Innovation In Construction Industry Research Articles

AI-based virtual assistant and transformational leadership in social cognitive theory perspective: a study of team innovation in construction industry

PurposeThis study social based on cognitive theory (SCT), aims to better understand how transformational leadership affects team-level knowledge sharing and absorptive ability in the construction industry. It also examines the moderating influence of the AI-based virtual assistant on the indirect relationship between transformational leadership and team innovation through knowledge sharing and absorptive ability at the team level.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a simple random sample approach to gather data from several small and medium-sized construction firms in Anhui Province, China. A total of 407 respondents, including 89 site engineers and 321 team members, provided their responses on a five-point Likert scale questionnaire.FindingsThe findings showed that AI-based virtual assistants significantly moderated the direct and indirect association between transformational leadership and knowledge sharing, and subsequently with team innovation. Unexpectedly, the findings showed that AI-based virtual assistant did not moderate the direct relationship between transformational leadership and team-level absorptive capacity.Originality/valueThis study adds a fresh perspective to the literature on construction management by examining team innovation driven by transformational leadership through an underlying mechanism. It is unique in that it uses the team adaptation theory to investigate the understudied relationship between transformational leadership and team innovation in the construction industry.

The Evolutionary Characteristics of Technological Innovation in the Construction Industry Based on the Perspective of Technology-Social System

Modern engineering and technology science are an indispensable bridge between scientific principles and industrial development, and engineering research and development. This article studies the scientific and technological awards in the field of civil construction in China from the perspective of the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) theory from 2000 to 2020. It constructs an evolutionary framework of "four systems, two mechanisms, and one nature" for technological innovation in China's construction industry. Using LDA topic model, it analyzed the development trend of scientific and technological achievements. The study found that the evolutionary development of the technological system in the construction industry is a complex process of self-organization and collaboration. The external manifestation of the evolutionary process of the construction industry's technological system is "self-creation." The accumulation of technology and cross-disciplinary integration continuously provide momentum for the self-organizing evolution of the technological system. The "random fluctuations" caused by the synergy of technology, demand, industry, and policies have promoted the sustainable and rapid development of the construction industry. Technology innovation and economic reciprocity are driven by market demand, guided by major national strategies, and the expansion of the industry broadens the boundaries of technology innovation.

Green Innovation in Construction Industry and in Public Works Procurement in Hungary - Review

The construction industry is an important industry that determines the national economy of almost every country. Due to its productivity, the number of people it employs, and the number of enterprises involved, it is also decisive for other industries. The facilities completed as a result of public works often outlast their dreamers by decades, so it is very important that the construction industry is open to the innovative development of its operations, products and elements that provide infrastructure for others. The basic hypothesis of our study is that although a rapid regeneration took place in the construction industry after the pandemic situation, which is also supported by the number of public procurement procedures for Hungarian public works, the proportion of procedures using innovative solutions is low, as is the case with sustainability aspects. We also assumed that the share of public procurement procedures integrating R&D results and innovation partnerships is low compared to domestic public procurement.

Construction Industry Innovation Takes Aim at Reducing Carbon Emissions

Construction Industry Innovation Takes Aim at Reducing Carbon Emissions

An investigation into the relationship between diversity, leadership and innovation in the South African construction industry

Without a diverse leadership and workforce, in the South African construction industry innovation is hindered and slowed, resulting in a weakened ability to respond to a fast paced and technologically driven market and economical changes, which has a direct impact on organisational growth. Little is known about the role of leadership in managing the relationship between diversity and innovation in the South African construction industry. The construction industry has not been responsive to market changes and therefore slow to innovate. This rapidly evolving contextual landscape requires a more diverse workforce in order to address these challenges. This paper presents the findings from a study that investigated and analysed the role of leadership in managing the relationship between diversity and innovation in the construction industry. In this context leadership is described as the ability to select, equip, train, and influence one or more followers who have diverse gifts, abilities, and skills and focuses the followers to the organisation’s mission and objectives. Diversity are described as age, ethnicity, cultural background, gender, race and capabilities. Innovation is described as the implementation of ideas that have come together to create new solutions to problems or improvements to existing systems, processes, products, or attempted solutions.

Productivity and innovation in the Japanese construction industry

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the essential elements required for innovation in the construction industry. To this end, the authors assessed the innovation at three levels: the firm growth account level, the firm behaviour level and the level of the firm’s experts. The factors influencing innovation at each level were identified and synthesised into guiding strategies for innovation.Design/methodology/approachThree methods were combined to develop a mode of thinking for innovation. First, at the semi-macro level, the authors identified the factors that influence the total factor productivity (TFP) by regressing the TFP across firms of the construction industry on a variety of extrinsic factors. Second, at the firm level, the authors extracted actual innovative firms from a large amount of public procurement individual data. The authors analysed the behaviours of these innovative firms. Third, the authors conducted a survey of expert-level personnel. In addition, a text analysis was performed to determine what was perceived by experts as a factor that leads to innovation.FindingsThe authors analysed the TFP, the behaviour of innovative firms and the perception issues between industry experts and stakeholders regarding innovation. As a result, two factors were identified. The first factor was the expectation of a positive solution to the problem through monopoly profits, future benefits and increased efficiency. The second factor was peer pressure from other organisations of a similar nature, peer pressure from users and technical information, as well as competitive conditions, e.g. recent environmental growth, including relevant innovations.Practical implicationsIn the context of innovation, static and dynamic thinking were important requirements. Static concepts were based on the accumulation of knowledge, such as patents and technological progress. Dynamic thinking involved a future outlook, including a competitive environment as a necessary condition. Actual technological innovation was driven by incentives and expectations.Social implicationsAccording to the results of this study, the authors make the following recommendations for enhancing the construction-industry innovation in Japan: do not rely on a patent policy to drive innovation, create an environment that encourages competition and develop an ongoing initiative that encourages and rewards innovation.Originality/valueThis study was novel, in that the nature of innovation was investigated at three levels: the TFP, firm behaviour and expert perceptions. The identification and extraction of the two resulting points – statically necessary and dynamically necessary elements – was a significant contribution of the study.

Accident and innovation in construction industry: Learning by doing to prevent accidents and improve the production

The development of construction processes and systems aimed at technological innovations that can effectively contribute to the evolution of the construction process of a building is currently a reality. The aim of this study is to analyze the interaction between learning by doing and the implementation of changes (innovation) during the construction process of a building. Applying ergonomic work analysis, which is supported by a specific ethnographic study during the construction process of a residential building, it was possible to highlight and classify the cases with implications for the implementation of changes (innovation). The results show how execution actors at the level of implementation, through learning by doing, enable the implementation of change (innovation) during the construction process and the consequent improvement of the construction process, not only in terms of quality and productivity, but also in terms of worker safety, preventing “minor accidents or incidents”. However, learning by doing and the determining factors that hinder its application remain contained at the level of the execution actors and no make managers of the construction process able to absorb operational experiences and preventing recurrent problems (“minor accidents or incidents”). This study underlines how learning by doing allows the implementation of changes (innovation) during the process of building a building. Furthermore, findings are potentially transferable to other areas such as that of organizational factors, ethnographic observations, innovations, construction process, learning, accident analysis, knowledge management and learning processes.

Structural Equation Model of the Factors Affecting Construction Industry Innovation Success

Innovation is seen as one of the major factors to improve construction industry despite conventional structure of the industry impede implementation of its practices. A convenient solution to promote innovation or force the companies to adopt it, is the legal regulations that can be set forth by the decision makers of whom aware and prevailed of the macro benefits of innovation practices. However, the impact of innovation practices on industry indicators was not defined adequately to understand those benefits. This study aims to reveal the relationship between company-level innovation success measures and industry-level innovation success indicators. Therefore, a comprehensive literature review was performed to determine those success measures and indicators and the results were validated with an illustrative case study. The outputs of the case study was used to construct structural equation model exhibiting the interdependencies between factors. The study results approved that there is a significant relationship between the innovation practices of construction companies and construction industry innovation. According to the results, increase in competitive advantage among rivals and improved reputation were seen as the two highest indicators in the company-level. Additionally, the study showed that the most important innovation success indicator at the industry-level was found as “employment and new job opportunities”.

Mechanical Properties of Hardened 3D Printed Concretes and Mortars-Development of a Consistent Experimental Characterization Strategy.

Today, it is already foreseeable that additive manufacturing of mortar and concrete has groundbreaking potential and will revolutionize or at least fundamentally change the way we build. In recent years, 3D concrete printing (3DCP) with extrusion-based deposition methods has been pushed forward by a growing research community. Albeit being regarded one of the most promising innovations in construction industry, a consistent characterization methodology for assessing the constitutive behavior of 3D printed, hardened cementitious materials is missing, so far, which hinders its widespread use in engineering practice. The major objective of this paper is to fill this gap by developing a new experimental framework that can thoroughly describe the mechanical properties of 3D printed cementitious materials. Based on both a review of state-of-the-art test setups and a comprehensive experimental campaign, the present paper proposes a set of easy-to-use experimental methods that allow us to assess flexural, tensile, shear and compressive strength as well as fracture energy of 3D printed concretes and mortars in a reliable and reproducible manner. The experimental results revealed anisotropic material behavior for flexural, tensile, shear and compressive loading. Furthermore, they confirm that interval time (time gap between deposition of subsequent layers) has a crucial effect on investigated material properties leading to a severe reduction in strength and fracture energy for longer interval times.

Evolutionary Characteristics of Project Interdependent Network within National Quality Award Projects of China

The research on the evolutionary law of project interdependent network is the innovation in construction industry. Based on the complex network theory and method, this research establishes the projectproject correlation network, and it is built based on the actual case of the National Quality Award Projects of China (NQAPC). We aim to systematically analyze the structural characteristics and evolution mechanism of the project interdependent network by using global network parameters. As network size increases, the degree follows power-law distribution, the average path length tends to decrease, and the clustering coefficient and heterogeneity gradually increases. The research results may help managers achieve higher performance in strategic network management of construction projects.

Base Isolation Method for Earthquake Resistant Buildings

The field of engineering is as dynamic as the world we live in and so is the requirement of innovation in construction industry. One such innovation is base isolation method. From the result of the study, base isolation method is found to be highly optimistic for the safety of structures.
 We met with different engineers regarding structure engineering and earthquake engineering. Through their recommendation, we visited National Society of Earthquake Technology (NSET) and Earthquake Safety Solution (ESS) which gave us chance to meet with Daniell King and Harry Toward who were researching in Nepal about base isolation method. We visited a village named Sankhu ward No.4 near Nepal Engineering College. We asked people how feasible this project can be. Many people showed positive responses towards it. Then we went to Sankhu Municipality for the collection of secondary data. So especially in developing countries like Nepal, this project will give a lot of benefit. Further it is expected to give better results than other resistive methods.

Disruptive technological innovations in construction field and fourth industrial revolution intervention in the achievement of the sustainable development goal 9

Innovation has been described as a vehicle of development. This research therefore address the question of relevance of fourth industrial revolution in providing backbone for disruption that could make sustainable development goal 9 achievable. The purpose of the study is to marry the intervention of disruptive innovation within the context of fourth industrial revolution and how it could help achieve SDG goal 9. Quantitative approach was used in carrying out the research while random sampling technique was used to pick samples randomly across the study area. Sample frame of 100 was picked while sample size of 50 samples was picked from the population frame. Questionnaire designed in Likert scale 1–5 was used for the study. The following results were presented, the need for disruptive innovation in construction field, state of disruption in construction operation in construction industry, factors affecting technological disruption [td], level of awareness of disruptive technology in the built environment, critical success factor in application of disruptive technologies, major drivers of disruptive innovations in construction industry and their functionalities. The study later proposed route for deployment of disruptive application in sustainable construction and achieving millennium development goal through disruptive innovations. Disruptive innovation is the key to desired technological development.

Human Hair as Fiber Reinforced Concrete for Enhancement of Tensile Strength of Concrete

FRC (Fibre Reinforced Concrete) is fibrous material which increases its structural integrity, resists to explosive spalling in case of environmental affects, improves mix cohesion, improves ductility, reduces of steel reinforcement requirements and reduces the voids due to good stiffness. It contains short discrete fibres that are uniformly distributed. Mostly, natural fibers are the waste material which may have negative impact on environment. Synthetic fibres include steel fibres and glass fibres but natural fibres are coconut fibres and human hair fibres which tends to vary the properties to concrete. In addition, the character of FRC changes with varying concrete, fibre material, geometries, distribution, orientation and densities. Hair fibre concrete gives a practical, cost-effective and convenient method to avoid cracks and deficiencies regarding strength and proper mixing ratio which occurs at a longer period. Fibres have been used to reduce plastic shrinkage and drying shrinkage in concrete. In some structural elements, fibrous concrete can be used to reduce the cost of structure. Different fibres are used to improve the tensile strength of concrete. Human hair are strong in tension. Hair fibres can be utilized as a strengthening material. Hair fibre is a non-decay able matter and available at a cheap rate. Experiments have been performed on fibrous concrete cylinders containing various percentages of human hair which is 0, 0.5, 1 and 1.5% by the weight of cement. A total of seventy-two cylinders have been prepared with FRC having different %ages of hair content. Workability, compressive strength and split tensile strength have been checked at three curing ages i.e. 7, 14 and 28 days. This research will open a new wicket in the horizon of reuse of waste material efficiently in construction industry. This innovation in construction industry will save our natural resources and use fibre in productive and an effective approach.

Nanotechnology Innovations in Construction Industry and Environmental Sustainability

Nanotechnology is a speedily increasing and innovating range of research, where advanced characteristics of resources manufactures on the nanoscale can be exploited as advantages for people at large through various methods or mechanisms of construction. Being a varied technical and scientific arena that brings and covers numerous application kinds, the contribution of nanotechnological innovations is immense for various sectors of construction industries. It also possesses a large future potential for ecological efficiency, which is dire need of the hour. In construction industry there are many factors involved to achieve the major goal of sustainability like smart design, planning through which energy can be saved, resource usage can be reduced and environmental damage can be avoided. No doubt, the application of nanotechnology materials and its various causes on the atmosphere and living organisms are not clearly defined yet which can become a problem. For instance, leakage of materials into the water resources, and seas, as well, discharge of nanoparticles into the air generating dust and exposure to harmful materials during various construction, maintenance and use etc. Considering tremendous revolution in Nanotechnological field there is an important aspect in relation to the impact of nanoparticles and nanomaterials on human health and environment which should be discussed at length. This paper intends to give a research review of current and near future, safety and eco-efficiency applications of nanotechnology to not only improve and maintain but also deal with certain future challenges and directions related to the sustainable development.

A co-evolutionary approach to understanding construction industry innovation in renovation practices for low-carbon outcomes

Energy consumption in buildings is a large contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions. Renovations of existing buildings can reduce their impact by integrating technologies which increase efficiency or generate renewable energy on-site. Doing this well and at scale is a collective action problem, which transcends the agency of individual entrepreneurs. This article reports a cross-case comparison of four previous studies focused on low-energy renovation of housing, using a co-evolutionary framework in which five systems are mutually interdependent: ecosystems, technologies, user practices, business strategies and institutions. Innovations across the five systems are described in terms of variations, selection pressures and transmission. The analysis draws out common themes from the four previous studies and to reflect on how well the co-evolutionary framework accounts for innovation in the particular field of housing renovation for low-energy outcomes. Business strategies emerge as an important (and often neglected) source of innovation. The framework generally accounts for innovation in this area quite well, although two important issues are a less easy fit: The use of energy (and other finite resources) is rather indirectly accounted for by the term ‘ecosystems’ and the complexity of interactions between multiple users, businesses and technologies is partly elided.

Penetration of cement pastes into sand packings during 3D printing: analytical and experimental study

3D printing processes of concrete and cement based materials could bring architectural and structural innovation in construction industry. Additive manufacturing and digital fabrication methods in civil engineering have recently been developed at laboratory scale. Among the 3D printing processes that could bring new perspectives in innovative and designed architectural elements, one of the most interesting is called the selective paste intrusion method. The component is built layer by layer by selectively applying cement paste on an aggregate packing using a 3D printer nozzle and a subsequent penetration of the paste into the aggregate layer. The implementability of the selective paste intrusion method requires the prediction of the flow of a yield stress fluid through a porous media. The rheological behaviour of the cement paste must be adapted for its penetration through the porous network of the aggregate particle packing. An adequate penetration depth of the cement paste produces homogeneous materials that are capable of sustaining a high mechanical stress. We show in this paper that the compressive strength of component made by such a technique is directly linked to the penetration depth of the cement paste into the aggregate layer; consequently, this paper aims at predicting the penetration depth of cement pastes into sand layers. A theoretical framework has been developed to propose an evaluation of penetration depth as a function of the average sand grain diameter and the yield stress of the cement paste, which is experimentally validated with specific penetration measurements. Finally, we stress that the prediction of penetration with an analytical model is an effective technique to ensure building homogeneous cement based materials with the 3D printing selective binding method.

Human Capital, HRM Practices and Organizational Performance in Pakistani Construction Organizations: The Mediating Role of Innovation

Human capital and human resource management practices play a vital role in success of any organization. When employees feel satisfy with human resource policies of an organization they give their best to increase the organizational performance. Construction industry provides job opportunities to large number of people in all over the world.In Pakistan, construction industry is making progress with rapid rate. To investigate the importance of human resources in organizational performance, a research was carried out to check the influence of human capital and human resource management practices on organizational performance with the mediating role of innovation in construction industry of Pakistan. The data for this study was collected from the 315 employees from construction companies of Pakistan through structured questionnaires using simple random sampling. Data analysis technique like structural equation modeling was applied using SPSS AMOS. The findings indicated that human capital and human resource management practices are positively associated with organizational performance. Also, innovation mediates the relationship between independent variables (human capital & HRM practices) and organizational performance in construction industry of Pakistan.

Assessing construction innovation: theoretical and practical perspectives

Innovation is key for productivity improvement and advancements in different sectors of the economy, including the construction sector. The criticism of the slow pace of innovation in construction industry may be unwarranted, considering the structure of the industry and nature of the construction business. The loosely coupled nature of firms, mostly Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s), delivering ‘projects’ through partial engagement, together with the distinction between the project innovation and firm innovation makes it difficult to extract innovations in a meaningful way. The problem also lies in conceptualising, defining, articulating and assessing innovation in construction. The literature is replete with research into construction innovation, however, there is limited research into understanding how innovation is perceived and narrated in practice. The paper aims to explore how innovation is assessed and narrated in construction, specifically analysing theory and practice perspectives. A theoretical model was constructed from a structured literature review illustrating existing discourse and narratives of construction innovation assessment. A qualitative analysis of ‘Professional Excellence in Building’ submission documents to the Australian Institute of Building was performed to identify the practice perspective of innovation. The findings suggest that internal organizational and process innovation account for the majority of improvements identified. Importantly a taxonomy of narrative is developed that articulates how the construction industry in Australia views industry innovation.

The Integrated Approach for Introducing Innovation in construction Industry

DOI 10.5592/otmcj.2013.2.2 Research paper Nowadays, innovations in construction companies increase work productivity, hence, the effectiveness of company economy is improved. Basically, innovation is risky and the chance of success seems small, which usually discourages the construction companies to go for it. However, only the companies which will be dynamic and open enough, and thereby capable of responding to the challenges of globalisation, are going to survive. This article offers an overview of the state of the innovation activity in Slovenia, and discusses the impact and problems of introduction of innovation in the construction industry. The integrated approach for the implementation of innovations in construction industry is given within the basic factors for a successful implementation and relevant elements resulting from the internal and external environment. Regarding to the elements of research, possible forms of innovation, benefits of innovation and the inhibitors that limited its assertion are conducted. Further discussed are the factors and the participants which majorly influence the occurrence of innovation in construction industry. Among factors, we have considered participants who can aid at implementing innovation. Those are: the investors, the companies which produce construction products, engineers, architects, the providers of the technical support, and the main building contractors. In the last part of the article, a general overview of two non-technological approaches for expanding innovation is given, with the emphasis on partnership and supply chain management. Martina Semic El-Masri Geomass s.p.; Maribor, Slovenia tina.semic@gmail.com Natasa Suman

Innovation and interorganizational cooperation: a synthesis of literature

PurposeIn construction, literature interorganizational cooperation is argued to be an important aspect of construction innovation. From this perspective, several distinct bodies of literature provide relevant insights. In literature on complex product systems (CoPS), it is argued that construction industry is a CoPS industry and that in CoPS industries systems integrators set‐up and coordinate interorganizational innovation. Furthermore, various bodies of literature provide information about factors that affect the success of innovation and interorganizational cooperation. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the findings from these bodies of literature.Design/methodology/approachTo uncover the present state of knowledge about systems integrators, a comprehensive literature review is conducted. Furthermore, the paper analyzes various fields of literature to derive an overview of factors which have been empirically related to the success of innovation and interorganizational cooperation.FindingsFirst, this paper structures the current knowledge on the role and characteristics of systems integrators. Subsequently, the paper translates this knowledge to the context of construction industry and discusses the basis for classifying a firm as a systems integrator in construction industry. Furthermore, the paper presents a list of relevant success factors derived from literature on new product development, strategic networks and alliances, open innovation, and construction innovation.Originality/valueBy integrating various bodies of literature, this paper provides a solid base for future theory development on how firms achieve interorganizational innovation in construction industry.