Karen Manley

The innovation competence of repeat public sector clients in the Australian construction industry

The role of client leadership in improving construction industry performance by increasing the rate and quality of innovation activity has been receiving increasing attention globally over the past decade. There has however been less attention given to the capability of clients to effectively perform this role. The literature suggests that the internal innovation competency of clients impacts on their potential to encourage innovation throughout the industry. Based on data collected via a large‐scale survey of the Australian construction industry, the innovation competence of repeat public sector clients is examined using descriptive statistics. The results show that the clients have a relatively high level of innovation competence, compared to contractors, consultants and suppliers. The role of innovation competence is important. If public sector client agencies wish to protect and promote the role they play in encouraging industry innovation, they need to nurture their internal innovation competence.

Exploring the drivers of firm‐level innovation in the construction industry

A survey of 335 businesses in the Australian road industry has been carried out to ascertain those factors that make firms innovate. ‘Innovative’ is measured by adoption rates of advanced technologies and practices, and the range of innovation drivers reviewed encompasses business strategy and environment. The findings indicate that business strategies are more important than business conditions, and that the following three strategies are significant in differentiating between firms with high and low adoption rates: (1) hiring new graduates; (2) introducing new technologies; and (3) enhancing technical capabilities. The findings also highlight the importance of undertaking R&D and encouraging employee ideas for improvement. The public policy implications are that the quality of university graduates should be protected and advanced, as should technical skills within public sector client agencies.

Frameworks for Understanding Interactive Innovation Processes

In recent years there has been considerable activity, by both business analysts and academics, aimed at developing new approaches to understanding contemporary innovation processes. This has resulted in the emergence of a large number of conceptual alternatives, with many overlapping features. It is the aim of this paper to outline and compare the most popular of these frameworks and to develop a model incorporating their important features. The integrated model should assist businesses examining their innovation processes by providing a single-point guide to key issues; it should also help public-sector policy makers understand key leverage points for improving the environment for innovation.

Client recommendations for financial incentives on construction projects

Purpose – The paper seeks to provide recommendations for construction clients who design and implement financial incentive mechanisms (FIMs) on projects.Design/methodology/approach – Four large Australian building projects commissioned by government clients under managing contractor contracts and completed between 2001 and 2005 were examined to explore the “drivers” that promoted motivation toward financial incentive goals. The results were triangulated across data sources, projects and stakeholder types.Findings – FIM design should incorporate: flexibility to modify goals and measurement procedures over time; multiple goals covering different project areas; distribution of rewards across all the key organisations contributing to team performance (e.g. potentially not just the contractor, but the subcontractors and consultants) and a reward amount sufficient to be valued by potential recipients. FIM benefits are maximised through the following complementary procurement initiatives: equitable contract risk...

Relationship between Construction Firm Strategies and Innovation Outcomes

Survey results provide a preliminary assessment of the relative contribution of a range of tactical business strategies to innovation performance by firms in the Australian construction industry. Over 1,300 firms were surveyed in 2004, resulting in a response rate of 29%. Respondents were classified as high, medium or low innovators according to an innovation index based on the novelty and impact of their innovations and their adoption of listed technological and organizational advances. The relative significance of 23 business strategies concerning (1) employees; (2) marketing; (3) technology; (4) knowledge; and (5) relationships was examined by determining the extent to which they distinguished high innovators from low innovators. The individual business strategies that most strongly distinguished high innovators were (1) investing in RD (2) participating in partnering and alliances on projects; (3) ensuring project learnings are transferred into continuous business processes; (4) monitoring international best practice; and (5) recruiting new graduates. Of the five types of strategies assessed, marketing strategies were the least significant in supporting innovation. The results provide practical guidance to managers in project-based industries wishing to improve their innovation performance.

Experience with the management of technological innovations within the australian construction industry

The BRITE Project (Building Research Innovation Technology and Environment) was established by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Construction Innovation to encourage and report on innovative developments in the construction industry. Using both case studies and extensive industry surveys the BRITE Project has examined the creation, adoption and diffusion of innovations. A nexus is reported between technological innovations and the adoption of advanced management practices. Indeed the management of the innovation process is found to be critical to the successful implementation of technological innovations. The BRITE Project’s combination of specific detailed case studies with a broad industry-wide survey allows the testing of the hypothesis that organizational and technological innovations are linked from two different perspectives. In both instances, a strong correlation is observed between high technological innovators and the proactive management of organizational knowledge with emphasis on continuing education and training. In contrast, the low innovators surveyed were characterized by a lack of business strategies to improve and monitor performance and by minimal investment in research and development. Technological innovations were found to be significantly more likely to occur in those firms with good profitability and with managers who seek out a broad range of sources for new ideas as well as actively working to capture project learning for ongoing reference. Such ongoing active management involvement fosters the appropriate atmosphere for new technological innovations to occur. The BRITE Project experience highlights the primacy of management skills for the encouragement of ongoing technological advancement within the often conservative construction and engineering sector.

Validation of an Instrument to Measure Governance and Performance on Collaborative Infrastructure Projects

Collaborative infrastructure projects use hybrid formal and informal governance structures to manage transactions. Based on previous desk-top research, the authors identified the key mechanisms underlying project governance, and posited the performance implications of the governance (Chen et al. 2012). The current paper extends that qualitative research by testing the veracity of those findings using data from 320 Australian construction organisations. The results provide, for the first time, reliable and valid scales to measure governance and performance of collaborative projects, and the relationship between them. The results confirm seven of seven hypothesised governance mechanisms; 30 of 43 hypothesised underlying actions; eight of eight hypothesised key performance indicators; and the dual importance of formal and informal governance. A startling finding of the study was that the implementation intensity of informal mechanisms (non-contractual conditions) is a greater predictor of project performance variance than that of formal mechanisms (contractual conditions). Further, contractual conditions do not directly impact project performance; instead their impact is mediated by the non-contractual features of a project. Obligations established under the contract are not sufficient to optimise project performance.

Financial incentives and advanced construction procurement systems

Construction clients often use financial incentives to encourage stakeholder motivation and commitment to voluntary higher-order project goals. Despite the increased use of financial incentives, there is little literature addressing means of optimizing outcomes. Using a case-study methodology, the examination of a successful Australian construction project demonstrates the features of a positively geared procurement approach that promotes the effectiveness of financial incentives. The research results show that if the incentive system is perceived to be fair and is applied to reward exceptional performance, and not to manipulate, then contractors are more likely to be positively motivated.

The impact of client characteristics on the time and cost performance of collaborative infrastructure projects

Purpose – Collaboration is thought to offer significant benefits over traditional contracts, however there is little existing research concerning how these benefits can be optimized. To address this gap, a survey investigated the impact of client characteristics on the time and cost efficiency of collaborative infrastructure projects. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The survey of experienced senior practitioners of Australian collaborative infrastructure projects yielded 320 valid responses. Cluster analysis, one-way between group ANOVA tests and independent sample t-tests were used to confirm that three client characteristics are critical to time and cost performance: client sector (public/private); client experience with asset procurement; and client approach to price competition. Findings – Projects procured by experienced private sector clients were found to meet targeted levels of performance, regardless of their approach to team selection. Among projects procure...

Collaborative learning model of infrastructure construction: a capability perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a new model to show how continuous joint learning of participant organisations improves project performance. Performance heterogeneity between collaborative infrastructure projects is typically examined by considering procurement systems and their governance mechanisms at static points in time. The literature neglects to consider the impact of dynamic learning capability, which is thought to reconfigure governance mechanisms over time in response to evolving market conditions. Design/methodology/approach – There are two stages of conceptual development. In the first stage, the management literature is analysed to explain the standard model of dynamic learning capability that emphasises three learning phases for organisations. This standard model is extended to derive a novel circular model of dynamic learning capability that shows a new feedback loop between performance and learning. In the second stage, the construction management literature is consulted,...