Researching Projects and Theorizing Families of Temporary Organizations

Following contemporary development in which most temporary, focused, and organized endeavors can be regarded as a project and studied as a temporary organization, here we ask: How can these phenomena be defined without hindering pluralism in understanding, development, and theorizing? Based on the notions of family resemblance—the idea that it is not a specific trait, but a variety of traits that are shared by some, but not all, members of a family—we propose a new dynamic framework we believe is useful in advancing the studies of projects and temporary organizations toward more opportunities for rigorous theorizing.