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We examine the role of metaphors in relation to Web-based phenomena through a comparative study of 29 Web portals, established under a World Bank project known as the Development Gateway. Our analysis suggests that three metaphors -expert, market and community -are particularly significant across these portals, either separately or in combination. The study indicates three particular ways in which these metaphors can combinemerging, masquerading and morphing. We conclude by discussing the implications of using metaphor to understand how practitioners design Web portals and how users engage with them.

PurposeThe study analyses collaborative practice in offsite manufacturing (OSM) housing supply chains, focusing specifically on supply chains driven by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The study’s analysis builds on previous work where we argued that collaboration in OSM housing construction comprises nine elements. In this study, the authors demonstrate empirically that SMEs enact these collaborative practice elements in distinct ways, foregrounding key elements over others. One core model and two sub-models of collaboration emerge from our two case studies.Design/methodology/approachThe study analyses two SME-driven supply chains using qualitative case study techniques. Data were gathered through 12 semi-structured interviews conducted in two housing construction supply chains: one in South Australia, Australia, and another in Tasmania, Australia.FindingsA comparative case study of SMEs shows that collaboration in OSM supply chains has a number of common elements, including a champion for innovation, investment in long-term relationships, resourceful use of limited assets and physical co-location. However, SMEs can also enact these elements through a range of diverging collaborative strategies that can be distilled into different models: stable relationality and dynamic innovation.Originality/valueFindings provide a compelling empirical basis for arguing that SMEs can successfully lead OSM supply chains if key collaborative practice elements are strategically mobilised in ways that are suited to their strengths and limitations. The study therefore interrogates the widely held and often limiting assumption that OSM can only be driven by large organisations with access to capital assets, capacity to invest and undisputed bargaining power.

Building information modelling (BIM) has considerable potential for addressing sustainability issues in construction, but its benefits can be constrained by the failure to adopt BIM across the full project life cycle. Systematic whole-of-life BIM adoption can be supported by maturity models, but most models are limited by a lack of theoretical grounding, socio-technical dichotomies and the failure to adequately consider the full asset life cycle, often by overlooking the operations phase. This study aims to (1) develop a BIM maturity model that addresses these limitations by (2) using an in-depth analysis of an early adopter case study, thus addressing the lack of empirical research in BIM adoption experiences. A single interpretive research study was conducted to qualitatively analyse a US-based university. The data were gathered through interviews, field visits and document analysis. Actor–network theory (ANT) concepts scaffolded the analytical approach. The findings show that a complex BIM socio-technical network emerged, developed and converged during the project management stage but struggled to achieve durability as an ongoing solution to facilities management. By analysing the elements of success and failure across each stage, the researchers distilled five key lessons to achieve whole-of-life BIM maturity and proposed a life cycle BIM maturity model (LCBMM) supported by a practice guide.

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Abstract. In this study we explore how knowledge produced on the Internet can reflect objectivist or subjectivist views. These different views shape participation dynamics in the knowledge production process in ways that are bound up with power. To explore these issues, we conducted a comparative case study of websites under the Development Gateway, an initiative launched by the World Bank in 2001. We examined how objective knowledge is associated with tightly controlled processes of knowledge production dominated by an elite that limits electronic participation, while subjective knowledge is associated with processes characterized by more inclusiveness, polyvocality and (qualified) egalitarianism.

Purpose Current understandings of innovation in construction portray it as linear, deterministic phenomena centered around novel objects and technologies deployed in sequentially-organized supply chains. This study aims to develop an enriched understanding of construction innovation as non-linear, socio-material and dynamic phenomena in complex networks by formulating a novel conceptual apparatus of complex adaptive supply networks (CASNs) expanded through actor-network theory (ANT) concepts. Design/methodology/approach This combined CASN/ANT apparatus is mobilized in the context of a qualitative case study involving a housing construction supply network in Australia making use of offsite manufacturing (OSM) techniques. Findings The study shows that innovative technologies such as novel OSM products can play an important though not necessarily deterministic role in the evolution of CASNs. The study also explicates the process by which the enrollment of non-human agents and the resulting CASN evolution are linked: innovative technologies shape human and non-human interactions in ways that redefine task delegation, role definition and schemas that are fundamental to the shape of CASNs. Originality/value Findings provide a compelling empirical basis for arguing that CASNs must be conceptualized as heterogeneous systems and that innovation in construction must be understood as non-linear, socio-material and dynamic, rather than linear and driven by technological determinism. The study also interrogates limiting notions of supply chains and supports the notion of alternative inter-organizational forms to understand construction project work.

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