IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/respol/v37y2008i10p1751-1764.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Against the odds: Small firms in Australia successfully introducing new technology on construction projects

Author

Listed:
  • Manley, Karen

Abstract

The methods by which small firms overcome the disadvantages of their size to implement innovation on construction projects are examined here through five Australian case studies. It is found that such methods include working with advanced clients, prioritising relationship-building strategies and using patents to protect intellectual property. Key obstacles to innovation implementation by small firms on construction projects are found to be bias in the allocation of government business assistance and regulatory inefficiencies under federal systems of government. The study's findings derive from a theoretical framework which emphasises firm capabilities and environment, and innovation typologies. Further research is recommended into the impact of government assistance and regulation on small innovative construction firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Manley, Karen, 2008. "Against the odds: Small firms in Australia successfully introducing new technology on construction projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 1751-1764, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:37:y:2008:i:10:p:1751-1764
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048-7333(08)00183-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin Sexton & Peter Barrett, 2003. "Appropriate innovation in small construction firms," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 623-633.
    2. David J. TEECE, 2008. "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: The Transfer And Licensing Of Know-How And Intellectual Property Understanding the Multinational Enterprise in the Modern World, chapter 5, pages 67-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Andreas Hartmann, 2006. "The context of innovation management in construction firms," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(6), pages 567-578.
    4. Roine Leiringer, 2006. "Technological innovation in PPPs: incentives, opportunities and actions," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 301-308.
    5. Patricia Hillebrandt, 2006. "Letter to the Editor," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 669-670.
    6. George Seaden & Michael Guolla & Jerome Doutriaux & John Nash, 2003. "Strategic decisions and innovation in construction firms," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 603-612.
    7. Ana M. Moreno & José C. Casillas, 2007. "High-growth SMEs versus non-high-growth SMEs: a discriminant analysis," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(1), pages 69-88, January.
    8. Peter Barrett & Lucinda Barrett, 2003. "Research as a kaleidoscope on practice," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 755-766.
    9. Cohen, Wesley M & Klepper, Steven, 1996. "A Reprise of Size and R&D," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 106(437), pages 925-951, July.
    10. Gann, David M. & Salter, Ammon J., 2000. "Innovation in project-based, service-enhanced firms: the construction of complex products and systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 955-972, August.
    11. Toke Reichstein & Ammon Salter & David Gann, 2005. "Last among equals: a comparison of innovation in construction, services and manufacturing in the UK," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 631-644.
    12. Karen Manley, 2006. "The innovation competence of repeat public sector clients in the Australian construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(12), pages 1295-1304.
    13. C. H. Nam & C. B. Tatum, 1997. "Leaders and champions for construction innovation," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(3), pages 259-270.
    14. Martin Sexton & Peter Barrett, 2003. "A literature synthesis of innovation in small construction firms: insights, ambiguities and questions," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 613-622.
    15. Barlow, James, 2000. "Innovation and learning in complex offshore construction projects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 973-989, August.
    16. Florence Yean Yng Ling, 2003. "Managing the implementation of construction innovations," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 635-649.
    17. Karen Manley & Steve Mcfallan, 2006. "Exploring the drivers of firm-level innovation in the construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(9), pages 911-920.
    18. Graham Winch, 2003. "How innovative is construction? Comparing aggregated data on construction innovation and other sectors - a case of apples and pears," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 651-654.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Baul Lee & Seung-Kook Park, 2022. "A Study on the Competitiveness for the Diffusion of Smart Technology of Construction Industry in the Era of 4th Industrial Revolution," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    2. José Giménez & Antonia Madrid-Guijarro & Antonio Duréndez, 2019. "Competitive Capabilities for the Innovation and Performance of Spanish Construction Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-24, October.
    3. Satu Reijonen & Rebecca Pinheiro-Croisel, 2012. "The dynamics of innovation influents: contracts and sustainable energy innovation uptake," Post-Print halshs-00743386, HAL.
    4. Volkan Ezcan & Jack Steven Goulding, 2022. "Offsite Sustainability—Disentangling the Rhetoric through Informed Mindset Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-27, April.
    5. Osabutey, Ellis L.C. & Williams, Karen & Debrah, Yaw A., 2014. "The potential for technology and knowledge transfers between foreign and local firms: A study of the construction industry in Ghana," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 560-571.
    6. Martínez-Román, Juan A. & Gamero, Javier & Tamayo, Juan A. & Delgado-González, Loreto, 2020. "Empirical analysis of organizational archetypes based on generation and adoption of knowledge and technologies," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 96.
    7. Ozer, Muammer, 2009. "The roles of product lead-users and product experts in new product evaluation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1340-1349, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jan Bröchner, 2010. "Innovation in Construction," Chapters, in: Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), The Handbook of Innovation and Services, chapter 31, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Fabian Unterlass, 2010. "Innovation im Bauwesen. Determinanten des Innovationsverhaltens österreichischer Bauunternehmen," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 83(9), pages 767-780, September.
    3. Butzin, Anna & Rehfeld, Dieter, 2008. "Innovationsbiographien in der Bauwirtschaft," Forschung Aktuell 10/2008, Institut Arbeit und Technik (IAT), Westfälische Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences.
    4. Scharmann, Anne, 2024. "Innovation collaboration between family firms and startups: Insights from the German construction industry," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 9(2), pages 1384-1413.
    5. José Giménez & Antonia Madrid-Guijarro & Antonio Duréndez, 2019. "Competitive Capabilities for the Innovation and Performance of Spanish Construction Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-24, October.
    6. Hao Lu & Pardis Pishdad-Bozorgi & Guangbin Wang & Yingxia Xue & Dan Tan, 2019. "ICT Implementation of Small- and Medium-Sized Construction Enterprises: Organizational Characteristics, Driving Forces, and Value Perceptions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-20, June.
    7. Barlow, James & Köberle-Gaiser, Martina, 2008. "The private finance initiative, project form and design innovation: The UK's hospitals programme," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1392-1402, September.
    8. Faïz Gallouj & Faridah Djellal (ed.), 2010. "The Handbook of Innovation and Services," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12872.
    9. Lauri Pulkka & Miro Ristimäki & Karoliina Rajakallio & Seppo Junnila, 2016. "Applicability and benefits of the ecosystem concept in the construction industry," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(2), pages 129-144, February.
    10. Bossink, Bart A.G., 2004. "Managing drivers of innovation in construction networks," Serie Research Memoranda 0015, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Economics, Business Administration and Econometrics.
    11. Athena Roumboutsos & St�phane Saussier, 2014. "Public-private partnerships and investments in innovation: the influence of the contractual arrangement," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 349-361, April.
    12. Satu Reijonen & Rebecca Pinheiro-Croisel, 2012. "The dynamics of innovation influents: contracts and sustainable energy innovation uptake," Post-Print halshs-00743386, HAL.
    13. Stam, Wouter, 2009. "When does community participation enhance the performance of open source software companies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(8), pages 1288-1299, October.
    14. Cantner, Uwe & Graf, Holger, 2006. "The network of innovators in Jena: An application of social network analysis," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 463-480, May.
    15. Scaringella, Laurent & Burtschell, François, 2017. "The challenges of radical innovation in Iran: Knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity highlights — Evidence from a joint venture in the construction sector," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 151-169.
    16. Desyllas, Panos & Sako, Mari, 2013. "Profiting from business model innovation: Evidence from Pay-As-You-Drive auto insurance," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 101-116.
    17. de Rassenfosse, Gaetan & van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, Bruno, 2009. "A policy insight into the R&D-patent relationship," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 779-792, June.
    18. Nicolas van Zeebroeck & Bruno van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, 2011. "Filing strategies and patent value," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 539-561, February.
    19. Erik Brouwer & Tom Poot & Kees Montfort, 2008. "The Innovation Threshold," De Economist, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 45-71, March.
    20. Engwall, Mats, 2003. "No project is an island: linking projects to history and context," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 789-808, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:37:y:2008:i:10:p:1751-1764. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/respol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.