Why clear managerial recommendations matter in major projects research: Searching for relevance in practice

•This essay celebrates Peter Morris’ legacy on major projects and how his work inspired generations of researchers.•The overwhelming perception of industrial partners is that they cannot use the research findings to address their own challenges in major projects.•Major projects research needs to shift towards an impact driven agenda, actively proposing the solutions to improve the performance of major and megaprojects.•Academics need to articulate the managerial recommendations in a direct and unambiguous manner, what needs to be done to implement the findings, how, when, and by whom.•Project Management journals could create a mandatory Managerial Summary section, to be available together with the Abstract in open access.