Beyond Project Closure: Why Some Business Relationships Recur in Subsequent Projects

Abstract

While a project design provides several managerial advantages within the project life cycle, there are numerous challenges regarding its long-term effects. The aim of this article is to increase our knowledge on the continuity aspect of the project form of organizing, and especially the recurrence of project-based business relationships in subsequent projects. Focusing on the role of network relationships in leveraging between projects, we investigate the reasons for relationship recurrence. Based on a longitudinal case study of three construction projects, our results show that in addition to terminated and dormant relationships after project closure there are recurring relationships, which, unlike the others, do not need reactivation.