Opportunity management in large projects: a case study of an infrastructure alliance project

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore how to identify and manage opportunities successfully in a large multi-organizational infrastructure project. Large projects struggle with exploiting and capturing opportunities because of the lack of practices that support active and continuous opportunity management over the project lifecycle in inter-organizational project networks.

Design/methodology/approach

This study provides empirical evidence of a successful opportunity management process based on an investigation of an infrastructure alliance project. The adopted research approach is an inductive case study.

Findings

By analyzing an infrastructure alliance project, this paper identifies key activities of opportunity management and furthermore, discusses the enablers of active and continuous opportunity management.

Practical implications

This study supports practitioners by providing knowledge about the possibilities and activities that could be deployed during the project lifecycle to improve opportunity management process and about the enablers – factors that facilitate alliance partners’ capabilities to manage opportunities.

Originality/value

There is limited empirical research on the practices of opportunity management that support continuous, active opportunity management in inter-organizational project contexts, although multidisciplinary project networks have possibilities for taking advantage of opportunities that emerge over the project lifecycle.

Citation

Hietajärvi, A.-M., Aaltonen, K. and Haapasalo, H. (2017), "Opportunity management in large projects: a case study of an infrastructure alliance project", Construction Innovation, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 340-362. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-10-2016-0051