The role and importance of project management practices in SMEs. To what extent are project management practices applied within small and medium supermarket chains from Moldova?
Authors
Belinschi, Victor
Issue Date
2014
Degree
MBA in Business Management
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
The paper analyzes Project Management as a managerial practice in SMEs in general and in part in supermarket chains from Moldova. It aims to investigate to what extent Project Management tools and techniques are generally used in SMEs and those used within medium size supermarket chains from Moldova. It also provides recommendations that would enhance the project capability and project performance within these companies deriving from their size and organizational complexity. In order to do this, the literature review discusses the findings of secondary to identify the generally accepted Project management level used in SMEs. Secondly, the primary data, which was collected through five interviews conducted with top managers performing the role of Project managers in five supermarket chains from Moldova, was collected and analysed in order to be compared with the findings in the literature review. The obtained results met the expectations and have led to the conclusion that generally the extent of Project management used in supermarket chains from Moldova is moderately less than the extent generally used in SMEs. Specifically, it was identified that Project management tools and techniques used within medium sized supermarket chains from Moldova moderately differ from the general tools and techniques used in SMEs as identified by theorists (who conducted extensive research on the extent of Project Management in SMEs). In order to enhance the Project management practices within the investigated companies several recommendations were made, among which was the improvement of professional Project management skills of Project practitioners through specialized education, that would enhance the use of Project tools and techniques and overall the Project management performance in supermarket chains from Moldova.