The purpose of this research is to enhance the understanding of post-project buyer-seller interaction, a topic previously studied mainly from the perspective of social exchange or sleeping relationships. With the advent of service-intensive projects, however, the dynamics of postproject interaction have changed, demanding a broader theorization. This research extends the scope of project marketing, by proposing a research framework illustrating interaction development in a longitudinal setting. We utilize the framework to analyze three projects, two of which continued for more than a decade, through a qualitative case study. The research provides empirical insight into the interaction orientations and development patterns arising in the postproject stage. It suggests that post-project interaction develops through three main orientations (cooperative development, buyer-led development, and seller-led maintenance) that vary over time, so creating unique development patterns. The study concludes with five practical recommendations for managers to deal with evolving post-project interaction.
Post-project buyer-seller interaction has been studied by the project marketing research stream, but mainly from the perspective of social exchange and sleeping relationships. With the advent of service-intensive projects, however, a whole new breed of post-project business relationships is unfolding and demanding research attention. In this study, we develop a conceptual research framework capable of illustrating the path from the initiation of a relationship through to a project's afterlife. This framework is a step towards a coherent theory of post-project business relationships, and contributes to that area of project marketing research focusing on post-project interaction. By employing a comparative case study approach, we are able to showcase four illustrative post-project relationships in practice and demonstrate their managerial relevance. We see these emerging business relationships as an encouraging avenue for future project marketing research.
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