Vanguard projects as relay races: A historical case study on the building of Eurocan pulp and paper mill, 1965–1970

•We focus on interaction amongst actors involved in a vanguard project.•We apply historical case study method on Enso's building of Eurocan paper mill, 1965–1970.•We find that vanguard projects are characterised by a high degree of actor heterogeneity.•We find that the centrality of actors tend to vary across the vanguard project life-cycle.•We find that vanguard projects are particularly prone to external influences.