Appropriate innovation in small construction firms

Martin Sexton and Peter Barrett

Construction Management and Economics, 2003, vol. 21, issue 6, 623-633

Abstract: Innovation-led performance improvement in the construction industry is significantly influenced by the innovation performance of small firms. There is a dearth of research investigating innovation from the perspective of the small construction firm. This paper contributes to this underdeveloped area by offering relevant empirically based results. The findings stress the important role that owners of firms play in successful innovation. The type of innovation undertaken, and the different organizational factors which are brought into play, is shown to depend on the characteristics of the interaction environment in which the firm is operating. Small construction firms need to incrementally nurture, or identify and move into, supportive enabling interaction environments. This is achieved through an integrated development of a firm's business strategy and market positioning, organization of work, technology and people. The process of innovation is demonstrated to be subject to cyclical peaks and troughs as the progress of the innovation competes with day-to-day pressures. Small construction firms have their own distinctive characteristics, which are profoundly different from those of large construction firms. The implication for policy is that any initiatives geared toward improving appropriate innovation need to appreciate these differences.

Keywords: Construction; innovation; small firms; research results (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144619032000134156 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:21:y:2003:i:6:p:623-633

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/0144619032000134156

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().