJF - Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - INPG - Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes); Emmanuelle Heidsieck (GEM - Grenoble Ecole de Management); John Kenwright (Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology); Virginie Verges (ST-GRENOBLE - STMicroelectronics [Grenoble])
    Abstract: This paper presents how collaboration between academics and industry initiated in the context of a local innovation consortium led to the design of a training programme in lean development. The approach inspired from design thinking principles was developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers in R&D efficiency and agile project management, pedagogical advisors, specialists in serious game design and project management from academia, lean experts and engineers from the company. Intense collaboration, experience-based inspiration, rapid prototyping including engineers from the company, observers from university, quick learning loops and feedback, contributed to the development of this training programme. This collaboration favoured discussion in terms of expectations from the company and setting up the foundation of the training programme including the constraints of deploying the course for up to 2000+ targeted people worldwide. Experiential learning through serious games and case studies is the pedagogical foundation of the teaching material. The paper discusses the training design process, hypothesis and objectives. All stakeholders learnt from this design thinking approach, leading to innovative training co-creation and demonstrating the richness of interdisciplinary teamwork and relevance of a user-centred approach for lifelong learning training design.
    Keywords: Lean development,R&D,lifelong learning,serious games,experiential learning
    Date: 2019–09–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-02369482&r=all
  2. By: Daniel Gurara; Kangni R Kpodar; Andrea F Presbitero; Dawit Tessema
    Abstract: While expanding public investment can help filling infrastructure bottlenecks, scaling up too much and too fast often leads to inefficient outcomes. This paper rationalizes this outcome looking at the association between cost inflation and public investment in a large sample of road construction projects in developing countries. Consistent with the presence of absorptive capacity constraints, our results show a non-linear U-shaped relationship between public investment and project costs. Unit costs increase once public investment is close to 10% of GDP. This threshold is lower (about 7% of GDP) in countries with low investment efficiency and, in general, the effect of investment scaling up on costs is especially strong during investment booms.
    Date: 2020–02–28
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:imf:imfwpa:20/48&r=all
  3. By: Volk, Rebekka; Kern, Christian Frederik; Schultmann, Frank
    Abstract: In industrialized countries, regulations demand increasingly higher recycling (RC) rates and many efforts are undertaken to recycle construction and demolition (C&D) waste fractions. The C&D sector has indisputable relevance due to the highest mineral waste fraction, high numbers of employees and turnovers. High-quality RC construction products can be produced to sub-stitute primary resources and reduce land use. This empirical study analyses the acceptance of RC materials in Germany particularly of private awarding authorities in their private construction project(s). In 41 structured interviews, data is collected and evaluated based on hypotheses. Qualitative and quantitative analyses show that acceptance problems cannot be stated. However, medium knowledge and low experience with RC construction materials as well as communication problems are identified. The respondents have no concerns and tend to trust in RC construction materials, but this is decreasing with the increased structural importance of the materials. Surprisingly, quality is the most frequently mentioned decision criteria in private construction projects, followed by cost. Private awarding authorities see no increase of their property value by using RC construction materials. And, the majority is unwilling to pay a premium for RC construction materials. Higher material quality standards, regular government reviews and financial support are seen conducive.
    Keywords: recycling construction materials,C&D sector,secondary raw materials,acceptance,private awarding authorities
    Date: 2020
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:kitiip:39&r=all
  4. By: Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; Rubin, Deborah; Elias, Marlène; Mulema, Annet Abenakyo; Myers, Emily
    Abstract: There is growing recognition of the importance of women’s empowerment in its own right and for a range of development outcomes, but less understanding of what empowerment means to rural women and men. The challenge of measuring empowerment, particularly across cultures and contexts, is also garnering attention. This paper synthesizes qualitative research conducted conjointly with quantitative surveys, working with eight agricultural development projects in eight countries, to develop a project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI). The qualitative research sought to identify emic meanings of “empowerment,†validate the domains and indicators of the quantitative index, provide greater understanding of the context of each project and of strategies for facilitating empowerment, and test a methodology for integrating emic perspectives of empowerment with standardized etic measures that allow for comparability across contexts.
    Keywords: empowerment, gender, women, indicators, qualitative research, emic perspectives, Women's empowerment,
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1797&r=all
  5. By: Yount, Kathryn M.; Cheong, Yuk Fai; Maxwell, Lauren; Heckert, Jessica; Martinez, Elena M.; Seymour, Gregory
    Abstract: Given the need for valid measures of women’s empowerment to monitor SDG5 and design advantages of pro-WEAI, an assessment of its measurement properties is warranted. This paper has three aims: 1) to assess in two GAAP2 projects the measurement properties of survey question (item) sets used to compute pro-WEAI indicators, 2) to offer guidance, based on study findings, for questionnaire revisions to shorten the full pro-WEAI to improve it as a measure for women’s empowerment in agricultural development programs, and 3) to make a call for a validated ‘short form’1 version of pro-WEAI and improved measures of women’s collective agency.
    Keywords: agricultural development, measurement, Sustainable Development Goals, empowerment, gender, women, item response theory, women’s agency, women’s empowerment, Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index,
    Date: 2019
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:fpr:ifprid:1798&r=all

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