Exploring the drivers of firm‐level innovation in the construction industry

Abstract

A survey of 335 businesses in the Australian road industry has been carried out to ascertain those factors that make firms innovate. 'Innovative' is measured by adoption rates of advanced technologies and practices, and the range of innovation drivers reviewed encompasses business strategy and environment. The findings indicate that business strategies are more important than business conditions, and that the following three strategies are significant in differentiating between firms with high and low adoption rates: (1) hiring new graduates; (2) introducing new technologies; and (3) enhancing technical capabilities. The findings also highlight the importance of undertaking R&D and encouraging employee ideas for improvement. The public policy implications are that the quality of university graduates should be protected and advanced, as should technical skills within public sector client agencies.

Relationship between Construction Firm Strategies and Innovation Outcomes

“…Firstly, the study confirms the main finding in Manley and McFallan (2006) that 'recruiting new graduates' is critical to supporting innovation activity within construction firms. In that study, this business strategy was one of only three out of 18 strategies that were significant in differentiating between high and low adopters of technological and organizational advances in the road sector (that study identified fewer significant business strategies than the current study because the distinction between high and low adopters was less pronounced than the distinction between high and low innovators here).…”

“…The survey contained questions about 23 business strategies in five categories: (1) employees, (2) technology, (3) marketing, (4) knowledge and (5) relationships. The categories encompassed all of those considered in the three studies discussed earlier (Seaden et al 2003;Manley and McFallan 2006;Drejer and Vinding 2006). The 23 individual strategies listed in Table 1, and the 19 innovative advances listed below, were identified in these earlier studies and/or by senior managers participating in industry workshops held in Brisbane, Australia, in 2002 and.…”

Managing geotechnical risk on US design-build transport projects

“…The fact that 71% of the experienced agencies included geotechnical ATCs in their DB projects testifies to the effectiveness of this particular practice. An Australian study found that the "road industry had the greatest propensity to invest in [research]… [and was] able to expertly judge the value of innovation ideas proposed by the industry" (Manley and McFallan, 2006), which validates the US observations in Figure 1. ATC procedures typically include the use of confidential "one-on-one" meetings with each competitor where, in addition to offering ATCs, the DB team can also seek clarifications of RFP content.…”

Implementation of critical success factors in construction research and development process

“…Selecting a competent team during the initiation phase and having a skilled team during the conceptualizing and development phases obtained ranks below 7 (Refer to Table 4) indicating they are not given sufficient implementation/consideration during construction R&D process. Similarly, having a multi-skilled team in order for a construction organization to be innovative was not given much attention in the study carried out by Manley and McFallan (2006).…”