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New business models, such as life‐cycle contracting, challenge the narrow and static understanding of contracts with hard and precise terms. The aim of this paper is to examine how flexibility could be incorporated into contracting processes.

The data of the paper have been gathered applying the triangular method; first, by interviewing key personnel participating in contracting at eight Finnish firms; second, examining contract and other documents of those companies; and third, studying earlier research on contracting practices. Theoretically, the paper is based on relational contract and proactive approaches to law on the one hand and on organizational studies based on new institutional economics on the other.

Flexibility is often introduced to contracts with relational methods, relying on good personal relationships between business partners or negotiation power and negotiation skills. Contract documents often do not contain mechanisms for dealing with contingencies, or “soft” contract terms. The paper finds the following reasons that may explain this. First, firms heavily rely on model contracts to develop their own templates and the lack of contract models in new business areas hinders firms to develop their templates. Second, unfamiliarity with using soft elements makes it difficult to use them. Additionally, in some cases firms may prefer using relational capability.

The findings need verification from further multidisciplinary empirical research.

The findings support firms in developing their contracting capabilities to meet the requirements of the changing business environment and gain competitive advantage from well‐organized contracting.

This paper is one of the first empirical studies comprising also the legal approach.

This paper describes factors influencing doctor‐managers' decision making in specialised health care, health centres and at different levels of management.

Data were collected as part of a survey on physicians graduating in 1977‐1991 as drawn from the register of the Finnish Medical Association. The study sample was formed by selecting all physicians born on odd days (n=4,144) from the baseline group (n=8,232). The category of doctor‐managers comprised physicians reporting as their main occupation: principal or assistant principal physician of hospital, medical director or principal physician of health centre, senior ward physician of hospital, and health centre physician in charge of a population area.

Independent of gender, all doctor‐managers responding to the survey reported that the most important base for decision making was personal professional experience. Position in organisation (first‐line manager, principal physician) had no impact on the base of decision making. Doctor‐managers in primary health care utilised knowledge on norms and knowledge available from their organisation in support of their decision making to a greater degree compared with doctor‐managers in specialised health care.

Evolution discourse from public administration is not yet receiving much response in Finnish doctor‐managers' activities, instead, they still act as clinicians.

Facing the growing challenges of the future, the paper shows that doctor‐managers should reconstruct their orientation and to act more like managers.