| 1. |
- Adam, Abderisak, 1988, et al.
(författare)
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Using actor-network theory to understand knowledge sharing in an architecture firm
- 2014
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Ingår i: 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2014; Portsmouth; United Kingdom; 1 September 2014 through 3 September 2014. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 1235-1244
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates knowledge sharing in a large Scandinavian architectural firm, ArchFirm. In particular, a knowledge management initiative called the Knowledge Building (KB) is examined. The study is based on a case study consisting of a document review and 12 interviews. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as analytical lense, KB is conceptualized as a heterogenous network consisting of several actants, human and non-human. Key aspects of ANT used when analyzing data is; translation, semiotic rationality, punctualization and black-boxing, focal actants and obligatory passage point (OPP). ANT as theoretical approach created an opportunity to view the intricate nature of knowledge sharing in an architecture firm from a different perspective compared to previous research. This work also opens a window for further research in the area of knowledge sharing as it relates to architectural practice.
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| 2. |
- Buser, Martine, 1967, et al.
(författare)
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Is anybody home? The role of company websites for small building contractors in Sweden
- 2014
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Ingår i: 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2014; Portsmouth; United Kingdom; 1 September 2014 through 3 September 2014. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 977-986
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the last decades, being visible on the Internet has been advertised as the solution to develop businesses. Among other benefits, it should increase profitability by enlarging the number of customers and accelerating processes and communication. Indeed by 2012, 92% of the Swedish micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) had a website presenting their companies; the construction sector for once is no exception. Looking at SME building contractors we inquire into whether the announced potential of being online has been realized and, in particular if their relations to customers have improved. Referring to customer relationship management and e-business studies, we focus on 4 aspects of websites to assess their qualities: content, convenience, control and interaction. The material consists of a sample of 90 building contractors of the region of Gothenburg in Sweden. We have examined the companies' websites, checked their profile, contacted them by phone and carried out in-depth interviews with 21 of them. The results show quite diversified strategies and benefits of their use of websites. Updating the sites regularly or gaining customers seem to be the exception, and the uses of the web sites are so far rather rudimentary. If there is no surprise in the SMEs building their customers relationship on direct contact and local network, the passivity and lack of visibility towards new customers and business opportunity are nevertheless intriguing. Even more as the sector is facing a rather bad reputation in the public. Finally a close contact with clients is said to be one of the most important factors contributing to innovation which these SMEs acutely need to face the new energy regulations.
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| 3. |
- Carlsson, Veronica, 1980, et al.
(författare)
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Shall we dance? Encounters for energy renovation of single family houses
- 2014
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Ingår i: 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2014; Portsmouth; United Kingdom; 1 September 2014 through 3 September 2014. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 1163-1171
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In the strive for climate change mitigation and transition the building stock is a major issue to acknowledge as its energy consumption and production of carbon dioxide is significant, around 30% of the total in Sweden. Government policies, subsidies and more have therefore been applied to deal with this issue. However the bulk of efforts have focused on dwellings, office buildings, public buildings and other major installations, whereas the single family house areas have received less attention and presently even enjoy a public regulation regime which leaves up to ten years of room for manoeuver before private house owners are obliged to react. This leaves the arena for more voluntary types of renovation. Studies shows that house owners doing such renovations are prone to contact and use their local SME craftsman. The encounters between house owners and craftsmen come to impede the degree and quality of the energy renovation referring to costs, unstable and/or ineffective technologies, lack of understanding of subsidies and financial options and even general insecurity. This paper reports a local study of three craftsmen contractors and their interaction with house owners as potential customers which is part of a project with a group of participating SMEs. Through interviewing, participant observations and shadowing, the sales processes and negotiations were followed on site inside the customers house. Theoretically the study draws on Goffman's concepts of presentation of self in everyday life, performance, staging and "front". The results show a complex interactive pattern, like a dance, where limited local knowledge play a role as does subtle assumptions about cost and economic capacity. Thus rather than placing the responsibility for conservative renovation actions on either the craftsmen or the house owners, it is claimed here that the two parties are acting in a routinized play they cannot easily escape.
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| 4. |
- Engström, Susanne
(författare)
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Overcoming barriers to innovation : demonstrating an argument in favour of communication arenas
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference. - : Association of Researchers in Construction Management. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 1007-1016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Continuous development efforts including steady-state innovations are necessary for such purposes as of improving short-term performance. However, there is also the need to enable more radical renewal, where development efforts typically stretch beyond the single-project milieu. Supplier-led innovation towards e.g. affordable, sustainable building constitutes such an example. To open up for more radical renewal, one implication of an earlier proposed innovation-barrier/enabler model is the need for sustainable client-contractor arenas for communication, enabling the continuous re-thinking of current experience and understanding by allowing for clients' and contractors' different/conflicting meanings to surface and interact. In Swedish building such arenas seem to be lacking. Underpinning the argumentation is previous research addressing barriers for supplier-led innovation from theoretical perspectives of organizational information-processing and descriptive behavioural decision-making. To better understand the significance of suggested arenas, data were collected in three steps. First, representatives of a building company were interviewed about their personal views regarding barriers/enablers for supplier-led innovation and what primarily determine clients' accept/reject of the builder's standardized system solution. Second, the building-company representatives met with representatives from three client organizations for a round-table discussion concerning barriers to innovation and sector renewal, and means to overcome. Finally, follow-up interviews with building-company representatives sought to capture personal reflections following from foregoing discussion. Collected data were analysed in relation to the previously proposed model, thus simultaneously developing the model and making it more accessible to building practitioners. Cross-analyses of interviews and client-contractor discussion revealed multiple gaps of understanding. Furthermore, to open up for innovation challenging steady-state it is suggested that both client organizations and contractor organizations need to pay close attention to how meanings and understandings are formed and shared within as well as between organizations. A subsequent implication is the need for a more systematically employed communication arena, stretching beyond the short-term project milieu.
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| 5. |
- Höök, Matilda, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the management of multiple business models in one company
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference. - : Association of Researchers in Construction Management. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 1315-1324
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Increased demands for responsiveness and efficiency have led specialized Swedish manufacturing firms and contractors to adopt new production and product strategies. Some firms have adopted multiple business models (BMs) concurrently in order to be competitive in the modern market. A BM can be seen as a conceptual blueprint of a company's money earning logic, and can act as a guiding instrument towards competitiveness. It is known that companies trying to compete with both low-cost and differentiation BMs face challenges such as conflicting value chains and straddling costs. However, further understanding of various aspects of BMs, their implementation and effects (particularly in the construction industry) is required. Thus, the aim of this paper is to explore BM management in a manufacturing firm in the Swedish construction industry, which has adopted evolving BMs (some concurrently) in recent years. The results, based on analysis of long-term (15 years) process data, indicate that strategic events and decisions influence the management of parallel BMs, and that strategic events are important for competitiveness. They also show that successful balancing of concurrent BMs can yield synergistic benefits, such as resource flexibility and lower vulnerability in the construction market. Due to its exploratory nature, this work serves as a first step towards a wider and more general understanding of the management of multiple BMs in construction firms.
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| 6. |
- Koch, Christian, 1958, et al.
(författare)
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Changing institutions of knowing - Climate mitigation, craft competences and vocational training in Denmark
- 2014
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Ingår i: 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2014; Portsmouth; United Kingdom; 1 September 2014 through 3 September 2014. - 9780955239083
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- In order to reach the EU 2020 goals for the climate, Danish vocational training units are currently in a process of institutional change triggered by the need of providing energy, and new process competences for the skilled and semiskilled workforce active in construction. The aim of the present paper is to analyze enablers and barriers for this institutional change. The vocational education system in Denmark is strongly institutionalised with unions, employer's associations and the schools in central roles. Drawing on institutional theory contributions on labour market -, educational - and professional institutions, the paper presents a study of institutional work inside and across schools and craft disciplines working in SMEs involved in new building and renovation with an energy aspect. Collaboration between four education committees for carpenters, masons, electricians and plumbers and interviews with seven companies come to focus on competences of interdisciplinary collaboration and sustainable innovation in SME. The anticipation of future building regulation of 2015 and 2020 creates an institutional pressure in education for change including handling differentiated demands of customers and contractors, not always just following regulation but occasionally ahead of it. At a time this needs to be balanced with customer needs with a comfort orientation and issues of cost and financing. The committees act in a contradictory, sometimes conservative manner in this change of institutions of knowing. In the future specialization will be supplemented by horizontal and vertical interdisciplinary and innovative competences integrating the complex process industrialized construction sector. Schools, teachers and digital teaching materials need be developed to support this change supported by front running companies and results from innovative building projects. The education committees in Denmark can have a leading role in this development and set high and motivational standards for the improvements. The analysis sees however a lot more barriers than enablers.
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| 7. |
- Linderoth, Henrik, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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The role of bim in preventing design errors
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings 30th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2014, Portsmouth, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management. - : Association of Researchers in Construction Management (ARCOM). - 9780955239083 ; , s. 703-712
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Design errors are claimed to account for 26% of the cost of defects, these in turn are stated to encompass 2-9% of production cost for building and constructions. Lack of knowledge and information has been identified as a major reasons for design errors. Recently Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been considered as a mean for reducing design errors. However, limited research has been conducted on the role of BIM as a means for transfer and sharing knowledge in order to reduce design errors. The aim of the paper is to analyse BIM’s role of facilitating knowledge and expertise sharing in order to prevent design errors. The aim is achieved by analysing a case study of design errors in a construction project. By drawing on the concept of boundary object it is confirmed that BIM can serve a mean for preventing design errors by facilitating knowledge and expertise sharing, across discipline, time and space, and professional boundaries. Depending the kind of boundary knowledge and expertise should be shared across, different challenges emerge in organizing the knowledge and expertise sharing.
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| 8. |
- Löwstedt, Martin, 1982
(författare)
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"Taking off my glasses in order to see": exploring practice on a building site using self-reflexive ethnography
- 2014
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Ingår i: Raiden, A B and Aboagye-Nimo, E (Eds) Proceedings of the 30th Annual ARCOM Conference, 1-3 September 2014, Portsmouth, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 247-256
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- There has recently been a growing interest for ethnographic studies in construction. This interest is predicted upon the belief that ethnographic research to the construction industry can provide a powerful way of illuminating construction practices in new ways. The purpose of this paper is therefore to explicate how ethnography could be used to answer research questions in construction. Drawing on rich empirical data from a field study were the researcher went native, working as a dogsbody on a building site, this paper illustrates how the researcher first battled contrarious roles, only to realize that the transforming perspectives were the true resource. The paper presents the practices on the building site from an observer perspective and a worker perspective respectively and concludes that a self-reflexive ethnographic approach can account for the variations, contradictions, and tensions embedded in the practices of construction.
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| 9. |
- Thunberg, Micael, 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Identifying and positioning construction supply chain planning problems
- 2014
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Ingår i: Proceedings 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2014. - Reading : Association of Researchers in Construction Management. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 1069-1078
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The construction industry struggles with an ineffective supply chain. A literature review, in combination with an empirical study aims at identifying and positioning perceived supply chain planning problems. The empirical part is a series of semi-structured interviews with construction site managers, purchase coordinators, and a project leader. Most site managers are responsible for mid-sized turnkey contracts, which enable comparison. Findings show that most of the supply chain planning problems relate to lack of coordination between actors, and that many of the problems discovered on-site originate from the supply process or the design process. Through proactive coordination of the actors in the supply chain planning process and the actors in the construction process, the problems on-site causing "fire-fighting"-activities could be reduced.
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| 10. |
- Urup, Lea, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Recasting coordination: A theoretical review in the context of design-build project organisations
- 2014
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Ingår i: 30th Annual Association of Researchers in Construction Management Conference, ARCOM 2014; Portsmouth; United Kingdom; 1 September 2014 through 3 September 2014. - 9780955239083 ; , s. 815-824
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Coordination, and the lack of it, is frequently ascribed as a key role in successful and less successful building processes. Over the last four decades, the understanding of coordination has shifted from emphasizing formal structures to emphasizing informal mechanisms. A review of four articles shows this development as well as how the formal and informal structures and mechanisms relate. The review is done from a perspective of a large design-build project in Denmark. The review indicates, that formal and informal coordination mechanisms alone are not sufficient to explain coordination in practice. The main coordination mechanisms discussed are mutual adjustment, direct supervision, standardization, relational coordination, adaptive capacity, and IT as a tool to accomplish task and impose a chronological rhythm and schedule on the work processes. From this point of departure a new set of coordination mechanisms for practice is developed rooted in current institutional theory. The mechanisms are internal building of an institution and external building of relationships between a number of institutions. The conclusion is that existing literature on coordination does not fully describe the complexity of coordination in an institutionalised design-build organisation and that a new set of coordination mechanisms rooted in institutional theory contributes to our understanding of complex coordination.
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