Forced Business Relationships and Evolving Roles in Construction Projects

What is the dissertation about?

Construction projects are often complex, with many actors that must be coordinated simultaneously. To improve efficiency and reduce disruptions, municipalities and developers increasingly hire a dedicated logistics actor to coordinate logistics, material flows, and transportation during construction. This is a relatively new type of actor in construction projects. In my dissertation, I study what happens when such an actor is not only a support function but a mandatory part of the project. Contractors must then collaborate with the logistics actor, whether they want to or not. I examine how these forced collaborations affect responsibility, roles, and relationships between actors in construction projects. It turns out that it’s about much more than logistics.

Why did you become interested in the topic?

I began researching construction logistics based on questions about productivity and efficiency. The construction industry has long been compared with other sectors where logistics and supply chain management have led to significant improvements. From that perspective, logistics actors were introduced into construction projects. But as the work progressed, it became clear that the truly interesting question was not only whether logistics improved or how logistics actors contributed to more efficient construction projects, but what happens organizationally when a new actor is introduced into the project and takes over parts of the contractor’s traditional responsibilities. When the collaboration is also mandatory, new tensions arise.

What are the most important findings?

One important finding is that the logistics actor influences much more than just transport and deliveries. They affect how work is organized, how different actors collaborate, and how dependencies between contractors are managed. I also show that roles are not fixed. They are shaped and reshaped over time. The logistics actor can evolve from a practical coordinator to a mediator between actors, and sometimes even be perceived as a limiting or competing party. Another key finding is that coordination in construction projects is primarily shaped by daily interaction, negotiation, and adaptation rather than by formal rules alone.

Was anything surprising?

Yes, the decisive importance of relationships. Even a well-designed logistics solution can function very differently depending on how the actors perceive one another. The logistics actor can be seen as a necessary coordinator or as a disruptive control function. It is very much about legitimacy and trust. How these are built through daily interactions matters more than one might think.

Who benefits from your findings? What type of impact might they have?

In practice, the results are relevant to municipalities and developers that implement mandatory construction logistics solutions, contractors who must work within these systems, and logistics companies operating in or seeking to enter the construction sector. The dissertation shows that it is not enough to design a logistical structure or introduce new rules. One must also understand how relationships, responsibilities, and power dynamics are affected when new actors are given formal roles in the project.

But the impact is not only practical. Academically, the study contributes to research on supply chain management in construction by demonstrating how coordination develops in project-based, loosely coupled networks. It also deepens understanding of coopetition—how cooperation and competition can coexist in relationships that are not voluntary but forced. On a broader level, the dissertation addresses how new organizational solutions function in practice. This is relevant beyond the construction sector, as many industries face similar challenges when new actors or governance models are introduced to increase efficiency and sustainability.

What will you do after the defense / where can you be reached?

I will continue working with questions related to organization and coordination at the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), where I have been employed for 1.5 years. There, I study similar issues in a different context, connected to total defense and societal security—highly relevant in today’s security policy environment.