Exploring the underlying dynamics of buyer-seller interaction in project afterlife

Abstract The marketing view of a business relationship that follows the handover of a project reflects an era before services became common in the industry. At that time, business relationships were assumed to end after project handover, especially in commercial terms. Since then, services have become an integral part of project business, enabling the emergence of a post-project business relationship. It can be validly argued that the literature has not sufficiently recognized the changing practices of project-based companies. Obviously, a business exchange can outlive a project handover, but the consequences for buyer-seller interaction remain unexplored. This study describes and explains the underlying dynamics of buyer-seller interaction in project afterlife. Interaction is considered to be an inherently dynamic process that is dependent on a continuous yet variable exchange of services. The theoretical foundation of this study builds on the literature on interaction and networks as well as the literature on project marketing and management. The empirical part of the study is conducted as a combination of single and multiple qualitative case studies in five different project contexts: content management systems, windmills, mining, engineered wood solutions, and paper machines. Eighty-two personal interviews provide the primary data. This study comprises an overview and four individual papers that contribute to a process-based understanding of post-project interaction. The study primarily contributes to the project marketing research. First, the results indicate that buyer-seller interaction varies between three extreme orientations, making the development of a post-project business relationship inherently dynamic and challenging to manage. Second, the study expands theory regarding post-project interaction by describing four typical relationships in service-intensive projects. Third, the study extends the theoretical lens of project marketing and provides analytical tools to examine post-project interaction. Fourth, the study clarifies the role of key individuals in mediating change in post-project nets. Fifth, the study identifies several intergroup tensions that restrain interaction and proposes methods to overcome these tensions.Tiivistelmä Markkinoinnin näkemys projektitoimituksen jälkeisestä liikesuhteesta perustuu pääosin aikaan ennen teollisuusyritysten palveluliiketoiminnan yleistymistä, jolloin liikesuhteen uskottiin päättyvän varsinkin taloudellisessa mielessä. Palveluliiketoiminta on kehittynyt osaksi projektiyritysten liiketoimintaa, mikä mahdollistaa liikesuhteen jatkumisen projektitoimituksen jälkeen. Voi perustellusti väittää, että alan kirjallisuus ei ole riittävästi tunnistanut yritysten muuttuneita käytäntöjä. Tästä syystä tarvitaan lisää tutkimusta palveluintensiivisten projektiyritysten liikesuhteista projektien jälkeisissä vaiheissa. Yritysten liikesuhteet muuttuvat dynaamisesti ja vaikka palveluvaihdanta on jatkuvaa, sen sisältö vaihtelee ajan kuluessa. Tämän tutkimuksen lähtökohta on kuvata ja selittää erilaisten yhteistoimintojen ja sidosten jatkumista yritysten välillä. Tutkimuksen teoreettinen tausta koostuu projektimarkkinoinnin ja projektijohtamisen kirjallisuudesta, joiden taustat ovat pääosin teollisten liikesuhteiden tutkimuksessa. Laadullisen tapaustutkimuksen empiirinen osio on toteutettu viidessä eri projektikontekstissa, joita ovat tuulivoima, kaivosala, paperikone, sisällönhallintajärjestelmä ja jalostettu puuteollisuus. Pääaineisto koostuu 82 haastattelusta. Tämä tutkimus koostuu johdanto-osiosta ja neljästä tutkimuspaperista, joiden tuloksena on prosessipohjainen viitekehys liikesuhteen kehityksestä. Tulokset ovat merkittäviä erityisesti projektimarkkinoinnin näkökulmasta, sillä ne osoittavat asiakkaan ja myyjän välisen vuorovaikutuksen vaihtelevan kolmen äärityypin välillä tehden liikesuhteen kehityksestä dynaamisen ja vaikeasti johdettavan. Tutkimus laajentaa näkemystä projektitoimituksen jälkeisestä vaihdannasta tunnistamalla neljä palveluvaihdantaan pohjautuvaa suhdetyyppiä. Lisäksi tutkimus kehittää työkaluja projektitoimitusten jälkeisten liikesuhteiden analyysiin ja laajentaa projektimarkkinoinnin teoreettista pohjaa. Tutkimus selventää myös avainhenkilöiden toimintaa projektitoimituksen jälkeisissä lähiverkoissa ja tunnistaa keinoja, joilla liikesuhdetta rasittavia henkilöiden välisiä jännitteitä voidaan välttää

At the temporary-permanent interface:overcoming knowledge boundaries with boundary objects

Abstract There is no shortage of literature on managing complex projects. However, we lack an understanding of projects in which the complexity goes beyond technical, financial and time-related challenges. We report on two Nordic business school accreditation projects, where the major management challenge is the knowledge boundaries institutionalized deep into the ethos of the schools. We focus on the project team’s use of boundary objects — a communication device across social groups — to expose and overcome knowledge boundaries materializing at temporary-permanent interface. We identify three progressively more challenging boundary object uses: informative, interactive and integrative. Consequently, we suggest a dynamic approach to boundary objects wherein their use evolves throughout the project life span as a consequence of the lived “in situ” experiences

Business relationships in the industrial network literature:three approaches and their underlying assumptions

Abstract The industrial network literature contains underlying assumptions about the nature of business relationships. We use change as a vehicle to unearth these assumptions and conduct a systematic review of change in business relationships in the industrial network literature. We identify three approaches to business relationships: agency, structure and practice. Our research contributes to the industrial network literature by explicating how change in business relationships is derived implicitly from what people do, the surrounding structures, or the logic underlying their action. This research helps provide construct clarity by elaborating the key assumptions and key constructs of the three approaches as well their implications for business relationships research

The social impact of the Nokia-Elcoteq business relationship:examining the consequences of legitimating relationship norms

Abstract The process through which social impact occurs in business relationships has largely remained unexamined. In this paper, we draw on relational contracting theory to examine relationship norms and the social impact of their legitimation. Our data consist of 27 years of historical secondary data about the business relationship between Nokia and its subcontracting partner Elcoteq (1984–2011). We reveal how the legitimation of the role integrity and contractual solidarity norms causes social impact within this relationship and how harmonization with the social matrix norm leads to social impact both within and outside of the relationship. As a result, we introduce a concept network view of social impact. This concept thus contributes to the business relationship literature by conceptualizing the ripple effect of one business relationship on a connected network

Using a ‘lens’ to re-search business markets, relationships and networks:tensions, challenges and possibilities

Abstract In this research, we wish to address the tension tucked away in scholarly work: the simultaneous need to break in and break out of academic communities and their ways of thinking. More precisely, we are interested in social re-search (i.e., searching again) processes and how scholars authenticate their research within an established cultural convention. For that purpose, we focus on the use of the term ‘lens’, which is omnipresent in research texts but rarely defined. Upon completing an integrative literature review and considering the embeddedness of a lens in culture, language, research communities and our ontological assumptions, we define a ‘research lens’ as a sociocultural representation and tool that helps to negotiate our scientific interpretation of the world. Our contribution to industrial marketing stems from surfacing and discussing four uses of a lens evident in the industrial marketing literature, introducing a metaphorical lens as a way to reform knowledge, and finally exemplifying how our lens tends to either mirror, reflect, symbolize or mirage the contours of our world without our full awareness of it