Project planning, top management support and communication: A trident in search of an explanation

Top management support, innovative project planning, and communication between stakeholders are three ambiguous success factors: they are essential, but not necessarily effective. Our aim is to provide an in-depth exploration of the combined influence of planning, top management support, and communication on project success. The first research phase consisted of interviews with the project lead and the project director, and a questionnaire distributed to project members of a large corporate research centre. The second phase consisted of a survey targeting senior management in innovative enterprises. A large number of different analyses including SEM were used to reveal mutual influences. Planning shows a positive influence on innovative project performance when the mediation of communication is taken into account. TMS wields a non-constant effect on the three success factors: it is a non-linear relationship that must reach a high level to be effective.