ARTICLE IN PRESS JID: JPMA [m5GeSdc;July 11, 2020;3:7] International Journal of Project Management xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Project Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman Configurations of project management practices to enhance the performance of open innovation R&D projects ✩ Ana Paula Franco Paes Leme Barbosa, PhD a,∗ , Mario Sergio Salerno, PhD a , Paulo Tromboni de Souza Nascimento, PhD b , Adrian Albala, PhD c , Felipe Plana Maranzato a , David Tamoschus d a Department of Production Engineering, Polytechnic School, University of São Paulo, Brazil b Department of Management, School of Economics, Business, Administration and Accounting, University of São Paulo, Brazil c Institute of Political Sciences (IPOL), University of Brasilia – UnB, Brasília, Brazil d WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Configurational view Contingency Open innovation Project management Qualitative comparative analysis QCA a b s t r a c t This study contributes to the current discussion related to the execution challenges of open innovation projects in R&D with the lens of project management, especially considering the type of external partner as a contingent factor. It fosters the discussion of the configuration of practices in a contingent project management approach in comparison to the traditional best practice approach. For that, we conducted a qualitative fuzzy-set comparative analysis of 50 open innovation projects in R&D. By looking at configurations, we found combinations of practices related to high performance, when treated as a non-independent variable. In this configuration view, practices negatively associated with high performance in previous studies, are part of a combination of practices to achieve high performance in R&D projects. This study contributes to fostering the configurational perspective to project management associated with the idea that one size does not fit all. 1. Introduction Companies have been using collaboration in research and devel- opment (R&D) projects to leverage their innovation results –a phe- nomenon that has been showing an increasing tendency since the 1960s (Hagedoorn, 2002). A collaboration project means a temporary organi- zation where two or more partners, that remain independent economic agents, share R&D activities (Hagedoorn, 2002), which we call open in- novation projects to emphasize the involvement of an external partner. By this, companies have access to new and complementary knowledge and technologies; they can be faster at solving complex problems and can spread the cost of R&D among different parties (Chesbrough, 2003). However, what could be a great solution to efficiency and competi- tive gains is not that easy to achieve. Many times, R&D open inno- vation projects result in adding more complexity to project manage- ment and not achieving the expected goals (Prashant & Singh, 2009). In such projects, fundamental organization dissimilarities (i.e., different routines, procedures, goals, and expectations) that exist between part- ners might complicate managing the projects (Estrada, Faems, Cruz & Santana, 2016). Given the central importance of collaboration between ✩ This work was supported by the FAPESP, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [grant number: 2015/26662-5 and 2019/16948-0]. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: aleme@usp.br (A.P.F.P.L. Barbosa), msalerno@usp.br (M.S. Salerno), tromboni@usp.br (P.T.d.S. Nascimento), adrian.albala@gmail.com (A. Albala), Fpmaranzato@usp.br (F.P. Maranzato). diverse sorts of partners, researches have been looking for how to over- come obstacle related to partner dissimilarities (Brocke & Lippe, 2015; Bruneel, D’Este & Salter, 2010; Estrada et al., 2016) and project man- agement domain is one of the tools for that (Barnes, Pashby & Gibbons, 2002, 2006; Du, Leten & Vanhaverbeke, 2014). Although several factors may influence the success of innovation projects, the project management domain provides a set of activities directly applied in the project execution (project management prac- tices), which guides the project throughout its development for achiev- ing its goals (Clark & Wheelwright, 1993). This guidance has a core role for conducting a collaborative project, in which divergent manage- ment styles and multiple stakeholders’ expectations may challenge the project execution (Estrada et al., 2016; Littler, Leverick & Bruce, 1995). They foster the understanding of objectives, responsibilities, milestones, and help to coordinate tasks and resources for achieving project goals (Brocke & Lippe, 2015). However, project management practices are not homogeneous among all sorts of projects and partners. The project management body of knowledge recognizes that adaptations to the best practices should be made according to project characteristics (Project Management In- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2020.06.005 Received 15 April 2019; Received in revised form 13 April 2020; Accepted 22 June 2020 Available online xxx 0263-7863/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd, APM and IPMA. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: A.P.F.P.L. Barbosa, M.S. Salerno and P.T.d.S. Nascimento et al., Configurations of project management practices to enhance the performance of open innovation R&D projects, International Journal of Project Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2020.06.005