Analyzing project management research: Perspectives from top management journals

This paper examines project management research from the perspective of its relationship to allied disciplines in the management field and provides a view of the progress of project management as a research-based academic discipline. This study which is partially funded by the Project Management Institute specifically investigates project management research in allied disciplines from 18 top management and business journal publications and categorizes it into eight allied disciplines. The evolution and trends of project management research are analyzed by exploring, identifying, and classifying management journal articles on project management in the allied disciplines. The analysis of project management research in the allied disciplines reveals an explosion of popularity and strong interest in project management research. The ranking of occurrences of the eight allied disciplines from most to the least appeared subjects over the last 50 years are (1) Strategy/Portfolio Management; (2) Operations Research/Decision Sciences; (3) Organizational Behavior/Human Resources Management; (4) Information Technology/Information Systems; (5) Technology Applications/Innovation; (6) Performance Management/Earned Value Management; (7) Engineering and Construction; and (8) Quality Management/Six Sigma. Result of this study help us better understand the evolution of project management as a field of practice and an academic discipline, and allow us to provide suggestions for future project management research opportunities.