Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

Introduction
1.4 Structure of the thesis
As the study has followed an abductive research process, there have been
several iterative cycles of going back and forth between the empirical data
and the literature. Some of the key concepts emerged from the data during
the research process. For the convenience of the reader, the study is
reported in a more traditional way, starting with a literature review and
then introducing the empirical results. For the sake of both clarity and
density, iteration cycles and their intermediary results are not reported in
detail.
The dissertation consists of six chapters. Chapter 1 has provided an
introduction to the study. Chapter 2 describes the key concepts and lays the
theoretical foundation for the study by providing an overview of the extant
literature on the selected key areas: temporary organizations, program
management, large-scale organizational change, organizational boundaries
and boundary activities. The literature review is summarized as an initial
research framework that provides the basis for the empirical analysis.
The research process is described in the methodology chapter to provide
an overview of the path the research process has taken. Chapter 3 begins
with a discussion on the assumptions concerning the nature of the research,
and then describes the selected research methods and the rationale behind
the choices. Data gathering and analysis methods are described in detail
and the three selected cases are briefly introduced.
Chapter 4 presents the results of the empirical study. The three cases are
described in detail, and the findings concerning each research question are
presented. Chapter 5 provides a discussion of the findings, contrasting and
comparing them with earlier research, whilst also including an evaluation
of the study and its limitations. In Chapter 6, the conclusions are presented
and the contribution of the study is summarized. Managerial implications
of the findings are discussed, and suggestions for further research are given.
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