Towards an understanding of innovation processes in construction

Now has perhaps never been a better time to publish a book whose main concern is with the theme of change in the construction industry. The rather arbitrary, but nevertheless highly symbolic, transition from twentieth to twenty-Ž rst century, almost demands some form of assessment of the state of the industry as it passes from the latter stages of the last millennium into the early part of the next. Add to this the clamour for change within the industry that, in the UK at least, has been sparked off or ampliŽ ed by the publication of a number of in uential, agenda-setting reports (e.g. Latham, 1994; Egan, 1998), and an assessment of recent developments within the industry as well as a prognosis for the future has potentially much to offer. Any book which tries to examine historically and in some depth processes of change within the industry and the prospects and challenges opened up, particularly with reference to changes in products and processes occurring due to recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs), is therefore timely.