From conflict to crisis in collaborative NPD

While manufacturer–supplier co-development of projects can contribute shared knowledge and expertise, such commitment also presents managerial challenges, particularly where crisis threatens the entire project. This paper explores how crisis is manifested, amplified, handled, and its outcomes in two longitudinal case studies, one between a food manufacturer and its packaging supplier and another between a window manufacturer and its software supplier. The analysis, the first to focus on co-development crisis, results in a better understanding of crisis episodes and in propositions around the crisis management challenges in co-developing new product projects.     

The reluctance of construction purchasers towards project partnering

While the literature argues that there are several benefits for construction purchasers who join forces to co-develop the project with contractors and to increase cooperation between the various project stakeholders (construction partnering), little research has been done on the reasons for the lack of extensive diffusion of such methods in the construction industry. This paper aims at understanding the rationale behind the reluctance of construction purchasers for this coordination mechanism in France. In particular the paper investigates the impact of the characteristics of the project but also of the characteristics of the purchasing companies in their project procurement behaviour. The findings reveal that the characteristics of the purchasing companies in terms of purchasing strategy, structure and culture seem more explanatory of their procurement behaviour than of the project characteristics. The paper suggests that the lack of diffusion and understanding of construction partnering may be due to the resistance of purchasers who feel threatened by the structural changes it involves in their purchasing habits.     

Service specification in pre-tender phase of public procurement - A triadic model of meaningful involvement

The purpose of this research is to define the actor roles and collaborative practices that are central to service specification co-development in relation to the pre-tender phase of public procurement. We propose a new model of meaningful stakeholder involvement in the context of public service specification as a triadic setting. In addition to the theoretical value, the proposed model guides public procurement units on how to define their roles as intermediaries and to design a service specification process involving internal customers and providers of a service. The approach adopted highlights the meaningfulness of involvement by referring to the types of cooperative roles and practices that are both suitable for the situation and well understood and implemented by the cooperative parties. Service specification co-development is defined as a triadic setting involving buyers, service providers, and internal customers. This study consists of two longitudinal empirical public procurement cases viewed with the aid of a theoretical framework drawn from the general involvement and public-sector-specific involvement literature. Managerial implications relate to involving stakeholders early in the process, focusing on value creating activities, and sharing relevant information throughout the pre-tender phase.     

Co-development as a marketing strategy in the construction industry

This paper deals with a specific issue in project marketing, namely project co-development, presented as a relational and cooperative form of exchange in the project network. It endeavours to find out under what conditions project co-development is considered as a viable marketing strategy as opposed to competitive bidding. A model is developed, which is then used to analyze two cases of project co-development in the construction industry. Of the two cases, one is a successful case and the other is a failure case. This enabled us to analyze factors and conditions that can lead to a successful co-development strategy. Factors such as, project complexity, conflicting objectives, lack of compatibility, lack of trust and commitment and lack of coherence between the budget and the objectives turned out to influence a co-development strategy. The role played by the key decision-makers (project manager) also influenced the success/failure of co-development strategy.