Organizing in the context of global project-based firm—The case of sales–operations interface

Abstract

Dr. Jaakko Kujala is professor of project and quality management at the University of Oulu, Finland, and adjunct professor at the Aalto University. His current research interests include contextual variables in project business, business models of project-based firms, and project stakeholder management. He has published over 100 reviewed research papers, books or book chapters for example in International Journal of Project Management, Scandinavian Journal of Management and Industrial Marketing Management. Dr. Karlos Artto is a professor of project business at the Aalto University, Finland and the leader of the Project Business research group (PB). His current research interests include project business, business models of global project-based firms, governance of large and networked projects, project strategy and risk management, and new paradigms in project risk management. He has published more than 100 academic papers, book chapters and books on project business and management of project-based firms. Research highlights:-We address integration of the sales and operations interface in global project-based firms.-We elaborate the information processing model for this integration in the context of global project based firm.-We provide empirical illustrations for this integration by presenting data from three case projects.-We conclude that integration of these functions in the firm's organization is managed differently depending on the project phase.-We conclude that the differing use of integration mechanisms across project phases is associated with contextual variables. AbstractIn this paper we study the cross-functional integration of project sales and project operationstwo crucial functions when conducting business in global project-based firms. In particular we address contextual factors that are associated with integration needs among project sales and operations functions across project phases and report on how integration is managed across phases in three global projects with different contextual conditions. Using Galbraith's (1973) and Tushman & Nadler's (1978) model of the organization as an information processing system as our theoretical lens, we develop a set of propositions drawn from the general arguments of the theory and illustrated by these observations. The proposed theory underlying these propositions begins to explain how the contextual variables drive the use of different cross-functional integration mechanisms for sales and operations across project phases in global project-based firms.Subsequent research focusing on these and other key functions that require integration in different project phases can begin to validate and further elaborate this contingent framework for crossfunctional integration in global project-based firms.

Managing project-to-project and project-to-organization interfaces in programs: Organizational integration in a global operations expansion program

“…Our study provides complementary knowledge on another type of "platform program" (Gray and Bamford, 1999) and its management. Developing understanding on management of programs in the global context is considered critical as it poses significant additional managerial challenges Orr et al, 2011;Turkulainen et al, 2013).…”

“…Even though the final outcome of this kind of program to establish and expand global operations may sometimes look like comprising multiple similar facilities located around the globe, the firm can only enhance the value of its plant network by managing it as a whole (Cheng et al, 2011;Ferdows, 1997;Nohria and Ghoshal, 1997). The global nature of this kind of endeavor requires bringing together and integration of multiple organizational units and geographies in a completely new context, posing significant managerial challenges Orr et al, 2011;Turkulainen et al, 2013).…”

“…Moreover, the geographically distributed nature of global operations expansion programs increases the integration challenges (Orr et al, 2011;Turkulainen et al, 2013). In programs, integration is especially critical in two interfaces: project-to-project and project-to-organization (Lehtonen and Martinsuo, 2009).…”

Information management for the internationalization of SMEs: An exploratory study based on a strategic alignment perspective

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Multi-objective IT Project Selection Model for Improving SME Strategy Deployment

“…These models have been used to study the relationship between business strategy, structure, IT strategy and IT structure [15], [16]. Moreover, the alignment between information requirements and information processing capacity has been underlying the objective of great number of researchers [17][18][19][20].…”