ABSTRACT
This chapter has been written for construction industry professionals, and provides information to assist businesses in improving their innovation performance. It focuses on the factors that promote innovation in the built environment at firm, project and industry levels, and is based on data gathered from a large-scale survey of nearly 400 firms in the Australian construction industry conducted in 2004, and 12 in-depth case studies of innovation on Australian construction projects between 2003 and 2005. It was found that firm and project level innovation is driven primarily by the actions of clients and the challenges thrown up by emergent project crises. In the longer term, industry-level innovation is driven by businesses responding to emerging social and economic trends.
