Collaboration for innovation in the construction sector: key actors and resource allocation decisions

Abstract

The work contained in this thesis has been financially supported by PSIBouw. This support is gratefully acknowledged. i Further, of course, I would like to thank the many firms that participated in the research that led to this thesis. I appreciate the time you took for answering my questions. Finally, I want to thank Margreet, Jannah, Carlijn, my family and my friends for being in my life and making life a great time. Thank you! iii Contents Acknowledgements i List of publications v List of figures vii List of tables viii Chapter 1-Introduction 1.1 Construction: a fragmented sector 1.2 Collaboration for innovation 1.3 A barrier to collaborative innovation 1.4 Field of study: key actors and resource allocation decisions 1.5 Objectives of the thesis 1.6 Four studies 1.7 Outline of the thesis Chapter 2-The role of systems integrators in collaborative innovation in the construction sector (study I) 2.1 Introduction 2.2 A classification of firms in CoPS industries 2.3 Systems integrators in construction industry 2.4 Understanding interorganizational innovation 2.5 Conclusion Chapter 3-Towards a deeper understanding of how champions influence the allocation of resources to collaborative innovation projects (study II) 29 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Previous research on champions 3.3 Method 3.4 The collaborative innovation projects 3.5 The model that emerged 45 3.6 Contributions, limitations and future research 3.7 Conclusion iv Chapter 4-Exploring the value of narrative-based decision theory in understanding the decision to allocate resources to an innovation project (study III) 51 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The NBDT view 53 4.3 A finding from the RBP experiments 56 4.4 Expanding on the underlying mechanism 4.5 Discussion and conclusion Chapter 5-Together on the path to construction innovation: Yet another example of escalation of commitment? (study IV) Chapter 6-Main contributions and implications 85 6.1 Research overview 86 6.2 Summary of the main contributions 6.3 Directions for future research 6.4 Managerial implications 6.5 Conclusion Appendix A-PhD coursework Appendix B-Magnitude of the sunk cost effect in the RBP experiments Appendix C-Survey instrument References Summary Nederlandse samenvatting 131 Curriculum vitae v List of publications The research presented in this thesis led to the following publications.