Integrating Commercial and Delivery Functions in Project-Based Organizations: A Conceptual Model of the Revenue–Delivery Gap

This paper develops a conceptual framework for understanding the revenue-delivery gap in project-based organizations. There have been extensive studies on the topic of alignment of sales and marketing, sales and project management, and project governance. However, these approaches based on dyads give only fragmented insights into systemic misalignment that occurs during the project cycle. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new theoretical framework, namely, the Strategic Integration Model (SIM). It provides a comprehensive approach to the problem of misalignment by viewing it from a triadic perspective as an information-processing failure that results from the interplay of value formation (through marketing), commitment negotiation (by sales), and delivery execution (project management). In this study, information processing theory, differentiation-integration theory, service-dominant logic, and project governance theory have been used to formulate five mechanisms for explaining how value formation affects commitment negotiation and delivery execution. The current study proposes the concept of strategic integration that explores the relationship between commercialization and delivery domains and provides a framework for future empirical research on the topic. Based on an integrative method of theory building, which involves reviewing relevant literature, the Strategic Integration Model (SIM) is developed as a means of reconciling marketing, sales, and project management functions.