From Focus on Price to the Pyramid of Innovation, Information, Cooperation, Value and Trust: A Success Story of Five Swedish Building Material Manufacturers

Jan Sundqvist

doi:10.5130/ajceb.v8i2.3002

Abstract

In the building sector, value for thecustomer, is often regarded as being valuefor money and this, in turn, is achieved bymeans of competitive tendering. However,there are companies that also focus oninnovation as a competitive parameter intheir contribution; hereafter referred to asinnovative companies. Five managingdirectors from innovative companies inSweden were interviewed about howinnovation is dealt with in their respectivecompanies. As well as the importance ofinformation, this study points to twoadditional important factors for innovation,namely cooperation with a carefullychosen partner and the transference ofvalues to the employees. Those innovativecompanies made careful choices and usemeans of information, cooperation, valueand vision to create innovation in order tobuild trust for the company and for itsproducts and services.

Highlights

Some companies use genericThe construction sector has shown to be capable of building complicated structures
The purpose of this study is to study processes of innovation, information, cooperation, value and vision used in innovative companies within the building sector
It would appear that better innovation processes are connected to better processes of information and, poorer information processes lead to poorer innovation (Larsson et al, 2006)

Summary

Introduction

The construction sector has shown to be capable of building complicated structures. It has at the same time, been accused of being non-innovative and conservative. Governmental reports have been written on the subject, such as, for instance, Rethinking Construction, (Egan Report in UK, 1998) and Skärpning Gubbar (Pull up your socks chaps, SOU 2002:115 in Sweden). The complaints management methods such as Total. They are oriented towards continuous improvements (Chen and Jones, 2007). Have a built in system to acquire new ideas of products and services. The employees are encouraged to suggest changes in production and improvements of products or services in order to improve performance

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Discussion

Conclusion