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- Winkler, Charlotta, 1976-
(författare)
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Client orchestration for the implementation of energy innovation in construction
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aims to explore value creation from energy innovation in construction through implementation. The construction sector significantly impacts the environment. Buildings’ energy demand for heating and cooling accounts for 20% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions. Innovation is needed to reduce the sector’s contribution to climate change. This thesis focuses on energy-related innovations that reduce our dependency on fossil energy sources. For an innovation to give value, it must be put to use through implementation. In the construction context, the implementation takes place in inter-organisational and temporary project settings where interdependent actors collaborate to create value. The process of innovation implementation is affected by the innovation’s characteristics and the context of its implementation. The more complex the innovation, the more challenges the implementation process might involve.Clients in construction are central when it comes to change, and their ability to adapt to changing factors depends on their innovation capabilities. For the industry to meet climate-related challenges and contribute to the energy transition in the built environment, knowledge of the implementation of energy innovations and clients’ innovation capabilities must be developed.The aim of this thesis was realised by studying the characteristics and challenges of energy innovation implementation and clients’ innovation capabilities to orchestrate the activities required to meet these challenges. The characteristics and related challenges for implementation were explored by studying solar photovoltaic systems installed in the built environment (BEPV) as a case. The study identified several barriers to BEPV implementation and subsequent requirements for client orchestration. Due to a long history of implementing energy innovations, the real estate company of the municipality of Kungsbacka, Eksta Bostads AB, was chosen as a case in which to study client orchestration.This thesis draws on the literature on systemic innovation, innovation implementation, and ecosystem perspectives. The literature on systemic innovation helps us study and understand the implementation of energy innovations. The business ecosystem framework serves as a lens through which to study value co-creation in construction projects, and the innovation ecosystem perspective can be applied to study a client’s innovation capabilities to orchestrate activities for value creation. This thesis offers several contributions. First, it offers insights into systemic innovation implementation in construction by describing the characteristics of systemic energy innovations that display a high complexity requiring collaboration required in both the process and the innovation as such to implement systemic energy innovation in construction. Second, this change leads to the requirement that a client should act as a focal firm to orchestrate collaborative activities beyond project management. Third, this thesis offers empirical evidence that implementing energy innovations involves understanding implementation as part of a larger innovation process, not as an isolated process. Rather, the innovation process is highly dependent on the ecosystem orchestration, which in turn depends on a client’s innovation capabilities. As such, the thesis contributes to the ecosystem orchestration literature by demonstrating that client innovation capabilities enable orchestration that involves activities within and between projects and engagements across industry boundaries. In this way, the thesis builds our knowledge of the innovation process in construction, specifically, that the client is a central actor in realising value creation from innovation. The research shows how a client’s activities contribute to innovation diffusion in the construction industry and that these activities are anchored in a strong long-term strategy and a holistic view of sustainable development. These activities consist of formal and informal working methods and wholehearted engagements at an individual level, at which trust and long-term relationships are essential.Finally, by providing insights into the construction industry’s challenges in contributing to the energy transition in the built environment, this thesis offers policy suggestions regarding changes and adaptations in regulations and building norms to facilitate the implementation of energy innovations in construction projects, and to initiate educational arrangements and identify roles for key actors who can connect innovation development to innovation implementation for value creation.This thesis addresses the United Nations’s goals for sustainable development, specifically goals 7, ‘affordable and clean energy’, and 11, ‘sustainable cities and communities’.
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