Vásquez-Hernández, A.; Pellicer, E.; Alarcón, L. F. and Tzortzopoulos, P. (2026) Typologies of industrialized construction adoption: Configurations in conventional construction firms. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 152(7): 04026093, ISSN 0733-9364
Abstract
Research on industrialized construction (IC) has predominantly focused on either the manufacturer's role at the system or component level, emphasizing off-site production technologies, or, when addressing the building level, on vertically integrated industrialized construction firms (ICFs) that fully control design, manufacturing, and assembly. This emphasis has generated valuable insights into integration and modularization but has left limited understanding of how conventional construction firms (CCFs) - developers and general contractors operating in decentralized production networks - adopt IC within their existing technical systems. This study aims to characterize the technical strategies through which CCFs adopt IC and to identify empirical configurations of IC adoption across different national contexts. Using an abductive multiphase research design, a characterization framework was developed and empirically validated through application to 29 firms in Chile, Spain, and the UK. Principal component analysis and k-means clustering revealed six distinct technical configurations representing alternative strategies of IC adoption. These configurations demonstrate that IC in CCFs is not linear but can emerge through diverse combinations of six analytical dimensions: impact on the main production line, systematicity and sourcing structure, design coordination, extent of adoption, level of predefinition, and the relationship between design predefinition and supply chain transfer. The study makes three contributions to the body of knowledge: (1) conceptually, it reframes IC adoption as a set of configurational production strategies, challenging linear models of industrialization; (2) analytically, it provides a replicable framework and typology for comparative research; and (3) practically, it offers a diagnostic tool enabling firms and policymakers to identify viable pathways toward adoption within decentralized production networks.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | design coordination; industrialized construction adoption; interorganizational networks; predefinition; site-to-supply chain transfer |
| Index terms: | integration, configuration, body of knowledge, industrialized construction, manufacturer, strategy, comparative research, industrialization, general contractor, construction firm, modularization, principal component analysis, off-site production, clustering, dimension, Chile, coordination, production strategy, interorganizational, Spain, research design |
| Subjects: | health monitoring assessment and metrics, data science, research design and methodology, business, organizational analysis, statistical analysis, systems engineering, management, knowledge management, organization, construction type, practitioner, building construction, manufacturing engineering, economic development, Geography |
| Topics: | Geographical Context, Engineering Principles, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Digital Applications, Organizational Design, Research Practice, Information Management, Business Strategy, Construction Technology, Roles and Professions |
| Descriptive scope: | 3 PCA |
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