ABSTRACT
Construction firms are being increasingly challenged to successfully innovate in order to satisfy the aspirations and needs of society and clients, while at the same time improving their competitiveness in dynamic and abrasive markets. The Egan report laments that ‘too many of the industry’s clients are dissatisfied with its overall performance’ (Egan, 1998: Paragraph 3), and proposes that the necessary service or product improvement and company profitability can be realised through innovations to enhance leadership, customer focus, integrated processes and teams, quality and commitment to people (Egan, 1998: Paragraph 17). The substantial contribution that small construction firms make to the output of the industry, as identified in Chapter 1, signifies the importance for this body of firms to improve their innovation performance if the performance of the industry as a whole is to move forward.
