John E. Taylor and Raymond Levitt recently won the Virginia Tech "Beacon of Excellence" ASCE CRC 2007 Best Paper Award at the Construction Research Congress Meetings held on Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas, on 6-8 May 2007.

The authors present a model to explain the diffusion of innovations in project and construction networks.

The paper title, authors and abstract are as follows:

TITLE: Aligning Innovations to Design and Construction Networks

AUTHOR: John E. Taylor; University of Texas, Austin.
AUTHOR: Raymond Levitt; Stanford University.

ABSTRACT: Innovation research to date has predominantly focused on hierarchically-organized bureaucratic organizations competing within single markets. Meanwhile, researchers report a proliferation in the use of interorganizational networks within and across industries. Researchers have debated whether the evolution to interorganizational networks promotes or stifles innovation. We argue that these contradictory findings result from a failure to link innovation implementation processes to diffusion outcomes. In this paper, we resolve this contradiction by inducing a new model for innovation in project networks that integrates dual perspectives. The model is based on cross-national diffusion data from three technological innovations in 3D CAD and related implementation data from 82 design and construction firms.

KEYWORDS: 3D CAD, Innovation, Construction Networks, Technology Implementation

Posted by rjorr at May 10, 2007 5:48 PM