استراتژی بازاریابی یک شرکت مبتنی بر پروژه : چارچوب چهار پرتفوی

The purpose of this paper is to address the simultaneous management of multiple business relationships and multiple projects in the marketing strategy of the project-based firm. The research question is: How can the essence and interdependencies between the portfolios of relationships and projects be conceptualized as the marketing strategy of a project-based firm? We address this question by constructing a framework including two portfolios of relationships and two portfolios of projects, and by discussing how these portfolios may be interrelated. Combining the approaches of relationship management in project marketing on the one hand and the management of project portfolios on the other contributes a novel viewpoint to project marketing.

As many companies adopt project-oriented working methods in their businesses, a new paradigm concerning a project-based firm and project business has developed. A project-based firm uses external delivery projects for its business purposes (Artto and Wikström, 2005, Söderlund, 2004 and Turner and Keegan, 2001). The central features of project business have been identified in the uniqueness of individual projects, the complexity of the project offering and business network, the discontinuity of demand and business relationships between projects, and the considerable extent of financial commitment of the parties (Cova et al., 2002, Mandják and Veres, 1998 and Tikkanen, 1998). In the strategic management of project business, relationships with customers and other partners are important (Owusu, 2003 and Skaates et al., 2002). Relationships with customers provide the supplier with an opportunity for future business: customers use their relationships and knowledge on potential suppliers when inviting suppliers to tender a project. A supplier wants to reach a status of being a potential candidate for future projects and puts resources in marketing and relationship building. The strategic objective of the supplier is to create, maintain and manage multiple relationships that enable or support the construction of future demand for projects (Cova and Hoskins, 1997 and Cova et al., 1993). In a similar manner, the supplier creates and maintains multiple non-project-specific relationships with potential sub-suppliers in order to guarantee the effective sales and delivery of projects. From a strategic perspective, the marketing of a project-based firm thus focuses on the management of a firm's multiple relationships in a network of business and non-business actors (Skaates and Tikkanen, 2003 and Cova et al., 1996). In other words, the project-based firm develops a complex portfolio of relationships to customers, suppliers, financiers and other relevant network partners. In extant literature on relationships and networks, the business network of the firm is often divided into distinct sub-portfolios such as the customer or supplier relationship portfolios. Research on the management of multiple relationships in project marketing literature introduces a wide array of issues to help achieve success in the business of project-based firms. Relationship management is considered as a foremost strategic issue that contributes to individual projects and their management. However, extant project marketing literature does not specifically address how the management of multiple relationships at the level of the firm relates to the simultaneous management of multiple projects – or project portfolios. Combining the approaches of relationship management in project marketing on the one hand and the management of project portfolios on the other contributes a novel viewpoint to project marketing. The strategic management of multiple projects is addressed by the recent project portfolio management literature. It puts a practical-oriented managerial emphasis on the theme of strategy implementation with multiple projects. The studies by Cooper et al., 1997a, Cooper et al., 1997b, Cooper et al., 1998a and Cooper et al., 1998b, Archer and Ghasemzadeh (1999), McDonough and Spital (2003), and Aalto, Martinsuo, and Artto (2003) all provide a good overview of the current status of the project portfolio management research. According to this research, the strategic alignment of project entities occurs through decisions made on the basis of focusing on the whole portfolio of projects rather than on decisions made separately for individual projects. Introducing strategy to portfolio decision-making is one important objective in these suggested applications. Allocating scarce resources to projects is a central issue. Project management research has thus attempted to address the area of strategic management through multiple projects. However, project management research has not yet succeeded in identifying and addressing all issues that would be important in strategy implementation with multiple projects in a real-life business context. Instead, extant project management research often addresses rather practical and concrete decision support and other tools that relate to strategy implementation. As far as the marketing strategy of a project-based firm is concerned, such tools are not always at the core of marketing strategy implementation from a relationship management viewpoint. There is a clear need for combining the relationship and project management approaches since both units of analysis are central and interconnected from a practical project business viewpoint. The purpose of this paper is to address the simultaneous management of multiple business relationships and multiple projects in the marketing strategy of the project-based firm. We argue that the main managerial challenge is how to manage interdependencies between relationship portfolios on the one hand and project portfolios on the other. Optimizing individual portfolios does not automatically lead to the optimization of the overall business performance. The research question of this study is: How can the essence and interdependencies between the portfolios of relationships and projects be conceptualized as the marketing strategy of a project-based firm? We address this question by constructing a framework including two portfolios of relationships and two portfolios of projects, and by discussing how these portfolios may be interrelated in practice. This is a conceptual paper with an explorative aim. The framework includes what we identify as the most central elements of the marketing strategy of a project-based firm. The research lines focusing on relationships and networks in project marketing on the one hand and project portfolio management on the other are capitalized upon as the theoretical background of the paper. Essentially, our framework is a content framework that highlights the most central managerial issues and challenges related to the marketing strategy of the project-based firm. In this way, it complements process frameworks designed to model the marketing process of individual projects (e.g. Cova et al., 1993 and Holstius, 1989).

We argue that the management of the four managerial portfolios and interrelationships between them constitute the foremost conceptual and managerial challenge for researchers and managers. In essence, managers need to understand the essence of the four portfolios and their interrelationships. Moreover, they need to manage them systematically as a coherent marketing strategy that is in line with the higher-level corporate strategy. Obviously, the management of the four portfolios in the framework may be more or less systematic depending on the level of sophistication of the company's management. On the other hand, actions and outcomes may also emerge autonomously as a result of the systemic consequences of different organizational configurations, in this case the four managerial portfolios and their interrelationships. The actualization of any outcomes (e.g. success in the sale of a project, good financial performance or organizational growth) is thus dependent on the systemic properties of the marketing strategy, i.e. the Four Portfolios as a whole and how well it fits with the business environment for project-based company. The marketing strategy of a project-based firm is developed through a dialectical process, in which all of the ‘components’ are in interplay with each other (cf. Lewin & Volberda, 1999). In other words, lessons of the past and expectations for the future influence the firm's marketing strategy and its evolution. The primary contribution of this paper is the conceptual definition of the scope of the marketing strategy of a project-based firm. The explicit definition of the marketing strategy is also of utmost importance when an organization faces significant changes in its business environment and/or business logic. On the other hand, our framework may also help understand the essence and challenges of project-based business on a general level. This may be relevant, for instance, for investors who traditionally consider the business of project-based firms as fuzzy and risky. Our conceptual framework can simultaneously be considered as a managerial tool for practitioners in project-based companies which in a novel way highlights central managerial issues in implementing marketing strategy. The empirical application of the Four Portfolios Framework in project-based firms in different industries and target countries would provide the most relevant avenue for future research. Our framework may be useful in providing explanations why some project-based firms are successful and others fail in different situations and contexts.