ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a literature review of key concepts used in the prestudy of the research. It starts with a description of how comparatives are made, describes the concepts within the natural-science comparative, and introduces the comparative model. In the field of project management research, comparatives are made mainly through theoretical lenses such as complexity theory, agency theory, stewardship theory, critical point theory, prospect theory, contingency theory, and complex adaptive systems theory. From the literature, there is clearly a need and a benefit in using comparative approaches in the field of project management. Creating a new comparative, as with any other type of analysis, requires that the phenomena be compared and abstracted from a complex reality. The reason for selecting the genotype as a comparative against the progenotype in the social science world is that it allows ideas to be considered that would not be obvious using other methods, and different methods reveal different aspects of a phenomenon.
