| 1. |
- Granheimer, Klara, 1989-
(författare)
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Public procurement of engineering services : Task characteristics, control modes and effects on adaptability
- 2022
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Previous research has emphasized the importance of engineering services and adaptability in the early stages of construction projects. Public clients usually procure engineering services from private companies, which makes their procurement strategies important in creating incentives for adaptability and innovation for the service providers. Due to the high uncertainty and clients’ lack of understanding of the tasks they procure, the procurement of services is argued to be challenging – especially for public clients. Despite this, studies on the procurement of engineering services are scarce, as is research on the effects on adaptability. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to increase the understanding of organizational control in the public procurement of engineering services, by focusing on task characteristics, control modes and their effects on adaptability.A single case study of the Swedish Transport Administration was analyzed using the three models developed in the appended papers, i.e., the expanded control model, the procurement model for services and the classification model. The empirical data, consisting of interviews, observations and documents, were analyzed using visual mapping and flexible pattern matching.The findings illustrate that uncertainty is the task characteristic that differs between the early phase of construction (i.e., physical planning) and subsequent stages (i.e., tender document), while knowledge of the transformation process is the task characteristic that differs between a standard contract and an environmentally sustainable contract. Thus, when procuring engineering services including carbon reduction goals where new solutions are needed, new procurement strategies are necessary. In order to cope with the high uncertainty and low knowledge of the transformation process, social control is preferable. In addition, using social control will enhance the service providers’ willingness to adapt. These findings are important in the procurement of engineering services because uncertainty and the client’s understanding of the tasks are two of the main aspects that make engineering services difficult to procure.By combining task characteristics, control modes and their effects on adaptability, this thesis illustrates the importance of focusing on the entirety of organizational control. For example, even though process control and social control both incentivize the service provider to adapt to change, process control is less suitable for a public client when uncertainties are high. In addition, when choosing control modes related to the specification and reward system, it seems more efficient to provide the same incentives (i.e., process control may be combined with social control), whereas output control should not be combined with any other control mode. This shows the importance of combining the three variables and that the three main models of this thesis can be important tools. This knowledge and the models may therefore be useful to academics as well as practitioners. The results contribute to the scarce research on the procurement of engineering services for construction projects, as well as to the control literature.
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| 2. |
- Candel, Melissa, 1994-
(författare)
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Co-Developing Sustainability Requirements : Exploring client and municipal perspectives in housing development
- 2020
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Construction has major environmental, social and economic impacts. Improving sustainability both during and after the construction process is widely discussed among a slew of practitioners, governments and researchers. Construction clients, such as housing developers, are considered key actors for change and innovation because of their position to set requirements when procuring construction projects. The process of developing project requirements has therefore mainly been studied during the construction clients’ procurement process. At the same time, municipalities use their position as land owners to drive sustainable development. Land allocation agreements allow municipalities to set project-specific sustainability requirements for construction projects on municipal land. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how municipal sustainability requirements affect housing developers when planning and designing their projects.The research is based on a single empirical case study of an urban development programme comprising multiple parallel and sequential housing construction projects. In this study, the municipality’s and housing developers’ perspectives are explored. The results demonstrate that the housing developers perceive several barriers to implementing municipal sustainability requirements. The three main barriers that were identified are reduced flexibility coupled with uncertainty, conflicting interests coupled with reduced autonomy and interdependencies, and a lack of trust and transparency coupled with interdependencies. The municipal sustainability requirements are initially developed by the municipality for the land allocation agreement. They are then co-developed further by the municipality and the housing developers together through negotiations before being finalised in conjunction with the developers’ procurement process.The study is focused on the period following the housing developers’ signing of land allocation agreements with the municipality and before starting their procurement process. During this period, the housing developers attempt to negotiate municipal sustainability requirements that they anticipate will increase costs, risk and uncertainty and decrease the value of their final product. Negotiations between the housing developers and the municipality can be viewed as value co-creation processes stimulated by functional conflict. These findings build on three papers that are included in the thesis.Contributions are made to literature on the role of construction clients and their perceived barriers to implementing and developing sustainable construction solutions and practices and barriers to change in general. Theoretical contributions are also made to literature on value co-creation in construction by illustrating how clients engage in the co-creation of value with municipalities and other clients. Finally, the theoretical link between value co-creation and functional conflict is studied and developed.
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| 3. |
- Candel, Melissa, 1994-
(författare)
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Public Land Development for Sustainability-Profiled Districts : A value co-creation perspective
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Swedish municipalities are developing sustainability-profiled districts incollaboration with private actors to achieve their public sustainability objectives.These districts are comparable to developments found in many other Europeancountries and the wider world. They are intended to model sustainable urbandevelopment and act as testbeds for collaborative innovation and urbanexperimentation. To initiate and govern the districts, Swedish municipalities areusing public land development, which provides them with more options to influencehousing development and increases their leverage during land use planning. It alsoforms exchange relationships between the municipalities and housing developers.Although previously acknowledged, there is a lack of research investigating thispractice in-depth. In the Swedish context, land ownership has a substantial influenceon the structure of the development process and collaboration betweenmunicipalities and housing developers, which are considered two key actors fordriving sustainable urban development. In sustainability-profiled districtdevelopments, these public and private actors collaborate during the municipal landallocation process, an important part of the public land development process, inorder to develop and implement new sustainable solutions and practices. Thiscollaboration during the land allocation process is investigated in the dissertation.The purpose of the dissertation is to increase the understanding of municipal landallocation processes in sustainability-profiled district developments by applying acollaborative perspective to public-private exchange. Municipal land allocations insustainability-profiled districts are first analysed and interpreted as public-privatevalue co-creation processes specifically intended to generate sustainable innovation.This is complemented with theories on conflict management, project relationships,and public value capture. The utility of using municipal land allocations for framingpublic-private collaborative innovation is then evaluated using value co-creationtheory. A single and multiple case study approach was employed to investigate indepthmunicipal land allocation processes in sustainability-profiled districts at thedistrict- and building project-level. Focusing on the perspectives of municipalitiesand housing developers, interviews and documents were used to reveal complexprocessual and relational dynamics mired in conflicting value creation objectives.The research is focused on sustainability-profiled district developments in Swedento gain an in-depth understanding of the intricacies and influences of this nationalcontext. The findings are then discussed in relation to public land developmentpractices in other European countries.The results reveal that the possibilities for municipalities to co-create public valueusing public land development are ultimately determined by housing developers’ ability to implement municipal sustainability requirements and co-create privateproject value. These municipal sustainability requirements are included in landallocation agreements and are negotiable throughout the rest of the land allocationprocess. Thus, the potential for public value creation is determined by the ability ofmunicipalities and developers to co-design sustainability requirements forimplementation during the land allocation process, in order to translate municipalsustainability requirements into developer procurement requirements. Areoccurring theme in the dissertation is that problems are rooted in inter-actor valueconflicts, which are central drivers for value co-creation processes betweenmunicipalities and housing developers.The dissertation contributes to public land development research by introducing apublic-private value co-creation framework to describe and explain collaborativeexchange and innovation between municipalities and developers. It also provides indepthknowledge of public land development, and more specifically municipal landallocation processes, in sustainability-profiled district developments, which differfrom more typical developments in regards to innovation ambitions. Finally, thedissertation contributes with a micro-level analysis of municipal land allocationprocesses, at the district- and project-level, in the Swedish context. Building on theanalysis and evaluation, recommendations for enhancing private project value andpublic value creation in sustainability-profiled districts are provided. Thedissertation ultimately illustrates how collaboration between public and privateactors aimed at achieving divergent and oftentimes conflicting sustainable urbandevelopment objectives is shaped by the specific planning processes and systemsthey are embedded in.
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| 4. |
- Hedborg, Susanna
(författare)
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”It’s in the between” : Inter-Project Organising in Project Ecologies
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The word project is used to describe everything from mundane tasks tomajor government-initiated structural changes. Projects are also thefocus of a growing research field that seeks to understand how society isorganised. On the back of this ‘projectification’, projects are becomingincreasingly entangled with each other, both in and betweenorganisations. This means that it is not only important to understandsingle projects, but also the interdependencies between projects in multiprojectcontexts. There is a call for a deeper understanding of multiprojectcontexts as interdependencies between projects can influenceproject work and outcomes widely, even though the interdependenciesare not visible in formal relationships. This thesis applies the concept ofproject ecologies to explore interdependencies that go beyond strategic orformal relationships. Inspired by a practice perspective, the purpose ofthis thesis is to increase the understanding of multi-project context,through investigating inter-project practices in project ecologies.In this thesis, urban development and construction projects are studied togain insight into inter-project practices in project ecologies. Spaceinterdependencies are multiple when parallel and sequential constructionprojects are carried out in a confined urban development district, and theactions of construction clients in this setting are studied using interviews,meeting observations and project documents. Routine dynamics are themain analytical framework, and the emergence of inter-project routines isused to study inter-project practices and how interdependencies becomerelationships through joint action.The findings show that construction clients commencing projects in anurban development district must apply both an intra- and inter-projectfocus. As project ecologies have low levels of formal management,construction clients must take actions to handle space interdependenciesbetween projects, i.e., actions patterned into routines between projects.These actions are not steered through principal-agent relationships, butstem from self-organising to a large extent. In project ecologies, the maincomplexities lie between projects, but benefits can be achieved if theactors can overcome issues relating to skewed power relationships, trust,and resource allocations. In the case of urban development, these benefitscan include the creation of new neighbourhoods and sustainability.The focus on the space between projects and on inter-project routinessuggests that the concept of project ecologies would benefit from an interprojectlayer running horizontally between projects. This layer, whencoupled with the routine dynamics framework, could help move theconcept of project ecologies beyond identifying actors, projects andorganisations in networks, to following the actions and actors’ practicesthat emerge in a project ecology.This thesis contributes to project studies by exploring organising that isboth inter-project and inter-organisational, moving beyond programmesand megaprojects as concepts explaining complex project organising.More specifically, it contributes to the literature on project ecologies byextending the understanding of organising in project ecologies throughexploring actions between projects. By using organisational routines tozoom-in on the actions between projects, the current definition of projectecologies as centred around a single project and firm is scrutinised.Moreover, this thesis contributes to the construction managementliterature by redirecting the focus away from contractual relationships toshowing how construction clients’ roles are influenced byinterdependencies between projects and by having to perform intra- andinter-project practices in parallel.
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| 5. |
- Järvenpää, Anna-Therése
(författare)
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How to promote innovation from an organizational control perspective : A case study of a public infrastructure client
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Within the infrastructure sector, a public client can have various roles and responsibilities that extend beyond its own organization, such as stimulating and supporting innovation. As an infrastructure project is seldom standardized, the client needs to procure each contract based on the relevant uncertainties and complexities for that specific context. To encourage a contractor’s compliance with the client’so bjectives, the client employs some degree of organizational control. When a public client procures all its infrastructure from contractors, it also needs to find ways of eliciting innovative solutions from the suppliers. Therefore, a public client needs strategies to both promote innovation by the contractors and direct and oversee the contractors’ work to ensure the deliverables meet the project’s objectives. The demands for increased innovation in the construction sector in general needs to be handled concomitant with the client’s need to check that the contractor delivers accordingly to the client’s objectives and demands. The overall purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between organizational control and promoting innovation by a public infrastructure client. More specifically, it explores how a public client can promote innovation by its contractors from an organizational control perspective. The theoretical background is provided by an organizational control framework (Ouchi, 1979; Aulakh et al., 1996), i.e. a client can manage and steer an agent via three different control systems: process, output, and social. The empirical data is derived from 47 semi-structured interviews, complemented by observations, from10 different infrastructure projects. The client (The Swedish Transport Administration; STA) is the same for each project, but the contractors differ. Two types of contractor are represented: contractors that have not worked with the STA before (“unfamiliar contractors”), and contractors that have worked with the STA before (“familiar contractors”). A majority of the contract type is design-build. Four appended papers, each presenting a public client perspective, provide the basis of the thesis. Previous findings that the client’s role is important for promoting innovation is explored further in this thesis from an organizational control perspective, emphasizing the role of the public client. It is important that during the procurement phase the client tries to find the right balance between achieving the intended objectives and creating space for innovation. Ex-ante planning is important, because how the client writes the control mechanisms into the procurement documents, and later the contract, has a direct effect on the opportunities for innovation by the contractors.In addition, the client has to manage the project in a way that does not cause irritation of frustration for the contractor, or hinder their work, thus supporting the view that organizational control should be enabling instead of coercive, so that the client’s input encourages innovation rather than creating obstacles. In addition, when adding a relationship history perspective on organizational control, an unfamiliar contractor (i.e. a contractor that has not worked with the client before) can find process control unsuitable and social control confusing, which means output control is probably the most appropriate approach to take when working with unfamiliar contractors. However, just relying on procurement strategies such as a design-build (DB)contract in combination with strict functional demands is not enough to promote innovation. Furthermore, a collaborative setting only seems to lead to innovative solutions if the client regards innovation as a mutual task and utilizes the collaborative setting for innovative co-creation. From the client’s perspective, the practical and managerial implication of this thesisis the importance of finding a balance between giving the contractor space to be innovative in the execution of the contract, and at the same time making sure that the requisite end product is delivered. The results of this thesis suggest that the client does not hand over the “how” to the contractor when it comes to executing the project, as would be expected in a DB contract. From the contractor’s perspective, the responsibility for innovation within a DB contract can be confounded by the client’s use of social control, by which the client may encourage discussions and collaboration regarding innovative solutions but blur the line over responsibilities. This could explain why social control often fails to have a positive impact on innovative output.
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| 6. |
- Bengtsson, Susanna Hedborg, et al.
(författare)
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Developing a neighbourhood: exploring construction projects from a project ecology perspective
- 2020
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Ingår i: Construction Management and Economics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0144-6193 .- 1466-433X. ; 38:10, s. 964-976
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a consequence of ongoing urbanisation, construction projects are likely to be performed in multi-project contexts. Zooming out from the single project and focusing on the context in which construction projects are performed is suggested as a way to broaden our understanding and develop new theory. The empirical case in focus here, which is studied as a project ecology, is the development of a major urban development district, where several interdependent construction projects have been initiated in sequence and in parallel in a limited geographical area. This case poses several challenges to the developers (construction clients) who are performing their projects simultaneously, and literally, as neighbours. Therefore, we zoom out from the single construction project and put the project in a wider context on a macro level, to increase the understanding of the context in which construction projects are performed. The theoretical lens of social capital helps us zoom in on the interdependencies that develop over time, going beyond traditional, contractual and vertical relationships. Based on empirical material, including interviews and meeting observations, the findings indicate that the developers have to coordinate horizontal interdependencies between projects. The findings also show that the construction client’s role has been extended from initiating and delivering the project mission to also having a collaborator role between projects, where ambidexterity is required.
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| 7. |
- Candel, Melissa, 1994-, et al.
(författare)
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Front-end value co-creation in housing development projects
- 2021
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Ingår i: Construction Management and Economics. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0144-6193 .- 1466-433X. ; 39:3, s. 245-260
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a result of local governance, municipalities and housing developers work together to define housing development projects and to co-create value propositions. The purpose of this study is to explore how value propositions are co-created during the front-end of housing development projects and how this affects housing developers’ ability to drive change and innovation. The value co-creation process is explored through interviews, documents and observations in a case study of an urban development programme in Sweden. The findings illustrate how emerging conflicts and the process of resolving them are central drivers for value co-creation between these actors. However, conflicts that are not managed and resolved constructively can lead to the co-destruction of value. In this study we illustrate how value co-creation processes that precede procurement limit the flexibility of housing developers and determine the scope for value that can be realised.
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| 8. |
- Ekeskär, Andreas, 1984-, et al.
(författare)
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Construction logistics in a multi-project context: coopetition among main contractors and the role of third-party logistics providers
- 2022
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Ingår i: Construction Management and Economics. - : Taylor & Francis. - 0144-6193 .- 1466-433X. ; 40:1, s. 25-40
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- As a part of supply chain management (SCM) initiatives to improve performance and productivity in construction projects, the use of construction logistics setups (CLSs) operated by third-party logistics (TPL) providers have increased. CLSs are often used in complex multi-project contexts, such as urban development districts, where extensive coordination of actors, resources, and activities is needed. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to investigate how main contractors engage in horizontal relationships with each other when coordinating activities and resources within and across projects in a multi-project context, and to investigate what role a TPL provider assumes when engaging in relationships with main contractors in a multi-project context. The findings are based on a case study of an urban development district with a mandatory TPL-operated CLS, and we apply the industrial network approach. In this multi-project context, the main contractors engage in coopetitive relationships, coordinating activities and resources within and across projects. The TPL provider coordinates actors, resources, and activities, facilitating smoother production by managing logistics and mediating coopetitive relationships. This can be understood as a multi-project coordination role and extends the role SCM can play in construction. In that role, a TPL provider can minimise tensions between coopetitive actors across a multitude of horizontal relationships and projects.
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| 9. |
- Granheimer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
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Adaptability in Public Procurement of Engineering Services Promoting Carbon Reduction: An Organizational Control Perspective
- 2022
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Ingår i: Sustainability. - : MDPI AG. - 2071-1050. ; 14:10, s. 5958-5958
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Many studies have emphasized the importance of engineering services and their adaptability to reduce carbon emissions in the construction sector. As public clients procure these services, selecting efficient (procurement-related) control modes is critical. However, studies of control modes and their effect on adaptability are scarce. The purpose of this study is to investigate how, through the choice of control modes, a public client may create incentives for service providers to deliver carbon reduction solutions in the construction phase. In this study, a procurement model and a classification model are developed, and a single case study of an engineering service contract aiming for carbon reduction is used to illustrate the models. The empirical data include 16 interviews with respondents from the 2 contract parties, i.e., the client and service provider. The findings show that it is important to create incentives for adaptability when procuring engineering services with the aim of reducing carbon emissions in the construction phase. The findings also highlight the importance of these incentives being created both in relation to the selection of service providers and to the responsibility between the contract parties. The models developed in the study may serve as important tools for both practitioners and researchers.
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| 10. |
- Granheimer, Klara, et al.
(författare)
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Public procurement of engineering services : Governance and control mechanisms
- 2021
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Ingår i: Proceedings of the 37th Annual ARCOM Conference, ARCOM 2021. - : Association of Researchers in Construction Management. ; , s. 470-479
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Prior research has emphasized the importance of the early phases in construction projects. However, procuring engineering services for early phases is considered complex due to the high uncertainties and the information asymmetry favouring the service provider. This study explores public procurement of engineering services in the Swedish infrastructure sector, focusing on governance and control mechanisms. The purpose is to investigate the choice of governance and control mechanisms in engineering contracts from two perspectives, the public client's and the service providers. The findings are based on interviews with managers from the Swedish Transport Administration as well as from different engineering consulting companies. Findings indicate that the respondents from both sides seem to describe other choices and combinations of reward system and performance evaluation, compared to previous studies. This could be explained by the fact that the engineering contracts are less formalized than construction contracts in Sweden. This study shows that there are situations when clients have an information advantage in relation to their service suppliers and in-depth knowledge of the tasks procured, which affects the development of procurement strategies.
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