Which project characteristics are important? What are the project success factors?

The evaluation process of real investment projects must consider not only the traditional financial approach, but also non-financial aspects that can provide additional relevant information about projects. We investigate financial and non-financial areas most relevant in project appraisal, main critical success factors and areas of analysis that lead to the perception of project success, through nine hypotheses that are empirically tested. Companies are also segmented to verify their financial and non-financial practices, considering industries, type of project, size and duration of the project. The results show that non-financial factors affect the investment decision with larger importance than financial ones, specifically the strategic, technical and commercial areas. Perceived success of a project is related to the consideration of strategic, political and human resources aspects in its evaluation. There is a greater perception of success when companies attribute greater importance to financial and commercial aspects in project appraisal. The existence of many financial and strategic factors is associated with a greater perceived success of the project. We found that there is a greater perception of success in companies with larger projects, when the chairman of the board has higher tenure and when the project manager has a higher education degree and has variable reward.

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