The Impact of Innovation on The Competitiveness of Building Construction Projects

Abstract

The construction industry contributes immensely to the socioeconomic development of nations by building extensive infrastructure and production facilities. Additionally, this industry, being the largest employer worldwide, supports all other industries and strengthens labour markets. Hence, this study is focused on the relationship between innovation in construction and construction projects’ cost and schedule competitiveness. The research premise relies on projects’ and programs’ competitiveness influencing national construction activity, and ultimately boosting national economies and Gross Domestic Products (GDPs). The research created a novel methodology, using the triangulation method, to measure the use of innovative technology, techniques, and practices, in planning and executing building construction projects and examined the effect of this usage level on project competitiveness. Which results in creating Innovation in Construction Index tool (ICI) that measures innovation in any building construction project. This specific link had not been fully investigated in the relevant literature. The work done to date involved a few key attributes of innovation in the construction industry, so this study built on previous work by creating a complete framework for measuring the usage of key innovation attributes and designing a predictive model including cost and schedule competitiveness using linear regression by SAS. This model should assist in the decision-making process at owner, developer, and contractor companies, during the planning and execution of heavily funded projects. The ripple effect of this research should also extend to national policy via the local and national industry adaptation of the techniques and technologies.