Industrial symbiosis in a project-based firm’s relationships
Kankaanpää, Mikael (2025)
2025
Tuotantotalouden DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2025-12-11
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2025121111517
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-2025121111517
Tiivistelmä
Project-based firms face mounting pressure to reconcile large project deliveries with sustainable development and the circular economy transition. This requires moving beyond short-term project goals toward long-term collaborations and strategies that focus on wider impacts and drive systemic change. Industrial symbiosis – collaboration between firms to exchange and share byproducts, resources and knowledge to support efficiency and innovation – represents one such strategy.
While gaining significant academic traction in process-oriented settings and industrial parks, the functioning, value creation dynamics, and relationship management of industrial symbiosis in project business remain poorly understood. This thesis aims to address these gaps by exploring and explaining, (1) what kind of value does a project-based firm create in its industrial symbiosis relationships, and (2) how does a project-based firm manage its relationships within industrial symbiosis.
The study adopts a qualitative design, using a multiple-case approach centered on a large international project-based firm and its two industrial symbiosis relationships. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, and analyzed following an inductive-deductive hybrid thematic analysis approach.
The findings show that the dynamic nature of the project environment leads to more complex value creation mechanisms compared to those typically reported in the literature. Availability and operational continuity emerged as salient economic value creation mechanisms, while economic and environmental value is coupled through supply chain coordination and circular practices. Additionally, knowledge sharing and innovation capabilities were found to be key enablers of value creation. Regarding relationship management, the evidence points to relational governance and practices that support it. The management model is built on existing long-term partnerships and puts emphasis on coordination-oriented contracting, boundary-spanning roles, investments in short mental and physical distance, and institutionalized co-development.
The study contributes to literature by extending industrial symbiosis research into the project business context, highlighting unique and concrete value creation mechanisms and relationship management practices shaped by the structural and dynamic complexity of the project environment. It also introduces indirect value as a central dimension for industrial symbioses and foregrounds availability as a project-specific economic logic. Practically, the findings offer actionable guidance for project-based firms seeking to solve some of the challenges related to combing sustainable development and project business through industrial symbiosis.
While gaining significant academic traction in process-oriented settings and industrial parks, the functioning, value creation dynamics, and relationship management of industrial symbiosis in project business remain poorly understood. This thesis aims to address these gaps by exploring and explaining, (1) what kind of value does a project-based firm create in its industrial symbiosis relationships, and (2) how does a project-based firm manage its relationships within industrial symbiosis.
The study adopts a qualitative design, using a multiple-case approach centered on a large international project-based firm and its two industrial symbiosis relationships. Empirical data was collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis, and analyzed following an inductive-deductive hybrid thematic analysis approach.
The findings show that the dynamic nature of the project environment leads to more complex value creation mechanisms compared to those typically reported in the literature. Availability and operational continuity emerged as salient economic value creation mechanisms, while economic and environmental value is coupled through supply chain coordination and circular practices. Additionally, knowledge sharing and innovation capabilities were found to be key enablers of value creation. Regarding relationship management, the evidence points to relational governance and practices that support it. The management model is built on existing long-term partnerships and puts emphasis on coordination-oriented contracting, boundary-spanning roles, investments in short mental and physical distance, and institutionalized co-development.
The study contributes to literature by extending industrial symbiosis research into the project business context, highlighting unique and concrete value creation mechanisms and relationship management practices shaped by the structural and dynamic complexity of the project environment. It also introduces indirect value as a central dimension for industrial symbioses and foregrounds availability as a project-specific economic logic. Practically, the findings offer actionable guidance for project-based firms seeking to solve some of the challenges related to combing sustainable development and project business through industrial symbiosis.