Manley, K; McFallan, S and Kajewski, S (2009) Relationship between construction firm strategies and innovation outcomes. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 135(8), pp. 764-771. ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Survey results provide a preliminary assessment of the relative contribution of a range of tactical business strategies to innovation performance by firms in the Australian construction industry. Over 1,300 firms were surveyed in 2004, resulting in a response rate of 29%. Respondents were classified as high, medium or low innovators according to an innovation index based on the novelty and impact of their innovations and their adoption of listed technological and organizational advances. The relative significance of 23 business strategies concerning (1) employees; (2) marketing; (3) technology; (4) knowledge; and (5) relationships was examined by determining the extent to which they distinguished high innovators from low innovators. The individual business strategies that most strongly distinguished high innovators were (1) investing in R&D; (2) participating in partnering and alliances on projects; (3) ensuring project learnings are transferred into continuous business processes; (4) monitoring international best practice; and (5) recruiting new graduates. Of the five types of strategies assessed, marketing strategies were the least significant in supporting innovation. The results provide practical guidance to managers in project-based industries wishing to improve their innovation performance.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Australia; business management; innovation |
| Index terms: | business management, survey, construction firm, strategy, business strategy, manager, project-based industry, construction industry, marketing, monitoring, best practice, Australia, innovation performance, partnering |
| Subjects: | practitioner, control systems, data collection methods, business, organization, industry analysis, partnership management, Geography, management, performance measurement |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Site Management, Quality Management, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Geographical Context, Research Practice, Business Strategy |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
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