Towards a comprehensive framework to support project studies in the context of university research centres: a design science research

Abstract

PurposeKnowledge production in project studies is continuously challenged to combine scientific rigour and practical relevance, and a professional graduate programme in Project Management is a suitable environment for addressing this issue. This research aims to generate a framework of the Ecosystem of a University Research Centre in Project Studies (URC-PS) to enhance the benefits of research developed in a professional graduate programme.Design/methodology/approachThe research was developed under the paradigm of Design Science and operationalised through a method of Design Science Research. The prescriptive approach was used to identify, design, develop, demonstrate, and evaluate the framework.FindingsThe framework comprises four macro-elements: Project Studies; Impact Generation Process; Circumstances, Governance and Management; and Context, broken into sixty elements. It provides a structure that is simultaneously holistic, integrative, and procedural. It also develops a perspective of knowledge co-creation between academics and practitioners in an engaged scholarship approach.Practical implicationsThe framework provides a more thorough understanding of the ecosystem university management to the research centre itself, to engaged academics, and to external actors, which allows them to discuss, plan, execute, and evaluate the co-creation of knowledge in Project Studies.Originality/valueThe framework contributes to Organisational Knowledge Creation Theory by including and discussing outcomes and impacts from co-created knowledge in a URC-Project Studies environment. It also explores the concept of “Ba” in its proposal for structuring, organising, and operationalising the “Ba”.