Impact of Project Planning and Risk Management on Project Team Performance: Moderating Role of Project Managers' Competencies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jrsr/2026.v.ii.212Keywords:
Project Planning, Project Risk Management, Managerial Competencies, Team Performance, Biotechnology, Pakistan, PLS-SEMAbstract
A project management is a precondition to success in the high-uncertainty fields like biotechnology. This empirical study examines how Project Planning (PP) and Project Risk Management (PRM) affect the Project Team Performance (TP) in the biotechnology industry in Pakistan as moderated by project Manager Competencies (MC). The quantitative design based on Competency, Contingency theory and Project Management, a structured questionnaire is administered to 120 project experts working within Pakistani biotechnology companies. Analysis of data was done using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) in SmartPLS 4. The results show that the effect of PP on TP is statistically significant and positive (β=0.199, p=0.008). PRM also shows a positive, though statistically insignificant, direct correlation with TP(β=0.182, p=0.070). More crucially, MC is an important moderator of the PP–TP relationship (β=0.211, p=0.013), where planning is positively associated with team outcomes. On the other hand, MC does not significantly moderate the PRM-TP relationship (β=0.028, p=0.780). The paper concludes that, in the demanding biotechnology environment, strong planning and risk management represent the pre-requisites but the skills of project managers are the key to transferring the plans, which may not be standardised risk protocols, to excellent team performance. The study provides theoretical evidence about the conditional influence of managerial capabilities and presents managerial advice applicable to biotechnology companies to emphasize leadership growth and strategic planning
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