Improving business performance in multi-company projects through 'cooperative power': presentation of a collaborative tool model

Increasing global competition drives most industries to search for competitive advantages and continuous process improvement. Through a three-year research project we found that the competitive advantage of multi-company projects lies in the ability to make a shift from the competitiveness and performance of the autonomous firm to the competitiveness and performance of the value chain of firms. Nearly all important indicators and measurements of profit and efficiency were linked to the performance of the firm and the traditional business worldview strongly emphasises competitive power. There is little mention of the flip side of the coin, which is cooperative power. The purpose of this paper is to improve business performance in projects by understanding the concept 'cooperative power' and what conditions influence projects organisational problems. As we found no literature on how to practically implement cooperative power, we developed a practical model which companies can use in projects in the future to improve performance. The empirical results are based on an extensive literature study, interviews, project presentations and focus group work in 14 companies.