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Managing renewal in fragmented business networks

Purpose – The authors argue that the construction industry is characterised by a fragmented business context with three main features: the project-based character, the strong focus on price in all parts of the supply chain along with the great importance of suppliers. This fragmentation has been identified as problematic for the industry’s ability to innovate and engage in renewal. The purpose of this paper is to investigate this further by focusing on how construction companies manage renewal in a fragmented business context. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use an in-depth case study of a housing project in Sweden to discuss how firms manage renewal in a fragmented type of business environment. The authors identify the challenge of achieving renewal in an individual construction company as an issue of handling intra- and inter-organisational issues in both intra- and inter-project environments. Findings – The case study indicates that renewal can be partly handled and managed through long-term ...

State actors’ mobilisation of innovation: The Chinese state-business nexus and the development and commercialisation of a vaccine

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how state actors mobilise resources in business networks to facilitate innovation. Design/methodology/approach - A single case study method is used ...

Renewal in construction projects: tracing effects of client requirements

Several studies identify clients as important drivers of innovation in the construction industry. How clients contribute to innovation is however less investigated. In two case studies of health care construction projects, we investigate how client requirements create renewal in the form of intra- as well as inter-project effects. Using an inter-organizational framework of actors, resources and activities (the ARA model), it is possible to identify a variation of effects. The paper concludes that both client requirements and their associated renewal effects are results of interaction in time as well as space. Renewal effects crossing individual projects are dependent on relationships among two or more actors that continue to interact in subsequent projects. In addition, these effects relate to several dimensions of interaction and include how actors relate in new ways, how resources are combined and how activities are organized. Thus, by adopting an interactive perspective, it is possible to reveal how construction clients can contribute to renewal such as innovation and learning, directly and indirectly, within and across projects. Finally, we suggest that managers need to consider the role of long-term business relationships in achieving increased renewal in construction.

Economic deals in the construction industry : Implications for socio-material interaction and monetary processes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between social-material interaction and the monetary aspects of business relationships in the construction industry. The authors term the formal financial agreements necessary for such activities “deals”, and this paper seeks to open a research avenue to further investigate the multifaceted interaction processes among business actors. The construction industry is a suitable empirical setting for this purpose; its project-based character and societal position of linking business with the construction of essential community infrastructure imply that different types of money-handling activities need to be managed continuously with both short-term and long-term effects taken into account. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the deals, i.e., the interface between socio-material interaction and the money-handling processes in the construction industry, as well as studying the potential interrelatedness of deals, the authors performed a case study involving three interrelated housing projects in Uppsala, Sweden. Findings The study shows that deals do not only have an intricate relationship to the social-material interaction processes among construction actors, but they also become interrelated in specific ways to form “deal structures” as actors engage in different business relationships over time. This means, for instance, that a single deal can enable several other deals, and involved actors have different abilities in performing deals. Hence, most deals are part of a “broader” interaction pattern of social and material resources spanning the organizational borders of individual companies. Originality/value Within the industrial marketing and purchasing, the socio-material interaction among actors has been well studied, but less attention has been paid to the monetary dimension and its relationship to the socio-material interaction processes. In particular, this study provides an understanding of monetary agreements in the construction industry.

Creating relationship continuity across projects in the construction industry: Deliberate, emergent and deliberately emergent strategies

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship continuity across projects among actors in the construction industry, and to discuss why and how such continuity takes place. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on the results from four in-depth case studies illustrating different strategies for pursuing relationship continuity. The results are analysed and discussed in light of the oft-mentioned strategies suggested by Mintzberg (1987): emergent, deliberate and deliberately emergent strategies. Furthermore, the ARA-model is used to discuss why the relationship continuity strategies are pursued, and which factors might enable and constrain the relationship continuity. Findings The main findings are twofold. First, the authors found that the strategy applied for pursuing relationship continuity may, in one-time period, contain one type of strategy or a mix of strategy types. Second, the type of strategy may evolve over time, from one type of strategy being more pronounced in one period, to other strategies being more pronounced in later periods. The strategies applied by construction firms and their counterparts can thus contain elements of emergent, deliberate and deliberately emergent strategies, in varying degrees over time. It is also shown that the strategies of the involved actors co-evolve as a result of interaction. Also, the main reasons for pursuing continuity appear to lie in the re-use and development of important resources and activities across projects to create efficiency and the possibility to develop mutual orientation, commitment and trust over time, and thus reduce uncertainty. Research limitations/implications Further empirical studies are needed to support the findings. For managers, the main implication is that relationship continuity can arise as part of an emerging interaction pattern between firms or as part of a planned strategy, but that elements of both might be needed to sustain it. Originality/value The authors combine Mintzberg’s strategy concepts with the ARA-model to bring new light to the widely debated issue of discontinuity and fragmentation in the construction industry.

10 The Coordinating Role of Chinese Policy Actors in Developing New Biotechnology Start Up Companies to Promote Industrial Development

All around the world there is an increased understanding among policymakers that the establishment of start-up companies is the backbone of future economic growth. It is argued that the development of new companies can increase the innovation rate and contribute to industrial change. This belief is also championed by the Chinese government, which has especially emphasised the possibility of start-up companies to facilitate the establishment and development of strategically important industries. The promotion of high-tech industries already started in the late 1980s; however, since the 1990s, policy attention towards developing some strategically important sectors has been apparent.