Revisiting the adoption of innovative products on Australian road infrastructure projects

Abstract

Construction product innovation can exert a positive influence on project and industry performance. However, guidance is scarce on product innovation diffusion for road infrastructure, in contrast to the large body of literature on the manufacturing industry. A conceptual framework is proposed to understand these processes. Advice is given to managers based on the framework and a large quantitative survey. The framework focuses on contextual characteristics that influence the decision to adopt new-to-industry product innovation, as part of a diffusion process. Case study data are interpreted within the revised framework to test its value and disaggregate the broad obstacles to innovation. A large quantitative survey was then conducted to rank the relative importance of the obstacles constraining the adoption of innovative products on road construction projects. The three most important obstacles were found to be: (1) overemphasis on up-front project costs during tender stage; (2) disagreement over who carries the risk of new product failure; and (3) adversarial contract relations. The results suggest refinements to the conceptual framework to make it a more powerful tool for categorizing and analysing construction innovation obstacles. Results also suggest well-resourced repeat interactions within complementary procurement and regulatory systems will enhance the project teams' ability to recognize and address innovation obstacles. Further, improved relationships are expected to decrease the need for an overly conservative approach to product approval and prescriptive specifications.

Integrating contractor and property developer for product system innovations

“…Hartmann’s (2006) interviewees mentioned that there had to be a clearly visible added value for an (external) client, given the additional costs and risks associated with the innovation. Rose and Manley (2014) in their Australian study of road infrastructure project innovations also found that disagreements about risk allocation for new product failure were a major obstacle to innovation. For creating a sustainable built environment and exploiting the opportunities of engaging financial stakeholders (Lützkendorf et al ., 2011), it must be recognized that these are risk-conscious, and they may still lack the necessary practical experience of the reliability as well as the costs of construction and usage for new sustainable technologies.…”

Client’s role in promoting BIM implementation and innovation in construction

“…Thus, the fragmentation between project-actors and difficulties in coordinating actors are considered to hamper innovation in the construction context (Egan 1998, Dulaimi et al 2002. Moreover, construction is a heavily regulated environment that is suggested to inhibit innovative solutions in projects (Hartmann 2006, Rose andManley 2014).…”

Psychological Contracts: Framework for Relationships in Construction Procurement

“…It was suggested that opportunism moderates commitment. There is much that catalogues the adversarial nature of the construction industry; for example, a review of the Scopus database identified several examples (e.g., Boukendour and Hughes 2014;Eriksson 2010;Rose and Manley 2014;Smiley et al 2014).…”