Designing an optimal structure of project portfolio management by fuzzy approach: With a case study in the pharmaceutical industry

 Today, due to the costly and risky nature of projects and resource constraints in pharmaceutical companies, the correct decision-making of managers for selecting projects to form the final portfolio and implementation of projects is necessary. The huge investment of companies in the drug makes the industry more important. pharmaceutical companies with the development, introduction and construction of existing and new drugs try to maintain their competitiveness, which is an efficient management process of drugs. For this reason, the design and selection of an optimal portfolio of projects that are entered into the company and with a larger perspective is vital to designing the optimal structure of project portfolio management in the pharmaceutical industry. This study aims to design an optimal structure of project portfolio management in the pharmaceutical industry with a case study.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The current research embarks on identifying new criteria based on a literature review and interviews with experts. The proposed structure offers four kinds of criteria according to which the required standard measures for the evaluation of the project portfolio design are customized and extracted. Criteria include institutional theory, stakeholders’ theory, dependency of resources theory, and sense-making theory. After determining the evaluation criteria related to each perspective, the mentioned criteria have been validated. Then, by using the existing methods, such criteria have been quantified. Finally, the identified measures have been employed in the proposed structure. The weight of each criterion was determined using the FAHP method and by using the Fuzzy TOPSIS method (FTOPSIS), and the best type of structure for the selected pharmaceutical industry was selected according to portfolio components. 

 In this paper, a real case was studied in Iran’s pharmaceutical Industries, and the result of the configuration was illustrated. Quantitative values ​​of validated criteria were determined with the help of academic and industry experts and existing methods. After calculating the quantitative values ​​of the criteria for the evaluation of pharmaceutical project portfolio designs, such values were used in the FTOPSIS model. Finally, based on the findings, projects such as innovation and improvement of existing products indicated that research and development in pharmaceutical companies can provide the ground for progressive growth; in other words, the development of products that have proven their efficiency can be the shortest path for achieving the objectives. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies relying on these products, innovation in offering new products in the family of these products or improving them, can shape their projects in the best way possible. furthermore, firms with a far-reaching view of monopoly can take more effective steps in drug production using the intellectual capacity of other companies. The production of medicines is a common practice in pharmaceutical companies, confirmed the results.

Research limitations/implications: 

The main limitation of this study is the lack of accurate information in the early stages of product development in pharmaceutical industries. In this research, it was assumed that the information provided by the experts and designers of the relevant industry is correct and real. For future research, the method of calculating the priority of components considering the technical ability of the industries is suggested. It is also suggested to decide according to the categorization and identification of criteria with other approaches. Comparing the results of this study with other studies is another subject of future study.

Practical implications:

 Finding comprehensive criteria to evaluate project portfolio designs and proposing an effective structure for evaluation can lead to selecting the best portfolio for the pharmaceutical industries. The proposed structure can increase profit and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Originality/value: 

Based on the literature review, particularly the internal research, a method that evaluates project portfolio designs with comprehensive criteria including institutional theory, stakeholders’ theory, dependency of resources theory and sensemaking theory has not been found.