Holmen, E; Veen, B v d and Dorée, A G (2002) Inter-organizational relationships in construction: Present lack of consensus and inspiration for further research. In: Greenwood, D (ed.) Proceedings of 18th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2002, Northumbria, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry is often portrayed as a traditional industry, segregated, low on integration, innovation and profitability, and plagued by adversarial relationships. There seems to be quite some consensus on the necessity to change "something" in construction relationships. This is paralleled by studies of business markets that put the inter-organizational relationships into focus; i.e. the supply chain and network perspectives. Recent analyses and publications concerning construction industry frequently acknowledge the scope and benefits of the interaction and interplay between organizations. Various authors have argued that in order to improve the nature of relationships between actors within this industry should be redefined. However, when we look at the way relationships in construction are presented in various publications, there seems to be only little consensus on whether there are relationships or not and, thereby, what constitutes a relationship. To understand this lack of consensus, we may get inspiration from looking at the way in which research into inter-organizational relationships has evolved in various perspectives which, for decades, have tried to capture the nature of such relationships. Furthermore, we may try to understand the diversity by means of a "feature-inventory" and use this as a point of departure for furthering understanding of relationships in construction.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | inter-organizational relationship; network; concept diversity; feature inventory |
| Index terms: | integration, profitability, markets, construction industry, interaction, publication, inventory |
| Subjects: | inventory management, organizational analysis, behavioral psychology, industry analysis, research dissemination and communication, economic analysis |
| Topics: | Information Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCT |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here