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Lavagnon Ika

Ika, Lavagnon
Full Professor
Professor of Project Management (PM)
BAC C (Collège Père-Aupiais), B.B.A. (Institut National d'Économie), BAC G2 (National Examination), M.Sc. (UQO), Ph.D. (UQAM)
Location
DMS 7109
Telephone
613-562-5800 x 4781
Email
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Biography

Born and raised in Benin (West Africa), Lavagnon Ika is Project Management (PM) Professor, Thought Leader, Author, former Director MSc Program, and Founding Director of the Major Projects Observatory at the Telfer School of Management (uOttawa), where he seeks to make the world a better place through projects. He earned an MSc and a PhD in PM from the Université du Québec (a joint doctoral program with Mc Gill, Concordia, and HEC), where he eventually became replacement, assistant and then associate professor.

Professor Ika’s leadership has brought him to serve as a member or chair of university/faculty boards, committees, or conferences. He’s been an adjudication committee member or reviewer for many grant competitions. As panel member/chair, he led the QA review of business schools such as Arthur Lok Jack of West Indies or programs such as Northeastern MSc in PM. He’s been external scrutineer for UCL MSc program in Project and Enterprise Management. He’s also reviewed hiring, tenure, and promotion files for professors in Canada, the US, the UK, South Africa, UAE, and West Indies.

Professor Ika has been visiting professor at the Skema Business School in France, the Swinburne Business School in Australia, the Institute of Public Project and Cost Engineering of the Tianjin University of Technology and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China, the African School of Economics in Benin, the CESAG Business School and Université Gaston Berger in Senegal, the World Bank in Washington, DC (as a 2021 World Bank Fellow; suspended due to COVID-19), the University of Pretoria, South Africa (as a 2022 Andrew Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow) where he is now Extraordinary Professor, and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).

Over the past 20 years, Professor Ika has taught PM at the B.Com, MSc, MBA/EMBA, and PhD levels in both the French and English languages, in Canada but also in Europe, Africa, Australia, China and Lebanon. He’s led many PM workshops and advised a number of project managers and senior business leaders in his consulting work (e.g., Treasury Board Secretariat, Global Affairs, Transport and Justice Canada; World Bank; African Capacity Building Foundation, ACBF). A faculty member since 2006, he has supervised a dozen PhD students, a dozen MSc students and sat on dozens of MSc and PhD committees all over the world including Australia, Botswana, France, India, South Africa, Serbia, Trinidad and Tobago, UAE, etc. (over 80 students in total).

Professor Ika’s research topics include: what makes projects successful; why do projects fail and what can be done about it; why projects experience cost overruns and benefit shortfalls; how to deliver major infrastructure (both economic and social) through projects; what is the role of project management in project success/failure; how projects ‘behave’ or ‘work’; what makes projects complex; and how to tackle grand challenges such as sustainable development, climate change, and pandemics through projects. For example, he is a key contributor to the most recent debates on major infrastructure delivery (e.g., project behavior or misbehavior), and he is considered the world leader of the research on managing global development projects (e.g., World Bank or Global Affairs Canada-funded projects delivered in Africa).

Professor Ika is the author of over 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals as well as over 30 conference proceedings. His multidisciplinary work has been published in many diverse scholarly and professional outlets including the International Journal of Project Management, the Project Management Journal, Organization Studies, World Development, Public Administration and Development, Journal of Development Studies, European Management Review, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Production Planning and Control, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Harvard Business Review (France), Journal of African Business, and Revue Internationale des Sciences Administratives. His work has been well received by researchers: it is highly cited (some 7,000 citations and an h-index of 34 on Google Scholar) or consulted (some 200,000 reads to date on Research Gate), featuring his name in the Stanford-Elsevier World 2% top scientists. His works have been funded by granting agencies such as SSHRC and FRQSC in Canada.

Professor Ika is Associate Editor for the International Journal of Project Management (IJPM), the highest ranked journal in his field. He is or has been a member of the Academic Boards of the prestigious international project management associations Project Management Institute (PMI) and International Project Management Association (IPMA).

Professor Ika has provided guidance for the World Bank as external advisory panel member on their Results and Performance of the World Bank Group Report and for the PMI on how to measure project success. He has served as a keynote/panelist at premier practitioner conferences such as the PMI Global Summit and the Dubai International Project Management Forum, where he spoke or debated in front of some 3,000 to 4,000 practitioners. He leads a webinar series for the African Development Bank on project management challenges. He is the co-editor of the 2025 Cambridge University Handbook of Project Behavior. He published a co-authored book titled Managing Fuzzy Projects (that is socio-politically complex) in 2023 with McGraw-Hill, which won the PMI Book of the Year Award in 2024.

He received the IPMA Global Research Award in 2017 and 2022 and the Emerald Outstanding Paper Award in 2017. He was a finalist of the 2023 UK Association for Project Management (APM) Award for the Research Paper of the Year. He was awarded the Telfer’s Established Researcher Award in 2021. He was recognized as a leading thought leader in project management and global development in 2023, according to the reputable Nation newspaper in Nigeria. He was named one of the top 20 Project Managers in Canada in 2025, according to the respected Favikon ranking. He made the cover of the African Chief Executives Magazine as “the most cited African-born project management scholar and a leader of the global conversation on large-scale projects, infrastructure delivery, and development effectiveness”. Some of his papers feature in the World Bank concept notes. Professor Ika is a regular commentator of news in the written press, on Radio and TV in both French and English.

Teaching Areas

Publications during the last 7 years

Papers in Refereed Journals

  • Love, P.E.D. and Ika, L.A. 2025. Advancing the Fifth Hand explanation of project cost misperformance. Production Planning and Control, (Accepted).
  • Love, P.E.D. and Ika, L.A. 2025. Beyond bias and error: Institutionalizing the Fifth Hand to explain infrastructure project cost misperformance. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, (Accepted).
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J. and Ika, L.A. 2025. Breaking the Sisyphean loop: reconceptualizing the treatment of risk and uncertainty in transport projects. Production Planning and Control, 36(9): 1206-1228.
  • Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. 2025. Casting a long shadow: On the death and abiding influence of Daniel Kahneman in shaping project management theory and practice. International Journal of Project Management, 43(4): 102681.
  • Marnewick, C., Ika, L.A. and Bredillet, C.N. 2025. Caught between a rock and a hard place: How project practitioners navigate ethical tensions in decision-making. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, (Accepted).
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J. and Ika, L.A. 2025. Fast-and-frugal heuristics: An exploration into building an adaptive toolbox to assess the uncertainty of rework. Production Planning and Control, 36(3): 251-266.
  • Ika, L.A., Söderlund, J. and Pinto, J.K. 2025. It’s time to take time seriously in the theory of temporary organizations. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 41(2): 101403.
  • Kacou, P.D., Ika, L.A. and Munro, L.T. 2025. Killing two birds with one stone? A new pragmatist perspective on the rigor-relevance gap in capacity-building projects. Public Administration and Development.
  • Adanzounon, N.H., Meddeb, I. and Ika, L.A. 2025. Organizational learning capacity and international development project success in West Africa: a case study. International Review of Administrative Sciences, 91(1): 33-49.
  • Ojiako, U., Chipulu, M., Almeile, A.M., Ika, L.A., Bashir, H., Marshall, A. and AlRaeesi, E.J.H. 2025. Variations in critical success factors of PPP-procured construction projects over lifecycle phases. Production Planning and Control, 36(5): 671-698.
  • Bandé, A., Ika, L.A. and Ouédraogo, S. 2024. Beneficiary participation is an imperative, not an option, but does it really work in international development projects? International Journal of Project Management, 42(1): 102561.
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J., Walker, D.H. and Ika, L.A. 2024. Building absorptive capacity in a mega-project program alliance: Learning to mitigate rework. Developments in the Built Environment, 18: 100402.
  • Ika, L.A. and Dror, E. 2024. Call for Papers Special Issue “Tackling grand challenges with projects”. International Journal of Project Management.
  • Chrysostome, E., Barnard, H. and Ika, L.A. 2024. Examining Underexplored Aspects of Female Entrepreneurship in the African Context. Journal of African Business, 25(1): 1-8.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. 2024. Homo Heuristicus: From Risk Management to Managing Uncertainty in Large-Scale Infrastructure Projects. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 71: 1940-1949.
  • Ika, L.A., Locatelli, G. and Drouin, N. 2024. Policy-driven projects: Empowering the world to confront grand challenges. European Management Journal, 42(6): 835-842.
  • Ika, L.A., Meredith, J. and Zwikael, O. 2024. Project governance: the impact of environmental changes on governance adaptations in large-scale projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 17(4-5): 829-854.
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J. and Ika, L.A. 2024. Rework in relational engineer-to-order production systems: An ‘error-as-process’ archetype. International Journal of Production Economics, 274: 109310.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J. and Fang, W. 2024. Risk and uncertainty in the cost contingency of transport projects: Accommodating bias or heuristics, or both? IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 71: 205-219.
  • de Almeida Rodrigues, T., Ojiako, U., Marshall, A., de Miranda Mota, C.M., Dweiri, F.T., Chipulu, M.L., Ika, L.A. and AlRaeesi, E.J.H. 2024. Risk factor prioritization in infrastructure handover to operations. International Journal of Project Management, 42(1): 102558.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Ouédraogo, S. 2024. Rumsfeld's heuristic: A metaphor for understanding the knowns and unknowns of rework in construction. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 52(1): 43-59.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. 2024. Smart heuristics for decision-making in the ‘wild’: Navigating cost uncertainty in the construction of large-scale transport projects. Production Planning and Control, 35(16).
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J., Ika, L.A. and Fang, W. 2024. The Role of Smart Heuristics in Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Migitating Rework and Its Consequences. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 71: 5720-5732.
  • Locatelli, G., Ika, L.A., Drouin, N., Muller, R., Huemann, M., Söderlund, J., Geraldi, J. and Clegg, S. 2023. A Manifesto for project management research. European Management Review, 20(1): 3-17.
  • Ika, L.A., Pinto, J.K., Love, P.E.D. and Paché, G. 2023. Bias versus error: Why projects fall short. Journal of Business Strategy, 44(2): 67-75.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. 2023. Fast-and-frugal heuristics for decision-making in uncertain and complex settings in construction. Developments in the Built Environment, 14: 100129.
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J., Ika, L.A., Teo, P.T.T., Fang, W. and Morrison, J. 2023. From Quality-I to Quality-II: Cultivating an error culture to support lean thinking and rework mitigation in infrastructure projects. Production Planning and Control, 34(9): 812-829.
  • Love, P.E.D., Pinto, J.K. and Ika, L.A. 2023. Hundred years of pain, with minimal gain: Capital project cost overruns, the past, present and optimistic future. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 50(4): 56-70.
  • Ika, L.A., Rego, M.L., Holzmann, V. and Gil, N. 2023. Infrastructure delivery and project management in low-and middle-income economies. Cadernos EBAPE.BR, (Accepted).
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J. and Fang, W. 2023. Large-scale transport infrastructure project performance: Generating a narrative of context and meaning. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 70(10): 3637-3652.
  • Ika, L.A., Rego, M.L., Holzmann, V. and Gil, N. 2023. Provisão de infraestrutura e gerenciamento de projetos em economias de baixa e média renda. Cadernos EBAPE.BR.
  • Ika, L.A., Rego, M.L., Holzmann, V. and Gil, N. 2023. Provisión de infraestructura y gestión de proyectos en economías de bajo y medio ingreso. Cadernos EBAPE.BR.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J., Fang, W. and Carey, B. 2023. The duality and paradoxical tensions of quality and safety: Managing error in construction projects. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 70(2): 791-798.
  • Pinto, J.K., Davis, K., Ika, L.A., Jugdev, K. and Zwikael, O. 2022. Coming to terms with project success: Current perspectives and future challenges. International Journal of Project Management, 40(7): 831-834.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J. and Fang, W. 2022. Curbing poor quality in large scale transport infrastructure projects. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 69(6): 3171-3183.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Sing, M.C.P. 2022. Does the Planning Fallacy prevail in social infrastructure. Empirical Evidence and competing explanations. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 69(6): 2588-2602.
  • Matthews, J., Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Fang, W. 2022. Error aversion or management? Exploring the impact of culture at the sharp-end of production in a mega-project. Developments in the Built Environment, 100074.
  • Love, P.E.D., Matthews, J., Ika, L.A. and Fang, W. 2022. Error culture and its impact on rework: An exploration of norms and practices in a transport mega-project. Developments in the Built Environment, 100067.
  • Kacou, P.D., Ika, L.A. and Munro, L.T. 2022. Fifty years of capacity building: Taking stock and moving research forward. Public Administration and Development, 42(4): 215-232.
  • Love, P.E.D. and Ika, L.A. 2022. Making sense of hospital project (mis) performance: Over budget, late, time and time again – But why? And, what can be done about it? Engineering, 12: 183-201.
  • Ika, L.A., Love, P.E.D. and Pinto, J.K. 2022. Moving beyond the Planning Fallacy: The emergence of a new principle of project behavior. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 69(6): 3310-3325.
  • Ika, L.A. and Feeny, S. 2022. Optimism bias and World Bank project performance. Journal of Development Studies, 58(12): 2604-2623.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Luo, H., Zhou, Y., Zhong, B. and Fang, W. 2022. Rework, failures, and unsafe behavior: Moving toward an error management mindset in construction. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 69(4): 1489-1501.
  • Ika, L.A. and Munro, L.T. 2022. Tackling grand challenges with projects: Five insights and a research agenda for project management theory and practice. International Journal of Project Management, 40(6): 601-607.
  • Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. 2022. The re-meaning of project success: Updating and recalibrating for a modern project management. International Journal of Project Management, 40(7): 835-848.
  • Signor, R., Love, P.E.D. and Ika, L.A. 2022. White collar crime: Unearthing collusion in the procurement of infrastructure projects. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 69(5): 1932-1943.
  • Tywoniak, S.A., Ika, L.A. and Bredillet, C.N. 2021. A Pragmatist Approach to complexity theorizing in project studies: Orders and levels. Project Management Journal, 52(3): 298-313.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J. and Fang, W. 2021. A procurement policy-making pathway to future-proof large-scale transport infrastructure assets. Research in Transportation Economics, 90: 101069.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J. and Fang, W. 2021. A rising tide lifts all boats, ignoring risks can sink them: The peril of rework in large-scale transport projects. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 49(2): 147-152.
  • Ika, L.A., Keeys, L., Tuuli, M.M., Sané, S. and Ssegawa, J.K. 2021. Managing and leading projects in Africa. Project Leadership and Society.
  • Pinto, J.K., Davis, K., Ika, L.A., Jugdev, K. and Zwikael, O. 2021. Project success. International Journal of Project Management.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Matthews, J. and Fang, W. 2021. Shared leadership, value and risks in large scale transport projects: Re-calibrating procurement policy for post Covid-19. Research in Transportation Economics, 90: 100999.
  • Love, P.E.D. and Ika, L.A. 2021. The ‘context’ of transport project cost performance: Insights from contract award to final construction costs. Research in Transportation Economics, 90: 101062.
  • Ika, L.A., Rego, M.L., Holzmann, V. and Gil, N. 2020. Call for Papers “Infrastructure delivery and project management in developing and emerging economies”. Cadernos EBAPE.BR.
  • Ika, L.A., Söderlund, J., Munro, L.T. and Landoni, P. 2020. Cross learning between project management and international development: Analysis and research agenda. International Journal of Project Management, 38: 548-558.
  • Ika, L.A., Söderlund, J., Munro, L.T. and Landoni, P. 2020. Editorial "When project management meets international development, what can we learn?". International Journal of Project Management, (Accepted).
  • Munro, L.T. and Ika, L.A. 2020. Guided by the beauty of our weapons: Comparing project management standards inside and outside international development. Development in Practice, 30(20): 934-952.
  • Bentahar, O. and Ika, L.A. 2020. Matching the project manager’s roles to project types: Evidence from large dam projects in Africa. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 67(3): 830-845.
  • Ika, L.A., Saint-Macary, J. and Bandé, A. 2020. Quatre questions pour rallier les parties prenantes à la gestion d’un projet. Organisations & Territoires, 29(3): 133-143.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Locatelli, G. and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D.D. 2019. Future-proofing ‘next generation’ infrastructure assets. Frontiers of Engineering Management, 5(3): 407-410.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A., Ahiaga-Dagbui, D.D., Locatelli, G. and Sing, M.C.P. 2019. Make-or-break during production: Shedding on change-orders, rework and contractors margin in construction. Production Planning and Control, 30(4): 285-298.
  • Love, P.E.D., Ika, L.A. and Ahiaga-Dagbui, D.D. 2019. On de-bunking ‘fake news’ in a post truth era: Why does the Planning Fallacy explanation for cost overruns fall short? Transportation Research, Part A: Policy and Practice, 126: 397-408.
  • Love, P.E.D., Sing, M.C.P., Ika, L.A. and Newton, S. 2019. The cost performance of transportation projects: The fallacy of the Planning Fallacy account. Transportation Research, Part A: Policy and Practice, 122: 1-20.

Books

  • Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. Cambridge Handbook of Project Behavior. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
  • Ika, L.A. and Saint-Macary, J. Managing fuzzy projects in 3D: A proven, multi-faceted blueprint for overseeing complex projects. McGraw Hill, 2023.

Chapters in Books

  • Zwikael, O., Singh, G., Dutt Pathak, R. and Merikhi, E. Project Leadership Capabilities. In The Palgrave Handbook of Strategy, Change and Transformational Project Leadership. UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2025, (Accepted).
  • Ika, L.A. The rise and fall of the Planning Fallacy: From the impulsion to the compulsion to theorize. In Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K.. Cambridge Handbook of Project Behavior. 2025.
  • Ika, L.A., Love, P.E.D. and Pinto, J.K. Before you start managing that major project, what you should know about cost overruns and benefit shortfalls. In Serrador, P.. Mastering Project Leadership: Insights from the Research. UK: Routledge, 2024.
  • Ika, L.A. and Munro, L.T. How Project Management Can Help Tackle World-Scale Challenges. In Driving Sustainable Innovation: How to Do Well While Doing Good. U.S.A.: Brightline Project Management Institute, 2024.
  • Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. Don’t ask what makes projects successful, but under what circumstances they work: Reconceptualizing project success factors. In Anantatmula, V.. Research Handbook on Project Performance. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023.
  • Ika, L.A. and Munro, L.T. Project management and societal grand challenges. In Silvius, G. and Huemann, M.. Research Handbook on Sustainable Project Management. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2023, (Accepted).
  • Pinto, J.K. and Ika, L.A. Project success. In Turner, J.R. and Huemann, M.. Gower Handbook of Project Management. London, UK: Routledge, 2023, (Accepted).
  • Ika, L.A. and Pinto, J.K. Nothing succeeds like success but what is it anyway?: Reconceptualizing success. In Winch, G., Brunet, M. and Cao, D.. Research Handbook on Complex Project Organizing. London: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2022, (In Press).
  • Ika, L.A. Under what circumstances does capacity building work?. In Chrysostome, E.. Capacity Building in Developing and Emerging Countries. United Kingdom: Spinger Nature, 2019.

Invited Contributions and/or Technical Reports

  • Nhlabatsi, S.W. and Ika, L.A. 2024. "Navigating project complexity to build resilience in international development projects".
  • Ika, L.A. 2023. "PMI Project success literature review".
  • Kacou, K.P., Ika, L.A., Grant, G., Delcorde, C. and Drouin, N. 2023. "Towards moving from outputs to outcomes delivery in major digital programs: Learning from United Kingdom, Australia, and Norway", Juin.
  • Grant, G., Delcorde, C., Ika, L.A. and Drouin, N. 2023. "Towards moving from outputs to outcomes delivery in major digital programs: What can we learn from Government of Canada Public Reports?", Mai.

Other Scholarly Contributions

  • (Book review) Ika, L.A. 2025. "Media Review: Handbook on Public-Private Partnerships in International Infrastructure Development".

Funded Research during the last 7 years

Funded Research during the last 7 years
From-To Source Title * ** Role Amount
2025-2028 SSHRC Partnership Development Grant The Sustainable Construction & Development Applied Research Project (SCDARP) R C Co-A $ 199,289
2022-2023 Treasury Board of Canada Towards a governance framework for more flexibility in the delivery of capability upgrade R G PI $ 75,000
2022 Carnegie Fellow & GIBS, uPretoria Project management capacity building (teaching + research) R O PI $ 15,000
2021-2026 SSHRC Le rôle du contexte dans la gestion de projet en Afrique R C PI $ 94,500
2021-2022 University of Ottawa - Carleton University Shared Online Projects Initiative (SOPI) P I Co-PI $ 40,000
2020-2025 Telfer School of Management Major Projects Observatory R I PI $ 60,000
2019-2020 Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine (UEMOA) Leviers de la mise en œuvre des réformes de finance publique dans l’espace UEMOA/ CLEAR Project R F PI $ 50,000
2018-2020 School of Management Research Fund (SMRF) To what extent are project managers involved in project planning and does it matter for project success O I PI $ 12,000

LEGEND:

*Purpose
C: Contract (R and D) | E: Equipment Grant | R: Research Grant | S: Support Award | P: Pedagogical Grant | O: Other, U: Unknown

**Type
C: Granting Councils | G: Government | F: Foundations | I: UO Internal Funding | O: Other | U: Unknown

Role
PI = Principal Investigator | Co-I = Co-Investigator | Co-PI = Co-Principal Investigator

Pillars
Happier Wealthier

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