Ertugral, Z A E (2017) Understanding radical innovation: A case example from the Turkish housing market. In: Chan, P W and Neilson, C J (eds.) Proceedings of 33rd Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2017, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK.
Abstract
Product differentiation is among the essentials of meeting customer needs and gaining competitive advantage over the rivals in highly dynamic markets, while efficient management of the design processes in accordance with corporate strategies is key to successful outcomes. This paper focuses on the innovative business and design initiative of a Turkish company, NEF, which introduced the concept of Foldhome© to the housing market. NEF describes this patented concept as “ensuring the inclusion of all rooms, which cannot fit into one house, by means of folding.” Foldhome© allows the users and their guests to access various spaces and facilities on a 'pay-per-use' basis, in addition to using their standard accommodation units. Foldhome©'s radical departure from the status quo in a conservative industry, along with its attractive potential for further innovation suggests that it can be classified as a radical design and business innovation in the housing sector. Synthesizing data from interviews with senior managers, from academic literature and the mass media, the paper presents the story of Foldhome© from idea generation to execution and the measurement of value delivery as part of an integrated innovation process. The resource based view (RBV) of the firm provides the theoretical framework for the strategic analysis of Foldhome©. Considering that NEF has sold more than 3,000 units in 2014 as a sector leader and reached a significantly high customer satisfaction and return on investment, Foldhome© experience as a successful innovation might be of interest to a larger audience including developers, designers, builders and other construction professionals, in addition to researchers who are interested in the resource-based theories of competitive advantage in the building industry.
| Item Type: | Conference Paper (Paper) |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | innovation; resource-based view; strategic entrepreneurship; Turkish housing sector; foldhome. |
| Index terms: | housing, strategic analysis, markets, entrepreneurship, customer satisfaction, return on investment, media, construction professional, building industry, builder, resource-based theory, designer, resource-based view, corporate strategy, design process, product differentiation, competitive advantage, interview, manager, folding |
| Subjects: | economic analysis, practitioner, design methods, business, data collection methods, profession, construction type, industry analysis, sociology, market analysis, professional development, service delivery, material properties and characteristics, management |
| Topics: | Governance, Construction Technology, Stakeholder Management, Roles and Professions, Construction Materials, Information Management, Research Practice, Business Strategy, Design Practice |
| 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