John James Marshall thesis.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

engineering and construction (AEC) industry. However, this research is focused
on innovation and building a predictive model of the AEC industry’s technology
adoption behaviour. What is needed is a general understanding of the typical
patterns (if any) that diverse practitioners go through when integrating these
technologies into their practice and whether there is any indication that this
might yield a greater integration between cross-disciplinary fields of enquiry.
Any suitable model would not be categorised by time but rather defined for the
sophistication with which the technologies were integrated within a given
practitioner’s practice. Initially the researcher made a distinction between
modes as ‘passive’ and ‘active’ (Marshall and Pengelly, 2005a). The ‘passive’
mode was considered to represent the initial exposure of the technologies to
practitioners and their mostly superficial use of these. An ‘active’ approach
represented a shift in order of magnitude in the level of engagement and
sophistication with their understanding and command of the technology
involved. Objects produced in an ‘active’ mode would be more experimental in
nature and would have been made purposely to exploit the technology.
However, this dichotomous distinction was considered clumsy and other models
were explored.
In ‘Pathways to Innovation in Digital Culture’ Michael Century (1999) draws on
the work of economist Christopher Freeman who distinguishes four categories
of innovation and their diffusion: incremental innovations, radical innovations,
new technological systems, and changes in techno-economic paradigm.
(Freeman, 1992). Incremental innovation involves gradually improving existing
technologies or processes. Radical innovations deviate from normal or standard
creativity. New technological systems involve the synthesis and combination of
innovations of both prior types. Changes in techno-economic paradigms are
extensive transformations based on innovations that overturn the existing
dominant technology or status quo. The researcher tried to make a system of
distinction based on these categories (Marshall and Pengelly 2005b). However,
this model was an attempt to place too many disparate qualities into relation
with one another and was discarded.
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