From project value creation to firm-level appropriation: Who captures economic value, and under what conditions?

Projects create value for multiple stakeholders, yet project management research offers limited insight into how this value is converted into economic value appropriated by project-based firms and their stakeholders. Drawing on the Value Creation and Appropriation framework, we develop an accounting-based approach to measure stakeholder value appropriation over time and apply it longitudinally to project-based firms in Finland and Sweden. The findings show that economic value is neither automatically nor evenly appropriated by the focal firm but varies across stakeholder groups and institutional and procurement contexts. Customer appropriation can decline while firms protect appropriation by employees and strategic suppliers. The study links project-level value creation with firm-level economic value appropriation, showing that creation and appropriation can diverge across stakeholders and that stable appropriation by critical stakeholders during turbulent periods may indicate organizational resilience and stakeholder buffering. The study extends the Value Creation and Appropriation framework to project-based firms and provides a replicable longitudinal approach to analyzing value appropriation.