Innovation in Construction A Project Life Cycle Approach

The findings reveal that the major innovators areviewed as the suppliers, followed by the designers,clients (Table 7). Being in the fifth place, contractorswould appear to believe, that in comparative terms,they do not perform well. The results support the ideathat suppliers act as key driver of technical innovationin the construction industry, since they invest far morein R&D than contractors or consultants and thereforemore likely to develop product innovations (Gann,1997). The result is perhaps also interesting in termsof what it reveals about the mindsets of the contractorssurveyed. The previous question revealed thatcontractors believe that they are good at organisationalinnovation and waste and energy reduction, yet despitethis they do not feel that they contribute to innovationas much as suppliers, designers, clients and consultants.The question remains is this because these four typesof organisations are outperforming them in terms ofinnovation or is it because the types of innovation(product/material) from suppliers and designers areviewed as more significant than the more processoriented innovation typical of a contractor. In the samevein, it is also interesting also to note that end usersand facility managers are not viewed as significantactors in the innovation process despite the fact thatclient satisfaction and improvement of services are citedin the subsequent question as two of the major benefitsof innovation. This would seem to indicate a mindsetwithin the industry that still views innovation from atechnology push rather than a user pullperspective despite the growing recognition in theliterature of the importance of service driven innovation(Barrett, 2007) and the evidence from elsewhere inthis survey that client/end user pull is a more significantdriver of innovation.The role of different participants in stimulating andachieving innovation will be revisited in the followingcase study section.Benefits/impacts of innovation:By obtaining a better idea of the expected benefitsof innovation, we can improve our understanding ofwhy a company would choose to innovate and how itmight measure its success. Outputs of innovation aretraditionally measured by patent or trademarkapplications. However, modern construction companieslargely function and innovate by the quality of theirprocesses, the people operating them and the wayin which they change and adapt to suit the changingbusiness environment. Developing on Henderson andClark (1990), Slaughter (1998) presented five modelsof construction innovation categorised as incremental,modular, architectural, system and radical, which canprovide a basis upon which companies can select andimplement the innovations. Incremental innovation is asmall change, based upon current knowledge and experience,whereas a radical innovation is a breakthrough inscience or technology that often changes the characterand nature of an industry.Table 9: Innovation benefits/impactsTo what extent does your organisation derive the followingoutcomes of innovation (1-5)?Outcomes of innovationMeanBetter company image 4.7Improvement of services 4.4Improvement of client satisfaction 4.4Improvement of product quality 4.4Improvement of processes 4.3Increase in technical capability 4.3Increase in organizational effectiveness 4.2New services 4.1New products 4.1New processes 4.1Market penetration and growth 4.0Revenue growth due to new productsor services 3.8Short and long-term profitability 3.8Improvement of organizational structure 3.6Improvement of human resources 3.6Intellectual property (patents,trademarks, designs) 3.513