The dark side of projects: corruption, sexism, modern slavery, money laundering, inefficient use of resources, and waste of existing assets

The dark side is a complex and interrelated set of illegal and/or unethical phenomena, such as corruption, sexism and waste of resources, hindering sustainability “of” and “by” the project. Despite the relevance of the dark side and its increasing popularity in general management literature, project studies are still relatively silent, vastly ignoring the implications of the dark side of projects. This chapter provides an overview of the dark side, aiming to raise interest and foster further research in the context of project studies. In particular, this chapter presents six areas of the “dark side” of projects: corruption, sexism, modern slavery, money laundering, inefficient use of resources, and waste of existing assets. Furthermore, this chapter provides a research agenda for project scholars interested in studying the dark side of projects.