“It's your fault!” – said a public client to modernity advocates: an exploration of UK public sector’s viewpoints on the modern methods of construction
Abstract
Purpose
The staggering demand for construction projects to meet a spectrum of public needs is projected to outstrip the industry’s supply capability. The modern methods of construction (MMC) offers wider control due to shifting key construction processes offsite. Public clients play a significant role due to their purchasing power; however, their uptake of MMC is low, despite the benefits. The purpose of this study is to reveal the reasoning behind such low adoption. The research gap, herewith, is our lack of understanding of the influence of public clients perceptions on their adoption’s indecision.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a qualitative approach to investigate the motives behind the public sector’s low MMC adoption. Semi-structured interviews with 14 of the United Kingdom’s public sector decision-makers, industry leaders and experts have been conducted. Perspectives were argued against the diffusion of innovation (DOI) theory.
Findings
Overall, the innovation’s attributes informed the authors of the positive perceptions from the public sector, demonstrating that the low adoption of MMC is not linked to any embedded issues with the innovation itself rather being predominantly related to the dynamics between supply and demand. The former (supply), reflected a failure in communicating confidence, and the latter (demand), attained characteristics that are limiting wider uptake.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to apply the DOI theory to reveal the relationship between UK public clients’ perceptions and their decision-making. Moreover, this paper addresses the scant attention to the use of theories to explain the flow of innovations in the construction context.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is conducted through the financial support of YORhub, as part of a PhD sponsorship to investigate how the Modern Methods of Construction can be better deployed and adopted within the UK public sector. The author would also like to thank all participants for agreeing to take part in the relative lengthy interviews.
Citation
Saad, A.M., Zulu, S.L. and Dulaimi, M. (2023), "“It's your fault!” – said a public client to modernity advocates: an exploration of UK public sector’s viewpoints on the modern methods of construction", Construction Innovation, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/CI-11-2022-0282
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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