Relationships between project governance and information technology governance and their impact on project performance Pinyarat Sirisomboonsuk a , Vicky Ching Gu b , ⁎ , Ray Qing Cao c , James R. Burns d a Decision and Information Sciences Department, Charlton College of Business, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, United States b Department of Economics, Finance, Marketing and Decision Sciences, School of Business, University of Houston-Clear Lake, United States c Management, Marketing, and Business Administration Department, College of Business, University of Houston-Downtown, United States d Department of Information Systems and Quantitative Sciences, Rawls College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, United States Received 12 October 2015; received in revised form 16 September 2017; accepted 17 October 2017 Available online xxxx Abstract This research endeavors to address the question of how to enhance project performance through exploring the relationships among information technology (IT) governance, project governance and project performance. The research utilizes an empirical survey methodology. The survey of 533 working professionals in various industries renders 282 usable responses or a response rate of 53.91%. The results suggest that both IT governance and project governance have a positive impact on project performance. Moreover, we found that three dimensions of IT governance (i.e., strategy setting, value delivery, and performance management) are positively associated with project performance while all three dimensions of project governance (i.e., portfolio direction, project sponsorship as well as project effectiveness & efficiency, and disclosure & reporting) are positively associated with project performance. Additionally, the alignment between IT governance and project governance is also found to be positively associated with project performance. These findings provide evidence to project management professionals in regard to IT governance and project governance being part of the operational strategy in facilitating the success of projects. It also demonstrates the importance of the alignment strategy between IT governance and project governance in enhancing project performance. © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved. Keywords: Project governance; Information technology (IT) governance; Project performance; Strategic alignment 1. Introduction The success of projects has a direct impact on the success of the business. For several decades, researchers and practitioners have attempted to improve project performance by focusing on project-based management and the competence of project team members as well as developing new project management tools and techniques (e.g., Besner and Hobbs, 2012; Crawford et al., 2008; Flyvbjerg et al., 2003; Hebert and Deckro, 2011; Packendorff, 1995; Sauer and Reich, 2009). Still, the success rate of projects remained low as evidenced by several surveys and studies. For example, Merrow et al. (1988) studied 47 mega projects and found only four projects were completed on budget while 88% experienced cost overruns. Their study also revealed that 26 out of 36 projects (72% of them) failed to meet their profit objectives. In 2001, the International Program in the Management of Engineering and Construction (IMEC) con- ducted a study of large engineering projects with average capital value of $1 billion undertaken between 1980 and 2000 and found that 18% incurred extensive cost overruns (Miller and Lessard, 2001). In addition, the study revealed that almost 40% of the projects performed poorly and were either abandoned or restructured after encountering some financial crisis (Miller and Lessard, 2001). Moreover, Flyvbjerg et al. ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: psirisomboonsuk@umassd.edu (P. Sirisomboonsuk), guvicky@uhcl.edu (V.C. Gu), caoq@uhd.edu (R.Q. Cao), jim.burns@ttu.edu (J.R. Burns). www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.10.003 0263-7863/00/© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: P. Sirisomboonsuk, et al., 2017. Relationships between project governance and information technology governance and their impact on project performance, Int. J. Proj. Manag. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.10.003 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect International Journal of Project Management xx (2017) xxx – xxx JPMA-02087; No of Pages 14