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In recent years, sustainable development has become a priority for many economies, including emerging ones like China. Over the last decade, China’s economy has experienced rapid growth, with numerous Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) enjoying sustained success. Despite this, the current business environment remains uncertain, and some SOEs continue to operate in traditional industries such as real estate, which pose significant risks due to complex projects (Bocken & Geradts, 2020). Given that SOEs play an essential role in China’s economy (Li & Tong, 2023) and citizens are rightful owners of companies in China (Cuervo-Cazurra et al., 2014), sustainability has become more crucial than ever for both the enterprises and the country’s economic development.
Previous sustainable project management research has focused on private companies and overlooked SOEs in traditional industries such as real estate. The complexity of managing SOEs and real estate projects includes decision-making, preparation, construction, marketing, and sales (Gupta & Newell, 2020), and it requires an understanding of the unique business culture (Huang et al., 2022). Scholars interested in sustainability have primarily concentrated on environmental factors while neglecting the importance of improving value-creation skills among managers (Bjorvatn, 2022).
A life cycle management information system can benefit SOEs by enhancing capital utilization efficiency, reducing operational costs and risks, and improving customer service (Dino et al., 2014; Gupta & Newell, 2020). While there are differences in business models and procedures between real estate SOEs and other types of businesses (Cozmiuc & Petrisor, 2018), life cycle management can still facilitate the development of synergies within SOEs (Dino et al., 2014).
SOEs can leverage digital transformation and the implementation of information systems to sustain their business operations. Researchers believe that enhancing life cycle project management is significant and acknowledge notable differences between real estate SOEs and private enterprises (Toller et al., 2011). In particular, constructing life cycle management systems that promote sustainable project management in the real estate sector are more challenging due to distinct differences in business processes and relationships. Additionally, real estate firms’ value-creation methods differ from continuous production-based enterprises (Bjorvatn, 2022).
The usefulness of project management platforms for real estate and construction companies is in facilitating seamless and collaborative operations between different business departments, upstream and downstream supply chains, and customers throughout the life cycle of real estate development projects (Toller et al., 2013). In contrast to the maturity of product life cycle management (PLM) platforms in manufacturing companies, the construction of project management systems in the real estate industry through full life cycle management is still in its infancy; scholars are more focused on the production and operation phases after the construction of PLM platforms (Dino et al., 2014). There is currently no consensus on the design of sustainable project management through whole life cycle management.
To answer the question of how to achieve a sustainable business model through project management, we adopted the value creation perspective as the theoretical lens (Pan & Tan, 2011). To further explore this, we conducted an in-depth case study (Eisenhardt, 2021) on a real estate SOE in China: China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. (COLI). We explored the question of how SOEs reposition their project management activities to achieve a more sustainable business model. Through our investigation of the value creation through whole life cycle management towards sustainable project management of COLI, we discovered the value creation path towards sustainable project management.