Monahan, J; Coates, R and Clarke-Hagan, D (2014) Overcoming the barriers of green innovation in construction projects through its successful management. In: Raiden, A and Aboagye-Nimo, E (eds.) Proceedings of 30th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2014, Portsmouth, UK.
Abstract
The construction industry has a significant opportunity to mitigate the harmful effects construction has on the natural environment. However, green innovations are far from becoming customary in construction as the industry is recognised as slow to adopt innovation. Consequently, to overcome barriers to the adoption of green innovation, it is important to understand how green innovation is defined and what are the obstacles, drivers and influences that affect how it is successfully managed. Through this research, involving a literature review, the collation and analysis of four semi-structured interviews and 60 questionnaire responses, green innovation can be defined as: a process that aims to maximise performance, while minimising environmental degradation, triggered by the need for a new outcome. The research indicates firstly that green innovation barriers consist of organisational, stakeholder and contractual obstacles and that to overcome these barriers and to increase demand, the industry needs more green innovation information available in order to define the ownership and balance cost and quality. Secondly, green innovation management and its adoption are also affected by the attitude, demographic and cognitive characteristics of the manager concerned. The research also shows that successful management of green innovation can be promoted by a culture that involves the whole project team and the evaluation of the projectÕs management in order to document the success factors. Finally, the formation of a new green contract, or the amendment of the design build procurement path to outline the ownership of risk and the alignment of the construction aims and objectives, will promote green innovation adoption.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | green; innovation; environment; procurement |
| Index terms: | literature review, design build, success factor, interview, environmental degradation, manager, becoming, innovation barrier, innovation adoption, construction industry, project team, innovation management, construction project, questionnaire, ownership |
| Subjects: | philosophical process, industry analysis, production management, economics, contractual arrangements, data analysis and analytics, project delivery, health monitoring assessment and metrics, environmental impact, innovation studies, practitioner, data collection methods |
| Topics: | Health and Safety, Business Strategy, Project Management, Research Practice, Roles and Professions, Sustainability, Procurement, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
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