Assessing Infrastructure Project Innovation Potential as a Function of Procurement Mode

Abstract

The delivery of infrastructure projects as long-term capital investments is impacted in most cases by critical issues of budget constraints, program delays, quality and safety concerns, and an increasingly complex stakeholder environment. Innovation, as it relates to the physical, process, organizational/contractual, and financial/revenue dimensions of a project, has a central role to play in not only contributing to the requirements set for a wide variety of project performance metrics but also improving upon them. Proposed in this paper is a theory in the form of a set of factors (drivers/inhibitors to innovation) and related state values that influence the potential for the identification and adoption of innovations that improve project efficiency or offer increased value. This theory is embedded in a supporting assessment framework to assist with selecting and structuring a project’s procurement mode to enhance the innovation potential of a project from the perspective of a government agency tasked wi...