🤖 AI Summary
This study addresses the persistent problem of cost overruns in mega-projects such as the Olympic Games, which have shown no systematic improvement over time. Drawing on organizational learning and project management theories, the authors analyze Olympic cost data from 1960 to 2024 through historical analysis, comparative case studies, and theoretical modeling. They demonstrate how geographic dispersion, temporal gaps between events, and the transient nature of organizing bodies engender “learning myopia”—a failure to translate tactical experience into strategic institutional improvement. The findings reveal no sustained trend toward better cost control across 64 years of Olympic planning, confirming a breakdown in higher-order learning. To overcome these spatiotemporal barriers, the paper proposes four governance reforms aimed at fostering cumulative knowledge and enhancing institutional design for future mega-projects.
📝 Abstract
Do projects learn across space and time? The Olympics, among the largest publicly funded programmes in the world, offer a unique empirical setting. Theoretically, the Games seem ideal for generating "positive learning curves," driving down costs from one iteration to the next. In practice, they do not. Drawing on the concept of "myopia of learning," we argue that spatiotemporality (geographic distance, temporal gaps, and the temporary organisational form of each host committee) combines to block higher-level learning. Our analysis of cost overruns from 1960 to 2024 reveals no sustained improvement over 64 years. Tactical learning abounds, but none aggregates into strategic improvement. We propose four strategies for overcoming the spatiotemporal barrier (incremental, centralising, decentralising, and real options), arguing that radical reform is required.
