Thuesen, C; Koch, C and Nielsen, J S (2010) Strategy and business development practices in Danish constrution industry SMEs. In: Egbu, C (ed.) Proceedings of 26th Annual ARCOM Conference, 6-8 September 2010, Leeds, UK.
Abstract
The paper presents a qualitative study of strategy and business development practices in Small and Medium Sizes Enterprises (SME) in the Danish construction industry. Theoretically the paper draws upon theories on how strategy is developed and practiced as in integrated part of everyday management practices. 19 qualitative interviews have been conducted in total representing architects, engineering companies, contractors and subcontractors. Based on an in-depth analysis of this empirical material, the study finds: (1) he market is characterized by a typical “red ocean” environment, where the companies compete on their overhead rather than their ability to reduce production cost and create value. (2) the companies have a reactive practice towards development, where they try to follow the development in the market rather than shaping their own market. (3) their approach towards strategy development is characterized by being unstructured, undocumented and non-reflexive. This is interpreted as a sign of unprofessional management practices in the businesses, which reproduces the existing institutionalized division of labour in the construction industry. The paper concludes that business development represents an important but unacknowledged practice for innovation of the building industry and suggests that strategy processes should be facilitated and subject to more detailed research in order to escape the present unhealthy market practices in the construction industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | strategy; business development; innovation; SME |
| Index terms: | building industry, management practice, architect, escape, construction industry, subcontractor, business development, interview, division of labour, production cost, qualitative study, strategy |
| Subjects: | manufacturing engineering, management, emergency and crisis management, business economics, industry analysis, business, research design and methodology, data collection methods, profession, practitioner |
| Topics: | Research Practice, Engineering Principles, Business Strategy, Health and Safety, Roles and Professions |
| 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