Supply chain management in construction continues to attract considerable academic and industry interest. With its origin in manufacturing, successful implementation of supply chain management is argued to enhance customer value whilst simultaneously reducing business costs. In the UK construction industry, supply chain management strategies remain largely synonymous with best practice initiatives such as construction partnering, strategic alliances and more recently construction framework agreements. In contrast to this arguably misleading and impoverished viewpoint, the purpose of this research is to develop fresh perspectives and present a contextually sympathetic typology of supply chain management in construction.Drawing on new organizational institutionalism, economic governance and transactional cost economics (TCE), the utility and performance of supply chain management in construction is portrayed as rational choice among multiple strategies, instrumentally bound by contract and context. This contextually sensitive interpretation of supply chain management captures complex, diverse and often unique characteristics of construction practice. Challenging mainstream assessment of supply chain management can clearly help construction stakeholders focus attention on discrete supply chain strategies that best suit their organizational and project needs.

Largely taken for granted within the UK construction sector has been a view that supply chain management theory is robust, relevant and reliable. As such it has formed a substantial aspect of previous and contemporary policy and government funded research. Despite this, the prevailing view of its development and diffusion over the last 15 years within the construction industry has been problematic.Coincidentally, prevailing debates within the supply chain management academic community point to the lack of unified theory, models of diffusion and strong connections to organisation theory. Using Straussian grounded theory; iterations between data and organisation theory provided a fresh perspective on the development and diffusion of supply chain management in construction. This inductive research provided contextually rich explanations for development and diffusion that explicitly connected with and drew upon robust, relevant and reliable theories of institutions, innovation diffusion, triads, quasifirms and mechanisms of organizational governance. These explanations challenge the simplistic assumption that chains and networks of organisations are holistically managed and controlled by any single organisation or institution in the construction industry. The paper therefore shifts the debate away from proselytising supply chain management towards research that explores rigor, relevance and reliability of supply chain management assumptions in construction. The paper also exposes the gap between industry practice and policy and, questions the extent to which policy and practice do, or should, constitute a recursive relationship.

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Construction education is context-laden, navigating and reflecting the byzantine influences of period, place and person. Despite considerable rhetoric, in UK higher education and construction studies in particular the importance of contextualized teaching is being devalued. Over the past decade a growing number of new teaching staff to university lecturing has limited or no industrial experience of the construction sector. This paper explores the rise of the career academic in construction education and implications for teaching standards and student learning. Whilst career academics exhibit research skills and afford funding possibilities that universities find appealing, pedagogical studies suggest that experience-led, contextualized teaching offer students enhanced educational value. Policy-making and pedagogical strategies that continue to value research at the expense of teaching excellence coupled with recruitment of career academics as opposed to industry professionals present new challenges for construction education, teaching and student learning.

Purpose -Learning within the supply chain is widely considered to provide the basis for enhanced competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore the theory and current practice of organizational learning in UK construction supply chains.Design / methodology / approach -A qualitative research strategy is followed for this exploration of supply chain management and organizational learning. Research enquiry draws on semi-structured interviews with key construction supply chain stakeholders. The semi-structure interviews are recorded, transcribed and analysed via qualitative data analysis software.Findings -Careful examination of the transcripts reveal that whilst supply chain management practice in construction is limited, key schools of organizational learning are similarly underdeveloped. Findings disclose construction supply chain organizations routinely employ learning strategies that are best described as reactionary and interventionist.Research limitations / implications -Research was limited to the UK construction industry and encapsulates the assessment and evaluation of construction clients and first-tier supply chain members working within construction framework agreements. The perspectives of construction SME's were outwith the data set.Practical Implications -Underdeveloped organizational learning practices within supply chains present a significant barrier to the development and diffusion of supply chain management theory and practice in construction. In practical terms, the attainment of competitive advantage and the development of competing supply chain in construction would be extremely limited.Originality / value -Connecting organizational learning to the development and diffusion of supply chain management has been largely overlooked within the construction management literature. The research makes two notable contributions. First, the adaptation of a pragmatic and holistic organizational learning framework for the appraisal of learning strategies and second an evaluation of organizational learning in construction supply chains.