Managing inter-organizational networks for value creation in the front-end of projects

•A single-case study examines the front-end of a health care campus project•The study identifies management activities for network-based value creation.•The management activities are novel to front-end management for value creation.•A framework depicts connection between activities and network attributes.

Projects involve inter-organizational networks that are central to collaborative project-based value creation. Interest in value creation in the project lifecycle is mounting, and the front-end stage of projects is gaining increasing attention in the research literature. However, little is known about how network management activities facilitate value creation in the front-end and how such activities push a project toward higher end-states of value. The purpose of this research is to identify activities that facilitate the development of inter-organizational networks and augment value creation among multiple organizations in the front-end of projects. To this end, we conduct a qualitative empirical case study of the front-end of a health care campus development project. We identify four activities and five network attributes that explain how inter-organizational network can be managed for value creation in the front-end of the project. These findings contribute to research on management of the front-end of projects and management of inter-organizational networks in projects.