Abstract
The aim of this paper is to identify mechanisms at play in the development of cooperation in industries characterized by a high level of purchase discontinuity. The paper concentrates on the construction industry.<br /><br /> In the construction industry adversarial relationships between actors (customers, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers,..) are usually the rule on specific projects such as real estate projects, construction of plants,… Several factors favor this kind of opportunistic behavior: the existing purchasing procedures based on competitive tendering, the industry fragmentation, the uniqueness of construction as a product, the distinction between design and execution, and the specific role of consultants….The crisis that this industry went through in the 90s’ led to huge competition between actors which in turn led to increased opportunism. This generated negative consequences such as difficulties for the main contractor to foresee the profitability on a given project, frequent cost and schedule overruns, confrontation and claims. Faced with these problems important changes occurred in the French construction industry at the end of the 90s’. Main contractors attempted to implement new modes of relationships with customers.<br /><br /> This paper is based on a case study. It analyzes the evolution of a relationship between a main contractor (SBP) and two subsidiaries (DRESS and CLOTH) of the same customer group over a 9 years period. During this period, the main contractor changes its offering (including more pre-sale services, consultancy and feasibility studies when defining and designing the project) and the way to involve the customer in the management of the project (similar to the way traditional industry such as the automotive manages project with suppliers). The objective is to interact with each customer as soon as a project emerges in the customer organization. This anticipative approach aims at allowing the contractor to limit (or to avoid) the scope of the call for tender (highly uncertain), to bring more value to the customer and to have a better predictability on each project profitability.<br /><br /> The empirical study focuses on 7 projects (warehouse) with DRESS and CLOTH (SPB has been awarded 5 projects). Projects after projects the s/c relationship moves from an arm’s length approach (call for tender and lowest price bid, distinction between design phase and execution phase), to a cooperative and partnerial approach (no distinction between design phase and execution phase which are managed by the same company in relation with the customer). As a consequence of these changes, the nature of the relationships between the main contractor and the subcontractors and suppliers also evolve and become more cooperative. Because actors are involved in several relationships, the more connections an actor has, the greater its learning opportunities. Taking a Market as Network perspective, we suggest 4 elements explaining the learning process: the individual project, the succession of projects in a given relationship (multi project perspective), the experience transferred between two interconnected relationships (DRESS and CLOTH are two subsidiaries of the same group), the developments generated on several projects in other s/c relationships.