ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at different definitions of the construction industry, and research around its scope and boundaries within the limits of the standard industrial classification (SIC). The SIC definition of the construction industry captures the on-site activities of contractors and sub-contractors, and industry data on building and construction work is taken to represent the industry. However, the on-site work links suppliers of materials, machinery and equipment, products and components, and all the other inputs required to deliver the buildings and structures that make up the built environment. G. Ive and S. L. Gruneberg used a ‘stages of production’ approach, with the construction industry one part of the process of producing and maintaining the built environment. The construction industry can be depicted in a variety of ways, but emphasizing how the built environment is created and maintained through project initiation, design, fabrication and construction to operation, repair and maintenance is most representative of the built environment sector as a whole.
