The influence of project autonomy on project success Hans Georg Gemu¨ nden a, * , So¨ ren Salomo b , Axel Krieger c a Technical University of Berlin, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, Straße des 17. Juni 135, H71, 10623 Berlin, Germany b University of Graz, Institute for Technology and Innovation Management, 8010 Graz, Austria c McKinsey & Company, Inc., Prinzregentenstr. 22, 80538 Mu¨ nchen, Germany Abstract In this article, we address the following research questions: (1) What is project autonomy, how can it be measured, and how much autonomy is given in NPD projects? (2) Does project autonomy increase with project innovativeness? (3) Is project autonomy positively related to success of NPD projects? (4) Does the positive relationship between project autonomy and project success increase with innovativeness of NDP projects? Theses hypotheses are tested using a sample of 104 highly innovative NPD projects, gathered in the first wave of the research project INNOVATION COMPASS. The results show that instruments which are advocated in the mainstream innovation and venture management literature are more frequently used with increasing innovativeness. However, they do not increase suc- cess of NPD projects, even not for highly innovative ones. Instruments derived from the organizational behavior tradition are not used more often with increasing innovativeness, but they do significantly improve NPD project success, particularly for very inno- vative ones. We conclude: Firms should not easily follow fashions, which are derived from prominent case studies. Rather, they should also take into account possible negative consequences of the recommendations. Researchers should lay more stress in dis- cussing and empirically analyzing negative effects of popular recommendations. Ó 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. Keywords: Project autonomy; Project innovativeness; Success factors of projects 1. Project autonomy Autonomy is a characteristic of a social system. The word autonomy has a Greek origin and means indepen- dent, free, self-governing, self-organizing, living accord- ing to its own rules. It is an important characteristic of a sovereign state which has the right for self-organizing its rules. A social system will have autonomy if it has (1) Goal- defining autonomy: the authority to set its own goals and their ordering; (2) Structural autonomy: its own social identity and boundaries to other social systems; (3) Re- source autonomy: resources to fulfill its tasks and survive until the task is completed; and (4) Social autonomy: freedom for self-organizing the behavior of its members, including possibilities for its members to interact with each other. 0263-7863/$30.00 Ó 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.03.004 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 30 314 26090; fax: +49 30 314 26089. E-mail address: hans.gemuenden@tim.tu-berlin.de (H.G. Gemu¨n- den). www.elsevier.com/locate/ International Journal of Project Management 23 (2005) 366–373 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT