Understanding the Phoenix Phenomenon: Can a Project Be Both a Failure and a Success?

Abstract

While the concept of project success remains largely open nowadays, we introduce here the Phoenix phenomenon, namely a project being both a success and a failure. Our analysis of an automotive vanguard project exhibits key characteristics of a Phoenix phenomenon: the very innovative and ambitious nature of the project; a project management approach that hybridizes causal innovative project development and effectual approaches; the strategic and operational capacity of the company to recover and valorize after the initial failure; and the learnings from and the achievements of the project in renewed scenarios. We conclude that project evaluation must now combine retrospective and prospective assessments methods to evaluate both achieved outcomes and potentialities of a project.