Construction Innovation: Information, Process, Management

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address an aspect of the innovation process leading to manufactured construction, which is often ignored, namely the organizational changes that necessarily accompany major innovations such as manufactured construction, calling for systemic organizational design.

Design/methodology/approach – The information for the case histories was obtained over a number of years by embedded research, where the researcher played an essential role in the projects described, thus allowing access to unpublished information. This observation-based information was compared to other cases reported in the literature or about which knowledge was obtained though other means, enabling analytical generalizations to be drawn.

Findings – Results confirm the initial expectations. In a context of minimum state intervention, e.g. through mechanisms of market aggregation (in UK and the USA for example), namely where the internal forces of the building sector act upon each participant (including manufactured construction innovators), the design of an appropriate organization with its accompanying novel relationships is essential.

Originality/value – This paper makes it possible to show that contemporary manufactured construction innovators should recognize the importance of up front organizational design as a co-requisite for technical design. This phase is often overlooked, exposing the innovator to unnecessary risks.