PROCURING FOR INNOVATION: THE INTEGRATING ROLE OF INNOVATION IN CONSTRUCTION PROCUREMENT

Innovation has been one of the key issues in recent business and research agendas of business organisations and all their stakeholders. Meanwhile, a number of reviews around the world have raised grave concerns on the state of the construction industry. The perceived dearth of R&D activities and innovations is often cited as the main issue that has stunted the development of construction organisations. Recent research has argued that the development process in construction from concept, to detailed design and construction is akin to the process of using R&D to deliver successful innovations in manufacturing industries. This paper develops and compares two models describing the organisation and process of innovation and that of construction procurement. The study shows that one of the key differences to be that the development of the “idea” of the new product in manufacturing has the ability to generate a centrifugal force that would pull together several competing paradigms. The fact that there is no “captured” customer in the manufacturing industry as in construction seems to pull the different parties and disciplines together more strongly in order to ensure a successful product. This points to the potentially integrative benefits of innovations in construction procurement systems in the first instance; and secondly across related operational, educational-training and technological systems.