The continued adoption of housing systems in the Netherlands: A multiple case study

Abstract

Extensive governmental and industry efforts have been devoted to developing innovative housebuilding systems. However, it appears a challenge for housebuilding firms to move beyond their demonstration status and get their housing system adopted at a large scale and over a longer period. This is problematic since worsening developments concerning the environmental impact, poor production efficiency and a lack of client orientation of traditional building practices remains unsolved. This article describes a multiple case study on the continued adoption of innovative industrial housing systems. The multiple case study centers around a housing system which is generally considered as a rare example of an industrial housing system that has succeeded in the last 30 years in maintaining a leading position in the Dutch housing sector. This article analyses the reasons for this continued adoption in contrast to three industrial housing systems which had to abandon the market. The case study findings show that at least five mechanisms play a determining role in the eventual continued adoption: the regional presence of the builder; the builders’ operational excellence; a natural fit with existing technology standards; a competitive added value, and; the ability of the house-builder to keep pace with changing market requirements. An important lesson from this study is that, for continued adoption, one needs to stay alert and adapt the housing system to changing market requirements.