ABSTRACT

The construction industry is currently experiencing accelerating developments concerning societal demands along with project complexity, internationalization and digitalization. In an attempt to grasp the consequences of these demands on productivity and innovation, this edited book addresses how innovation is likely to take place with a more long-term perspective on the construction sector.

While existing literature focuses on organizational discontinuity and fragmentation as the main reasons for the apparent lack of innovation in the industry, this book highlights the connectivity of construction actors, resources and activities as fundamental for understanding how innovation takes place.Through 15 empirically grounded chapters, the book shows how innovation is part of construction processes on various levels, including project, firm and industry, and that these innovation processes are characterized by organizational and technological connectivity over time.

Written by European business management scholars, the chapters cover empirical cases and examples from both a multi-organizational and a multi-international perspective in terms of covering the viewpoints of different industry actors and the contexts of several different European countries including: Sweden, Norway, the UK, Italy, France, Hungary and Poland. By illustrating how connectivity is part of innovation processes in the creation of single-product innovations, of various innovations within and across projects, as well as a fundamental aspect of the processes in which innovations cross nations, the book provides a new angle on how to understand construction innovation and where the industry might (or needs to) be heading next.

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in construction management, project management, engineering management, innovation studies, business and management studies.

chapter 1|10 pages

In pursuit of a new understanding of innovation in the construction industry

The significance of connectivity
ByMalena Ingemansson Havenvid, Åse Linné, Lena E. Bygballe, Chris Harty

chapter 2|21 pages

Forming innovative projects in sustainable construction

How socio-technical connectivity shapes the building project and its context
ByMårten Hugosson, Kristin Stevik, Per Søberg, Kjell Tryggestad

chapter 3|20 pages

The use of technology and its effect on innovation

The case of BIM in the New Karolinska Solna Hospital project
ByÅse Linné

chapter 4|16 pages

Entrepreneurial innovation in the construction sector

ByWill Hughes, Lars Stehn

chapter 5|26 pages

Construction logistics innovation

Tracing connectivity from activity interdependencies
ByKajsa Hulthén, Viktoria Sundquist

chapter 6|32 pages

Cross-fertilization between construction and clinical actors

The dynamics of health care construction projects
ByAlessandra Tzannis, Silvia Biraghi, Rossella C. Gambetti

chapter 7|17 pages

Innovation among project islands

A question of handling interdependencies through bridging
ByMalena Ingemansson Havenvid, Lena E. Bygballe, Håkan Håkansson

chapter 8|30 pages

Construction projects as vehicles for health care innovation?

ByJudit Simon, Balázs Révész, Tibor Mandják, Zsuzsanna Szalkai, Erzsébet Hetesi

chapter 9|26 pages

Innovation in strategic capabilities of municipal clients

Some evidence from a Swedish case study
ByMårten Hugosson, Tomas Nord

chapter 10|22 pages

Organising communities for construction innovation

Examples from the French and Swedish construction sectors
ByFlorence Crespin-Mazet, Malena Ingemansson Havenvid, Åse Linné

chapter 11|21 pages

The connectivity of domestic and international actors in product innovation

The case of Polish windows manufacturing
ByMilena Ratajczak-Mrozek

chapter 12|25 pages

Narratives of innovation that address climate change agenda in the construction sector

ByNatalya Sergeeva, Carmel Lindkvist

chapter 13|17 pages

Activity systems and innovation in project-based production

The case of construction
ByFinn Orstavik

chapter 14|14 pages

Tracing the connectivity of innovation in construction across time and space

ByMalena Ingemansson Havenvid, Åse Linné, Lena E. Bygballe, Chris Harty