The demand for affordable, high-quality homes and premises has increased as society has evolved. Construction companies have shown that an industrialised housebuilding (IHB) platform strategy is an effective way of meeting exacting customer requirements. We decided to apply a managerial perspective and consider the IHB platform as a technological solution when investigating technology transfer (TT) in a construction context. Drawing on a meta-analysis of the literature and a qualitative case study at an IHB company, this work examines how two construction companies participate in TT. The results show that the IHB platform strategy can help a company overcome uncertainties associated with the TT process. Furthermore, the platform strategy supports the transferability of IHB to different markets, which, in turn, provides unique opportunities for companies from other contexts to enter the construction market. Our findings also revealed that CEOs from three construction companies were not only interested in TT due to potential profit improvements, but also considered how the process could benefit their employees and the community. This may be a result that is specific to Nordic culture or insight into a unique characteristic of the broad construction industry. This study contributes knowledge to the scarce research field of TT in a construction context. It provides evidence for how further cases of TT may disrupt the construction industry in terms of new business models or companies from the diverse field entering the market.

Purpose To further the understanding of industrialised house building (IHB) from a temporal, emergent corporate-ability perspective, this study aims to trace the build-up of corporate assets in an IHB company over time. The research draws on dynamic capabilities, acknowledging not only what assets the company have developed and currently are exploiting, but also how these assets were develop and managed (i.e. enhanced, combined, protected and potentially reconfigured) to sustain long-term competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach A case study design was used to form a narrative that covers the evolution of an IHB company over a 25-year period. Corporate archival material, analysis of original data from a large number of research studies during 1993-2013 and retrospective reflections of owners and managers, including crosschecking interpretations of archival material, developed and triangulated the narrative. Findings The study presents rich empirical findings on the build-up of corporate assets. Starting from a successive process of exploration and exploitation formation of dynamic capabilities eventually played out into an exponential dynamic capability build-up. The IHB case company displays the ability to not only continuously exploit and renew resources and competences, but also to sense, seize and reconfigure cumulative assets over time. The exponential development of dynamic capabilities resonates to literature on higher-order dynamic capabilities implying that: the accumulated and higher-order dynamic capabilities are difficult to imitate and a (any) company must possess higher-order dynamic capabilities to be able to exploit and/or take up IHB. Originality/value The study is complementing and potentially challenging frequent framings of the IHB concept. Previous research has addressed and characterised IHB mainly by encapsulating a moment in time and, thus, characteristics are momentary and represent static views on IHB. However, IHB has seen a strong development over the past 25 years, and the study reflects on this development from the perspective of one of the IHB-forerunner companies in Sweden. By exploring from a company perspective the developments, reconfiguration and capacity to develop/reconfigure over time in a changing environment, the study introduces an alternative understanding of IHB as dynamic capabilities.

Although it is well-established that industrialised construction can improve construction companies’ productivity, the uptake of industrialised ways of working has been slow and traditional construction companies remain unwilling to move towards industrialisation. One key reason is that there is little understanding of how construction companies can overcome path dependency (PD). Drawing on a longitudinal case study looking at an industrialised house-building (IHB) company, this work investigates how entrepreneurial orientation (EO) has influenced the development of a construction company that was able to transform from a traditional construction company to an IHB company over 25 years and to overcome PD in the process. The study found that by focusing on a niche market segment, developing a platform in collaboration with external actors, and an entrepreneurial mindset supported the company in overcoming its PD. However, being the “first-mover” in the industry created new path dependencies that may hinder other companies from entering this specific niche market area and the development of the industry as a whole. This study contributes to the theoretical buildup of EO, PD and strategic orientations of IHB companies, and contributes to practitioners’ understanding of IHB companies from a strategic management contingency perspective.

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Takt production and decentralized decision-making have been recent areas of interest in (lean) construction management research. Both have the potential to improve flow and contribute to increased production performance. Despite the interest, the efforts toward decentralization have not effectively considered the first-line workers; simultaneously, takt production studies suggest that neglection of workers’ involvement has led to implementation challenges and hampered flow. Thus, combining decentralized decision-making (including the involvement of the first-line workers) and takt production could have the potential for further improving production flow and performance. By utilizing design science research, this explorative single-case study aimed to evaluate the effect of decentralized decision-making and takt production to production flow through formulating, implementing, and validating a decentralized takt production framework. The primary data were collected from three production planning sessions and 17 semi-structured interviews, supported by site observations, resource tracking data, schedule data, cost data, and production progress reports. The framework formulation and validation were also supported by six expert workshops. The findings indicate that decentralization can be combined with takt production, aiding production flow. Good operations flow was especially aided by decentralized decision-making. These positive effects were supported by observations of improved utilization of site teams’ knowledge in planning, better commitment, communication, team-building process, and positive competition between teams. In addition, 23% duration savings were achieved in the production phase in which the framework was implemented. Also, stable resource utilization of trades was achieved. The decentralized decision-making practices were successfully implemented in the planning phase; however, the elements of decentralization were not adequately utilized in the control phase, resulting in the intended benefits not being obtained to their full potential magnitude. An extensive effort over single projects and organizations would be needed to gain all the intended benefits, while the competence to successfully operate with (decentralized) takt production increases with experience. The study makes scientific and managerial contributions to improving construction production planning and control practices and flow by exploring the combination of decentralized decision-making and takt production and by considering site teams and first-line workers’ viewpoints, which have been scarce in previous research.