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project case at the level of the individual project and a Danish-German professional
service project case at the level of multiple projects. It is concluded that project managers
and marketers should focus their attention on the management of project relationships
before, during, and after projects, as well as on relevant environmental factors in the
project marketing milieu, instead of using resources on sporadic or last minute running
after potential projects.
Introduction
International business Project operations are one of the dominating modes of international business
today today (Hadjikhani, 1996), as the ``products'' of industrial companies
increasingly exhibit project-like features (GuÈnter and Bonaccorsi, 1996).
This is due to the increased complexity and ``systemization'' of the offerings
of many international companies. This implies that industrial marketers have
to develop their capabilities in supplying ever more complex ``total
solutions'' that include both tangible (products) and intangible (services)
aspects (e.g. GroÈnroos, 1997). Thus, it is not surprising that projects, project
management, and project marketing have recently received increased
scholarly attention (see e.g. the project management special issue of
Scandinavian Journal of Management, 1995; the project marketing and
systems selling issue of International Business Review, 1996; Hadjikhani,
1998).
There is also an issue-based research group called the International Network
for Project Marketing and System Selling or INPM (Cova and Ghauri, 1996;
GuÈnter and Bonaccorsi, 1996; Skaates, 2000). Closely affiliated with the
IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) community of researchers, the
INPM's research emphasizes the role of relationships and networks of
relationships in project marketing.
In the 1990s, relationship marketing and management were established as
key areas of research (Gummesson, 1999; GroÈnroos, 1997). However,
JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL MARKETING, VOL. 17 NO. 5 2002, pp. 389-406, # MCB UP LIMITED, 0885-8624, DOI 10.1108/08858620210439068 389
variations in project marketing relationships and situations have not yet been
studied systematically or in detail (cf. Hadjikhani, 1996; 1998; Skaates,
2000). Therefore this article analyzes the management of relationships and
networks at two separate levels, first focusing upon the level of individual
projects (AlajoutsijaÈrvi, 1996). Thereafter the emphasis shifts to the level of
multiple projects (AlajoutsijaÈrvi, 1996), which encompasses relationship
development and maintenaince during a (longer) period of multiple project
activity, including possible periods in which there are no projects. At both
levels, the aim of the article is to illustrate the relevance of the project
marketer's awareness of the project marketing milieu (Cova et al., 1996) and
important relationships, as well as his or her identification of potentially
relevant actors in the project marketing milieu. It is proposed that the
management of relationships at both levels influences project marketing
success defined as the acquisition of subsequent projects.
Multiple projects The article is structured as follows: First, main project marketing concepts
are defined, and key characteristics related to managing relationships in
project business are examined. Second, a turnkey project ± a Finnish-Chinese
technology transfer project ± is used to illustrate the importance of
inter-organizational relationship management during a complex individual
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organizations
The level of informal Informal networks, Circles of friends/ Informal public sector
collectives e.g. within firms or relatives, ethnic networks
industries groups, social classes,
political cliques, etc.
Source: Tikkanen and Lindblom, 1998
Supplementary data, i.e. annual reports, minutes from meetings, and export
statistics, were acquired from other sources to enable data triangulation (see
Silverman, 1993; Marshall and Rossmann, 1989).
buyer's negotiators, the agent, the bank's representatives, and the warrantor
were involved in the detailed negotiations. During this phase, the scope of
the solution, the equipment, guarantees, and training of Chinese employees
were agreed upon. Negotiations finished with the signing of the contract. The
units presented in Figure 3 participated in the negotiations.
project team delivered the needed equipment and materials to the site.
FINSYS' project team in Europe also sent orders to subcontractors and
arranged for their delivery to the site. Chinese contractors set up the plant in
accordance with FINSYS' instructions. The buyer's employees were trained
by FINSYS' employees in China and in Europe, where a training course for a
Chinese delegation was held. When the plant was ready to run, the
equipment was checked and tested for commercial use, then handed over to
the buyer. The project network in the implementation phase is presented in
Figure 4.
Case analysis
In this section, the relationship dynamics of the FINSYS case are analyzed.
With regard to governmental actors (see Table I), the Chinese government
was involved in the first phase, as they decided on law-related issues.
Community actors, on the other hand, never played any role. Concerning
business actors, the agent's role was extremely strong during the first three
phases of the project. After these phases, when FINSYS was familiar with
the project's milieu, it was less strong. FINSYS China and FINSYS Europe's
marketing and sales were strongly involved in the project until the end of the
third phase. The project management team and the project organization were
committed to the project during the implementation phase. Their role was to
deliver and implement as promised. The involvement of the guarantee
engineer was key in the transition phase, which also was the longest
individual phase in real time. Furthermore, the actions of the guarantee
engineer probably affected the customer's final perception of the project
measurably, as he was the person to whom it had its final contacts.
Buyer-seller interaction As is evident from the above and Figure 6 below, no single actor from
FINSYS was involved throughout the project nor was the buyer-seller
interaction limited to a single level of Figure 1. From a project marketing
Notes
1. One possible exception is professional service partial projects, e.g. the supply of design,
planning, and/or engineering services.
2. To ensure anonymity, all firm names have been changed in this article.
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