Title: A paucity of person's perceived power within industrial project sales

Authors: Harri Ryynänen; Risto T. Salminen; Olli Pekkarinen

Addresses: Department of Industrial Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' Department of Industrial Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland ' Department of Industrial Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, FI-53851 Lappeenranta, Finland

Abstract: A person's mental structures are found to be the root of a person's actions, and are thus linked to the higher performance outcomes of the organisation. This paper focuses on increasing the understanding of the person's perceived power in the early phases of the project sales process, examining persons' perceived power in a single case in which a large international company is selling a project. The study contributes to the research on project business by illustrating a person's perceived power within industrial project sales. We suggest that during the early phases of the project sales process, the persons involved in the sales process perceive their own power to be lesser than that of others, although their interest in the project is equal to that of the others. In addition, we claim that the exiguity of perceived power during project sales impacts the person's decision making and communication.

Keywords: power; network pictures; mental models; project business; project sales; project management; case study; Russia; empirical research; qualitative research.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2013.056682

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2013 Vol.15 No.3, pp.356 - 371

Published online: 27 Dec 2013 *

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