A new governance approach for multi-firm projects:Lessons from Olkiluoto 3 and Flamanville 3 nuclear power plant projects

摘要

We analyze governance in two contemporary nuclear power plant projects:Olkiluoto 3 (Finland) and Flamanville 3 (France).We suggest that in the governance of large multi-firm projects,any of the prevalent governance approaches that rely on market,hierarchy,or hybrid forms,is not adequate as such.This paper opens up avenues towards a novel theory of governance in large projects by adopting a project network view with multiple networked firms within a single project,and by simultaneously going beyond organizational forms that cut across the traditional firm-market dichotomy.Our analysis suggests four changes in the prevailing perspective towards the governance of large projects.First,there should be a shift from viewing multi-firm projects as hierarchical contract organizations to viewing them as supply networks characterized by a complex and networked organizational structure.Second,there should be a shift in the emphasis of the predominant modes of governance,market and hierarchy towards novel governance approaches that emphasize network-level mechanisms such as self-regulation within the project.Third,there should be a shift from viewing projects as temporary endeavors to viewing projects as short-term events or episodes embedded in the long-term sphere of shared history and expected future activities among the involved actors.Fourth,there should be a shift from the prevailing narrow view of a hierarchical project management system towards an open system view of managing in complex and challenging institutional environments.