Value co-creation in a project setting: A service-dominant logic perspective

Project Management Offices on the client side are challenged to deliver benefits to a variety of stakeholders. Higher education is a very dynamic sector in UK construction and provides the research focus. In 2013–14 around 2.3 million students were enrolled to degrees.  Universities, academic and other, staff, and students are all users. Many studies have shown projects do not meet mandatory objectives. Others do not offer the expected value to the stakeholders. Further, few projects configure design and value propositions to delivery service experience and value beyond the minimum requirements (Smyth, 2015). The Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) offers an alternative perspective to analyse benefits delivery and consider effective benefits for the long run: value-in-use and context. To accomplish this, suppliers work with, rather than for, the client. Using the SDL lens, this study explores value co-creation at the front-end of project management. Value co-creation is seen as a function of both direct interaction and resource integration, especially when both are considered in a pervasive manner, involving the main actors during the procurement stage.Higher Education provides the context where seeing value (co-)creation in projects extends beyond independent input identification at the procurement stage to secure a contract of exchange that is valuable. There are several (joint) value (co-)creation activities that can take place with the client side and supply side at the front-end of project management, the specific focus of this research. Theory and practice are explored at the front-end to assess how value propositions are configured , conceptually through interaction and integration and empirically through “Competitive Dialogue” procedures to evaluate the potential for value realisation in use.  IT projects are considered as part of infrastructure provision in University facilities and lessons for construction projects per se are addressed in conclusion.