Financial resource allocation in a project portfolio taking into account sustainability considerations

The doctoral dissertation examines financial resource allocation in a project portfolio. The literature analysis revealed that today sustainability is one of the most important issues that need to be taken into account in decision-making process at different levels of project-oriented organisation. There is an increasing awareness that tools need to be developed to integrate sustainability criteria into project portfolio management; moreover, there is a growing need of knowledge how to incorporate sustainability into the project portfolio management process. The present paper aims at linking these two areas of scientific research for addressing financial resource allocation in a project portfolio.

The primary aim of the present dissertation is to develop, by applying multi-criteria decision-making methods, and put into practice a model of financial resource allocation in a project portfolio that would allow making decisions, taking into account not only the project’s return and risk but also sustainability considerations. The paper pursues the following main objectives:to construct a composite sustainability index of a project, to develop a model of financial resource allocation in a project portfolio by integrating the sustainability index into Markowitz’s mean-variance model, to verify empirically the practicability of the model, and to assess the impact of sustainability on the return of a portfolio. To achieve the aim of the dissertation and to accomplish the tasks, a construction company was chosen as an example.

The present dissertation consists of the introduction, three chapters, general conclusions, references, and list of scientific publications by the author on the topic of the dissertation. The introduction presents the problem, reveals the relevance of the work, describes the object of the research, formulates the aim and objectives of the thesis, recites research methodology, and highlights the scientific novelty and practical value of the research. The first chapter analyses the definitions of project portfolio management and sustainability, gives an overview of resource allocation and project selection methods, criteria and models, as well as examines the relationship between sustainability and project portfolio management. The second chapter presents theoretical grounds for the integration of sustainability into financial resource allocation in a project portfolio. The third chapter details a financial resource allocation model, and verifies its practicability. Finally, the overall findings are summarised at the end of the thesis.

10 scientific articles have been published on the topic of the present dissertation, 6 presentations were made at scientific conferences.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.20334/2386-M