Top management involvement in project management : Exclusive support practices for different project scenarios

Purpose – As top management support is considered one of the critical success factors in project management, effective executive involvement can significantly improve project success. However, the literature does not provide organizations with a clear list of effective top management support practices to achieve this type of support. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to highlight the top management support processes, which highly contribute to project success. Design/methodology/approach – As it is expected that results vary among different project scenarios, data were collected from 700 project managers and their supervisors in seven industries and three countries – Japan, Israel, and New Zealand. Findings – Results reassure that top management support is significantly correlated with project success. Results also show that different top management support processes should be implemented in any industry and culture. Originality/value – The paper introduces and discusses a detailed list of critical top management support processes for each industry and country, and concludes with introducing best practices to support these processes.