Vines, M P and Egbu, C O (2004) Readiness assessment process protocol for e-business initiatives in construction organisations. In: Khosrowshahi, F (ed.) Proceedings of 20th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2004, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry is a fragmented one, with any one supply chain comprising of temporary coalition of multiple organisations that are usually based in multiple locations. E-business is being increasingly recognised as an effective means of integrating this temporary coalition of organisations and their business processes to effect product conception, design and delivery in a seamless way and improve product value. It can also enable multiple organisations in the supply chain to effectively combine their organisational knowledge assets as a "unitary organisation" to successfully lead to effective project outcome. Organisations in other industries like manufacturing, automotive and the financial sector have already benefited from implementing e-business initiatives in their business processes. Therefore construction organisations may wish to consider and exploit best practice from these industries; with a view to adopting/adapting this into their own business needs to provide innovative strategies to improve organisational performance. This paper will present and discuss a framework for a simple e-business readiness assessment process protocol, which is part of an on-going doctoral programme that is intended to guide construction organisations who are considering e-business initiatives in their business process. It will particularly highlight the issues of organisational culture, structure and business strategy, knowledge management initiatives and choice of technology and integration of supply chain at each phase of the e-business readiness assessment. The paper concludes that an established and on-going knowledge management strategy is vital for the success of any e-business initiatives in construction organisations. This area of work has limited empirical work done, so there is ample scope for more work in this area.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | culture; e-business; construction; knowledge management; readiness assessment process protocol |
| Index terms: | business strategy, strategy, project outcome, programme, construction organization, construction industry, e-business, knowledge management, organizational culture, best practice, integration, readiness assessment, organizational performance |
| Subjects: | professional development, performance measurement, management, industry analysis, sociology, project controls, organizational analysis, project completion, organization, business, risk assessment, digital commerce |
| Topics: | Organizational Design, Time Control, Quality Management, Digital Applications, Risk Management, Project Management, Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy |
| 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