Managing Collaborative Innovations with Suppliers A Case Study within the Construction Industry

Abstract

Innovation is an important area for business in general which has been highlighted during the last decades. However, the construction industry has been lagging behind with innovations. This is among other things explained by characteristics within the industry such as project based organisation, low profit margins, a highly regulated market, a lack of competitors and a general low demand of innovation. Suppliers have been identified as a possible generator for innovation with the benefit with specific expertise and a possibility to share risks. This master thesis is a case study of a large construction company which is refereed to as Construction Sweden. The master thesis investigates how Construction Sweden can be innovative in collaboration with suppliers and gives recommendation to the company on how to move forward. The research issues in this report aim at investigate the current processes and factors influencing the ability to be innovative in collaboration with suppliers and the Procurement organisation is the focal point. This is investigated through a context developed model which includes different factors that are identified as important for Construction Sweden to consider in order to work more with collaborative innovations with suppliers. The main finding of this master thesis is that there is a great potential with collaborative innovations with suppliers at Construction Sweden. In general, Construction Sweden is an attractive partner for the suppliers and has successfully established close relationships with suppliers. This is an important prerequisite for collaborative innovations with suppliers but there are some organisational issues which need to be taken care of in order to achieve more collaborative innovations. For example changes with the processes, transfer of knowledge and distribution of responsibility. This master thesis is focusing on Construction Sweden but we believe that the developed model and the result from this case can be applied on other companies as well, both within the construction industry but also within industries with similar characteristics.