| Keywords [eng] |
Success determinants, leadership, effective leadership, project management, Covid-19, extraordinary crisis, AdTech sector, advertising technologies. |
| Abstract [eng] |
Thesis Description. Over the last decade, the demand for AdTech, advertising technologies has grown significantly. More and more advertisers are deciding to choose AdTech platforms for spreading their advertisements, to be able to analyze the outcomes of the data: to target and to deliver according to individual consumers’ needs. Even if before the extraordinary Covid-19 crisis, the demand for the product, AdTech is offering was growing gradually, the pandemic sped up the process, with more and more companies going online. The global situation and the necessity to onboard more and more clients to use the platform put much pressure on the sector itself and project managers, who were leading the projects meanwhile. Consequently, it led to different challenges, which influenced the sector’s stability, and the necessity for different success determinants for effective leadership to overcome the crisis appeared. In line with this context, the research done within the MA thesis is addressed to identify the key features for effective leadership throughout pandemics, and the challenges and success determinants towards it, once leading projects in the AdTech sector during Covid-19. Aim and Objectives. The thesis aims to analyze the main challenges and success factors for effective leadership in projects, treating the Covid-19 crisis as a critical trigger in the AdTech industry. The objectives are: to identify the main challenges in the project management during the pandemic and their effect on the normal management cycle; to point Covid-19 as phenomenal in the business world and disclose its uniqueness compared with the previous crises; to express the importance of effective leadership throughout the crisis and the main success factors towards that; to reveal the main challenges and success determinants for effective leadership in projects during Covid-19 in the AdTech sector. Methodology and Results. For the empirical part of the thesis, a qualitative method was chosen. Using semi-structured interviews, the data collection was done with ten informants who currently work in the AdTech sector and lead projects accordingly. Once analyzing the information gathered, in line with the literature review, either the challenges and success determinants for effective leadership in projects were identified, or the key features for effective leadership in the AdTech sector during pandemics were disclosed. Conclusions. After the literature analysis, it was concluded that various challenges, which appeared during Covid-19, had affected project managers directly. It eventually created pressure on project managers by requiring them to adjust to changes and impacted their primary duties accordingly. If previous crises showed that analytical point of view, decisiveness, and delegating are essential skills within crisis management, the Covid-19 pandemic increased the necessity for other skills, such as empathy or communication. In this case, an adaptive approach helped project managers become more agile and implement change management within their daily operations. |
