Entrepreneurial small New Zealand construction firms procuring non-incremental sustainable technology innovations

Date
2015-02-06
Authors
Staal, A
Tookey, J
Supervisor
Item type
Conference Contribution
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research Exchange, Business School, Queensland University of Technology
Abstract

Traditionally construction industries in New Zealand and abroad have a low track record for successful sustainable innovations. This has a negative impact on private and government spending, and on quality, society and the environment. This conceptual paper posits that the construction industry needs non-incremental (i.e. architectural, system, radical, modular) sustainable technology innovations to make drastic improvements. Such innovations often come from entrepreneurial (small) firms from other industries or at the beginning of supply chains and must be procured and adopted further into such chains. However, after an extensive literature review it remains unclear how entrepreneurial firms procure non-incremental sustainable technology innovations for the construction industry. The paper focuses on procurement activities of entrepreneurial firms in the New Zealand context. These activities interact with (internal and external) innovation activities for an optimal firm performance. They are affected by clusters of internal and external variables. The paper discusses extant literature, a conceptual framework, main propositions, research aims and the choice for a focus group method. It is part of a doctoral project.

Description
Keywords
Construction & building industry , Entrepreneurs / small firms , New Zealand , Nonincremental technology innovations , Procurement , Sustainability
Source
Australian Centre Entrepreneurial Research Exchange held at Aidelade, Australia, 2015-02-03 to 2015-02-06, published in: ACERE 2015 Proceedings, vol.11th Annual Conference, pp.966 - 985 (15)
DOI
Rights statement
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version).