Project portfolio management in a globalized environment: a factor analysis for bulgarian organizations

In a globalised socio-economic environment, business organizations are exposed both, to new opportunities and various risks, the latter including market, governmental, and financial hazards. Globalization induces a highly competitive business environment where the optimal utilization of resources emerges as a critical aspect of project management. In this respect, project portfolio solutions can facilitate the balance between effectiveness and efficiency by means of portfolio management. In the recent decades project portfolio management has developed as a contemporary approach supporting the realization of the organizational strategy through enhancement of the effectiveness and efficiency of its implementation. The goal of the paper is to provide an overview of the major factors that favourably affect project portfolio management practices using survey data from Bulgarian project-oriented organizations. Using an original research instrument, data about this implementation were collected through purposive sampling of organizations that apply project portfolio management approach in their operations. A selection of empirical results from a questionnaire survey of the factors of effective project portfolio management is presented concerning the implementation of portfolio management approach in the studied organizations. The set of specific implementation items are grouped into five major factors by application of principal component analysis. Each of these latent factors reflects a particular cluster of internal capabilities of the organization to implement successfully the project portfolio management practices in conditions of globalized economy.