Commercial management in project‐based organisations

The term commercial management has been used for some time, similarly the job title commercial manager. However, as of yet, little emphasis has been placed on defining. This paper presents the findings from a two‐year research initiative that has compared and contrasted the role of commercial managers from a range of organisations and across industry sectors, as a first step in developing a body of knowledge for commercial. It is argued that there are compelling arguments for considering commercial management, not solely as atask undertaken by commercial managers, but as a discipline in itself: a discipline that, arguably, bridges traditional project management and organisational theories. While the study has established differences in approach and application both between and within industry sectors, it has established sufficient similarity and synergy in practice to identify a specific role of commercial management in project‐based organisations. These similarities encompass contract management and dispute resolution; the divergences include a greater involvement in financial and value management in construction and in bid management in defence/aerospace.