The international marketing of professional service projects: to what extent does territoriality matter?

Many types of commercial professional services are commonly sold as projects. Therefore this article draws on the project marketing literature to elucidate the international marketing of professional service projects. After an initial literature review, the project marketing milieu concept’s a priori territorial definition is critically examined on the basis of cases concerning the internationalization of Nordic architectural firms. It is hypothesized that territoriality plays the biggest role in situations where a firm is moving from one national milieu with well‐established norms, rules, and representations to another national milieu with similarly well‐developed norms, rules, and representations, yet that there also exist global milieux. Managerial implications concerning professional service firms’ preparation for entering a foreign milieu as well as subsidiary or office establishment abroad are provided.