| 1. |
- Bengtsson, Susanna Hedborg, et al.
(författare)
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Public clients' possibilities to initiate sustainable change - Exploring two Swedish clients' procurement strategies
- 2018
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Ingår i: Proceeding of the 34th Annual ARCOM Conference, ARCOM 2018. - : Association of Researchers in Construction Management. ; , s. 424-434
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Governments and municipalities often have lofty ambitions to reduce their environmental impact and enforce sustainability in the construction industry. With this in mind, it is important to study the ability of public clients to implement these ambitions in practice. Current research suggests that public clients have a strong potential to support change processes. One way of executing this potential is through procurement. Procurement can, and shall, according to the Swedish government, be used as a mean to reduce the environmental impact of the public sector. The purpose of the paper is to explore what implications the procurement strategies of two public clients have for their role as change agent for sustainability initiatives, within construction projects. The study was carried out by qualitative analysis of two cases, one from a Swedish municipality and one from the Swedish Transport Administration. The findings show that public clients do act as change agents at a policy level but struggles with implementing its ambitions in the project phase. Despite sustainability goals and the clients' pledged potential to act as change agents; they do not actually wish to take on all dimensions of a role as change agent. Practical implications from the findings include increased understanding for public clients of their need to engage in the change process on a management level in order to fully act as a change agent.
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| 2. |
- Eriksson, Per-Erik, et al.
(författare)
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Collaborative Procurement Strategies for Infrastructure Projects : A Multiple Case Study
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers. - : Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE). - 1751-4304 .- 1751-4312. ; 172:5, s. 197-205
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With the announcement to tender a project, several strategic decisions are made that have significant impact on the innovation and efficiency potential of a project. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare how different types of integrative and collaborative procurement strategies may enhance the opportunities for improved efficiency and innovation in infrastructure projects. Hence, it contributes to the scientific debate on buyer-supplier relationships in relation to project performance. Furthermore, it guides public client organizations in steering explicitly for integration and innovation in their projects. Interview-based case studies of ten public infrastructure projects procured based on four different types of collaborative procurement strategies in Sweden and the Netherlands were conducted. The findings indicate that the duration of the collaboration is fundamental in setting the limits for innovation, and that early involvement as well as long-term commitments in maintenance open up for more innovation. Naturally, the potential for increased efficiency is higher than for innovation, and also occurs in collaborations with limited duration. The findings confirm the importance of a learning perspective on procurement strategies for public client organizations and show the importance of explicit considerations on incentives and project governance issues in the front-end phase of a project.
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| 3. |
- Hedborg, Susanna, et al.
(författare)
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Self-organizing in urban development : developers coordinating between construction projects
- 2023
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Ingår i: Construction Management and Economics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0144-6193 .- 1466-433X. ; , s. 1-15
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sustainable urban development districts have become an answer to the challenge of increasing urbanization while decreasing human impact on the environment. Like other domains of public administration, urban development has in recent decades moved towards heterogeneous governance. Urban development becomes project ecologies, where several construction projects are carried out in parallel and in sequence. This paper sheds light on public and private developers’ coordinating between their construction projects and the influence this has on the built environment of urban development districts. The space between projects in project ecologies is relevant to explore further to understand how the long-term goals of urban policy are achieved in practice. Through the theoretical lens of self-organizing, the discussion is informed by a qualitative study of two cases where developers built together in sustainable profiled urban development districts. The paper contributes to construction management research by illustrating how developers play a key role in finalizing the design and construction of new districts through self-organizing. In effect, new urban districts can only be realized through joint efforts and coordination amongst developers. The paper also provides policymakers with insights into how developers become key players in organizing new neighborhoods.
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| 4. |
- Kadefors, Anna, Professor, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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Relational contracting in Nordic construction – a comparative longitudinal account of institutional field developments
- 2024
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Ingår i: International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. - : Emerald Publishing. - 1753-8378 .- 1753-8386. ; 17:8, s. 22-46
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Relational contracting is increasingly being applied to complex and uncertain construction projects. However, it has proved hard to achieve stable performance and industry-level learning in this field. This paper employs an institutional perspective to analyze how legitimacy for relational contracting has been produced and challenged in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, including implications for dissemination and learning. Design/methodology/approach: A collaborative case study design is used, where longitudinal accounts of the developments in relational contracting over more than 25 years in four Nordic countries were developed by scholars based in each country. The descriptions are underpinned by literature sources from research, practice and policy. Findings: The countries share similar problem perceptions that have triggered the de-institutionalization of traditional contracting practices. Models and policies developed elsewhere are important sources of knowledge and legitimacy. Most countries have seen pendulum movements, where dissemination of relational contracting is followed by backlashes when projects fail to meet projected outcomes. Before long, however, relational contracting tends to re-emerge under new labels and in slightly new forms. Such a proliferation of concepts presents further obstacles to learning. Successful institutionalization is found to rely on realistic goals in combination with broad competence development at the organizational and industry levels. Practical implications: In seeking inspiration from other countries, policymakers should go beyond contract models to also consider strategies to manage industry-level learning. Originality/value: The paper provides a unique longitudinal cross-country perspective on the field of relational contracting. As such, it contributes to the small stream of literature on long-term institutional change in the construction sector.
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| 5. |
- Rosander, Lilly
(författare)
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Adhocracy in the Bureaucracy : Practices of implementing collaborative contracting in infrastructure client organizations
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The building of infrastructure is a capital and resource-demanding activity, generally carried out in large interorganizational projects. Most infrastructure clients are public entities, implying that contracting processes are governed by public procurement regulations. Many infrastructure projects have high requirements for sustainability, both regarding impact on the local environment and the climate footprint. In addition to this, the construction often takes place in urban areas. To manage this complexity and uncertainty it has, over the past decades, become more common for public clients to apply procurement strategies that aim at fostering a good collaboration and integrate processes between client and contractor. Despite examples of advantages with such collaborative contracting the results vary and the institutionalization of collaborative contracting practices has proven difficult. Additionally, concepts and models vary between contexts and are hard to compare. How clients develop their procurement strategies and project practices, therefore, merits close attention. When the public sector uses procurement as tools to achieve their strategic goals, it is reasonable to analyze such decisions and processes as cases of policy implementation. Still, however, a large part of existing research on procurement of collaborative contracting focuses on a single project. By directing focus toward the organization as a whole, and on the implementation process of procurement strategies in several projects over time, the thesis aims to increase the understanding of how new organizational practices develop at different levels in public project-based organizations.The empirical foundation of the thesis is a longitudinal case study that follows the implementation of a new procurement strategy in the Swedish Transport Administration over seven years. The material includes data from seven projects that all used a two-stage Early Contractor Involvement model (called High collaboration). The case also includes material from the permanent organization, mainly in the Purchasing department. The five papers in the thesis analyze the implementation process from several perspectives, with specific attention to the characteristics of the organization as both public and project-based and how these features influence routines, legitimacy, learning and collaboration at different levels. The study adopts a practice perspective where interviews and observations focus on the actions and experiences of the individuals in the study. The result shows that there is a strong project autonomy, which is reinforced both by the project-based structure and by the public character of the client organization. Subsequently, there are few overarching structures at the central level to develop routines and procurement strategies in collaboration with the projects and suppliers. Thus, project managers have had a great influence on the finalization of project-specific procurement models and experiences has principally been shared between individuals, resulting in large variations between projects and limited organizational learning. Nonetheless, decisions in the permanent organization still influence the conditions at the operational project level, by dedicating resources and focusing attention on the topmanagement priorities. At the central level, collaborative contracting, as a concept has had varying legitimacy over time, and the initial problems in some of the seven projects gained considerable strategic importance by reinforcing such pendulum movements. Legitimacy seeking at higher organizational levels has also contributed to a variation in concepts and models, further complicating structured learning in the field of collaborative contracting.The thesis contributes to the construction management literature by providing deeper insights into why procurement models and collaborative practices vary between projects. Furthermore, the results contribute to project studies by expanding the understanding of how the specific character of public project-based client organizations impacts on learning processes for collaborative contracting. Finally, the thesis is relevant for public procurement research, as well as for practitioners in infrastructure and public procurement, since it provides novel insights into how the project-based nature of anorganization affects implementation and procurement processes.
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| 6. |
- Rosander, Lilly, et al.
(författare)
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Can procurement in the public infrastructure sector be strategic? -Tensions between value alignment and project autonomy in project-based organizing
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Purpose: This research contributes to the ongoing debate on the influence of organizational structure when implementing public policy or strategy. Procurement is increasingly used as a strategic activity to pursue long-term policy goals. This study investigates the influence of the project-based organizational structure in the implementation of strategic procurement in infrastructure and the alignment of policy goals to practices.Design/methodology/approach: By adopting a theoretical framework based on characteristics of the project-based organization, we analyze two cases of strategic procurement of two public infrastructure clients at the municipal and national level in two European countries, Sweden and the Netherlands, in which both governments have an explicit goal of including strategic goals in procurement processes. Findings: The analysis unfold three tensions in the implementation process, stemming from the level of project autonomy, the actors involved in decision-making processes and the alignment between the strategic goals and those of the projectOriginality: The paper contributes to the public procurement field, with its specific focus on organizational structure and how project-based organization can be a barrier or a lever in the pursue of long-term policy goals when applying procurement as a strategic tool. The study also contributes to the public procurement literature by showing how other professions than procurement officers shape procurement processes.
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| 7. |
- Rosander, Lilly, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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From project to policy : Implementing a collaborative procurement strategy in a public client organization
- 2019
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 35th Annual ARCOM Conference. ; , s. 750-759
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Following urbanization and higher sustainability goals, large and complexinfrastructure construction projects are becoming more common. New collaborativecontracting models are increasingly used to tackle this complexity and uncertainty. Ina public context, collaborative contracting may be seen as an international trend inpublic policy, which is implemented in projects by public clients world-wide. Since afew years, the Swedish Transport Administration recommends that a two-stage EarlyContractor Involvement should be used for very large and complex projects. Thispaper analyses the implementation of this model in two sub-projects in a largeSwedish infrastructure project based on policy implementation literature. Altogether24 interviews were performed in two rounds, capturing both early expectations andexperiences gained after the contracts had been signed. Participants expressedpositive attitudes to the new collaborative project practices. However, theimplementation process was characterized by ambiguity and many issues aboutstaffing, collaboration processes, target cost estimations, responsibilities and designoutput were left to the projects to resolve. The study shows how conflicting policiesand high project-level autonomy combine to counteract organizational learning andhomogenization of practices in this field.
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| 8. |
- Rosander, Lilly, et al.
(författare)
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Implementering av samverkansentreprenader med tidig entreprenörsmedverkan i Trafikverket : Erfarenheter från sju projekt
- 2020
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Sammanfattning Trafikverkets har i sin roll som beställare ett uppdrag att särskilt verka för innovation, effektivitet och produktivitet på anläggningsmarknaden. Detta har inneburit ett ökat fokus på att arbeta strategiskt med upphandling där den centrala funktionen Inköp och Logistik (IL) ansvarar för att utveckla gemensamma arbetssätt. En del i detta arbete har varit att ta fram en kontraktsmodell för ökad samverkan och tidig involvering av entreprenören i komplexa och osäkra projekt, något som också har efterfrågats av entreprenadföretagen. Modellen benämns Samverkan Hög med Tidig Entreprenörmedverkan (TEM) och syftar både till ökad flexibilitet och till att få in entreprenörens produktionskunskap i projekteringen. Att upphandla entreprenör itidigt skede är nytt inom Trafikverket. Det är därför viktigt, både för utvecklingen av Trafikverkets egen verksamhet och för infrastruktursektorn i stort, att erfarenheterna av de nya arbetsformerna dokumenteras och utvärderas på ett strukturerat sätt. Den här rapporten beskriver och analyserar erfarenheter från upphandling och tidiga skeden i de sju första TEM-projekten i Trafikverket och baseras huvudsakligen på intervjuer med representanter för olika parter i projekten. Diskussionen baseras på forskning om policyimplementering och fokuserar på hur resurser, tydlighet, motivation och organisationsegenskaper påverkar implementeringen av policyn för Samverkan Hög i Trafikverket.Studien visar att det finns ett stort stöd för kontraktsformen. De flesta av de intervjuade uttrycker en övertygelse att tidig involvering av entreprenör har stor potential, att det är ett modernt arbetssätt som lockar medarbetare och att det i större och mer komplexa projekt är helt nödvändigt att hitta strukturerade men arbetssätt för samarbete. Det finns således många positiva exempel och erfarenheter i projekten, speciellt från det tidiga samarbetet mellan beställare, entreprenör och teknisk konsult kring de tekniska lösningarna. Å andra sidan har projekten också stött på svårigheter och praktiska problem som har hindrat samarbetet. Exempel på sådana problemområden har rört utformningen av ersättningsformer och incitament, roller och ansvarsfrågor när man tar fram en design i samverkan, hur organisationernas interna system stödersamverkan, medarbetarnas attityder och kunskaper samt hur Samverkan Hög relaterar till policyn Renodlad Beställarroll. De sju projekten ser olika ut med avseende på entreprenadform, ersättningsform, upphandlingsförfarande, anbudsutvärdering samt samverkansformen/aktiviteterna i projekten. Detta beror dels på att projekten har olika förutsättningar och behov, dels på att nyckelpersoner i Trafikverkets projektledning har haft olika erfarenhet och har tagit till sig lärdomar från tidigare projekt på olika sätt. Att projektledningen har ett förtroende för samarbete som arbetsform och tydligt kommunicerar sina förväntningar på entreprenören framstår som viktiga framgångsfaktorer. De stora skillnaderna mellan projekten skapar dock en osäkerhet för leverantörer. Flera projekt har också efterfrågat stöd i form av organisationsövergripande rutiner för exempelvis fakturahantering, upphandlingsförfarande och vad som ska täckas av entreprenörsarvodet (CAV). Mycket talar för att större delar av kontraktsmodellen skulle kunna standardiseras utan begränsa projektens anpassningsmöjligheter nämnvärt. Med utgångspunkt i policylitteraturen drar vi slutsatsen att de flesta svårigheter projekten stött på inte bör tillskrivas kontraktsformen i sig. Snarare ser vi att det är svårt att implementera nya arbetssätt i en decentraliserad organisation och att varken Trafikverket och leverantörerna har dedikerat tillräckliga resurser för att skapa ett bredare, projektövergripande lärande. Studien visar på behovet av tydliga spelregler för samverkansprojekt på branschnivå och en beredskap hos organisationerna för att utveckla rutiner och strukturer som stödjer samverkan.
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| 9. |
- Rosander, Lilly, et al.
(författare)
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Implementing relational contracting in a public client organization : the influence of policy clashes, resources and project autonomy
- 2023
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Ingår i: Construction Management and Economics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0144-6193 .- 1466-433X. ; 41:8, s. 651-669
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Relational contracting models are increasingly being used for large and complex public infrastructure construction projects, but both practices and outcomes still widely vary. When analyzing the causes of failures and successes, most studies have focused on practices at the project level. In this paper, we add to the current understanding of relational contracting in public construction by examining the influence of factors at the organizational and institutional levels. We develop a framework based on theories of policy implementation and analyze two projects piloting a new Early Contractor Involvement model in a large public infrastructure client organization. In this case, a previous marketization policy, prescribing low client involvement in project processes, interfered with the relational contracting policy. This policy clash was not openly acknowledged from the start, despite causing significant confusion and frustration at the project level, but became recognizable largely through its consequences for resource allocation and managerial attention. We conclude that policy ambiguities, combined with a project-based implementation context, produce local interpretations and variations in relational contracting models. When project autonomy is high, industry-level agreements, standards and resources are important to align practices also between projects within the same client organization.
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| 10. |
- Rosander, Lilly, et al.
(författare)
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Never-ending cycles of collaborative contracting initiatives – dynamics of legitimacy in a public client organization
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Public infrastructure clients are seen as key change agents but often struggle to implement and institutionalize new contracting models in their projects. To understand the difficulties to achieve such long-term learning, a longitudinal case study followed an initiative to implement collaborative contracting in a large public client. Findings showed that the lack of systematic learning could be explained by a project-based organizing in combination with the specific characteristics of public sector organizations. Based on research on legitimacy in public project-based contexts, we conclude that effort to restore legitimacy at the organizational level may interfere with long term capacity building.
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