Championing and promoting innovation in UK megaprojects

In this article we explore the role of innovation champions and the ways innovation is championed and promoted in five selected UK megaprojects. To date, this research area is surprisingly under-explored in the megaproject management literature. The study is based on thirty interviews with innovation champions to capture their own perceptions and narratives on the ways innovation is stimulated and promoted in megaprojects, combined with relevant textual materials. Innovation was commonly defined as a step change or best practice that creates value that could be financial, environmental, societal etc. The data demonstrate the role of CEOs and their collaboration with innovation champions and academic partners in introducing innovation into the vocabulary of megaprojects, developing and formalising innovation strategy, and transferring experiences across megaprojects. The data show the ways different communication channels are used to promote innovations by champions such as forums, portals, platforms, campaigns, events etc.     

Managerial identity work in action: performative narratives and anecdotal stories of innovation

Innovation is invariably accepted as a central component of construction sector competitiveness. Yet, there remains a paucity of empirical research, which explores the gap between the way innovation is promoted in the policy discourse and how it is interpreted in practice. We follow the “narrative turn” in organization studies to explore the ways in which senior executives in the UK construction sector ascribe themselves with informal roles while advocating the cause of innovation. Empirical data is derived from narrative interviews with 32 senior executives who self-identify as “innovation champions”. When talking about innovation, the respondents were found to oscillate between performative narratives of innovation and more personalized stories derived from their own experience. The narratives were invariably pre-rehearsed often to the point of being monotonous. In contrast, the personalized stories tended to be engaging and emotionally laden. The tendency for senior executives to oscillate between narratives and stories is seen as an important means through which they search for meaning while at the same time legitimizing their self-identities as “innovation champions”. Of particular note is the way in which senior managers self-ascribe themselves with informal roles which are notably at odds with those described in more formalized narratives.     

A hierarchical structural model of assessing innovation and project performance

Research in construction innovation highlights construction industry as having many barriers and resistance to innovations and suggests that it needs champions. A hierarchical structural model is presented, to assess the impact of the role of the project manager (PM) on the levels of innovation and project performance. The model adopts the structural equation modelling technique and uses the survey data collected from PMs and project team members working for general contractors in Singapore. The model fits well to the observed data, accounting for 24%, 37% and 49% of the variance in championing behaviour, the level of innovation and project performance, respectively. The results of this study show the importance of the championing role of PMs in construction innovation. However, in order to increase their effectiveness, such a role should be complemented by their competency and professionalism, tactical use of influence tactics, and decision authority. Moreover, senior management should provide adequate resources and a sustained support to innovation and create a conducive environment or organizational culture that nurtures and facilitates the PM's role in the construction project as a champion of innovation.     

The effect of Six Sigma projects on innovation and firm performance

The paper develops a theoretical base for the effect of Six Sigma projects on innovation and firm performance. It has been proposed that Six Sigma projects enhance technological innovation of the firms; however, they are beneficial for firms in stable environments. Since Six Sigma programs are focused on variance reduction and efficiency, these initiatives are not very effective in dynamic environments, where the rate of technological change is dramatic. With their emphasis on variance-reduction and efficiency Six Sigma programs can be effective in enhancing incremental innovation. In addition, due to the focus of Six Sigma projects on existing customers, they may impede innovation for new customers. Accordingly, implementing Six Sigma projects in fast pace environments with high level of innovation and change may be a challenge, and may not result in the expected outcome. Building upon theories form process management and quality management the paper proposes several propositions to address the effect of Six Sigma projects on innovation and firm performance.     

The integrative role of the project management office in the front end of innovation

This research addresses management control in the front end of innovation projects. We conceptualize and analyze PMOs more broadly than just as a specialized project-focused organizational unit. Building on theories of management control, organization design, and innovation front end literature, we assess the role of PMO as an integrative arrangement. The empirical material is derived from four companies. The results show a variety of management control mechanisms that can be considered as integrative organizational arrangements. Such organizational arrangements can be considered as an alternative to a non-existent PMO, or to complement a (non-existent) PMO's tasks. The paper also contrasts prior literature by emphasizing the desirability of a highly organic or embedded matrix structure in the organization. Finally, we propose that the development path of the management approach proceeds by first emphasizing diagnostic and boundary systems (with mechanistic management approaches) followed by intensive use of interactive and belief systems (with value-based management approaches). The major contribution of this paper is in the organizational and managerial mechanisms of a firm that is managing multiple innovation projects. This research also expands upon the existing PMO research to include a broader management control approach for managing projects in companies.     

Living in the lab: an analysis of the work in eight living laboratories set up in care homes for technology innovation

Examinations of living labs are scarce even though the approach is increasingly used as an opportunity to bring design activities into real-life use context and consequently facilitate cooperations between designers and users in future technology innovation. Furthermore, examinations of living labs that focus on the people living in the labs do not exist. This paper presents a study of eight living labs set up in care homes for innovation in health technologies and focuses on the work carried out by care workers, service staff, residents and management, i.e. people living and working in the labs. The analysis reveals a comprehensive system of work carried out by people living and working in the labs and identifies that linking the lab-work-system to the ongoing existing work-system is a major challenge. The study demonstrates that the work of people living and working in the labs is critical to the success of living labs and recommends greater focus on work balance, user gains and collaborative innovation in living lab theories and methods.     

浅析高速公路设计阶段的造价控制

为了有效控制工程造价,分析了目前高速公路设计阶段造价控制存在的问题,并从设计管理、技术创新、科学理论指导等方面采取相应的措施,从而提高工程设计质量和投资资金的效率。     

企业集群创新系统及其结构分析

近年来,企业集群越来越成为区域经济和产业经济发展的重要形式,其健康、持续发展日益得到理论界和企业界的关注,如何提升企业集群创新能力显得越来越重要。综合应用企业集群和创新管理的相关理论和方法,深入探讨了企业集群创新系统的特征、构成要素和结构关系,以期对于认识和推动企业集群创新系统的形成和运行有所助益。     

Achieving the unlikely: innovating in the loosely coupled construction system

Previous research suggests that a characteristic of the construction industry is a lack of technological innovation. Since this is seen as a problem, much theoretical development within construction management focuses on explaining the lack of innovation. Less effort has been expended on using such explanatory theories for investigating those rare exceptions in which construction firms succeed in the unlikely: successfully developing a new technology. This article makes use of the recently suggested framework by Dubois and Gadde. They describe the construction industry as a ‘loosely coupled system’ with four types of couplings, discuss why the particular mix of couplings in the construction system leads to a lack of innovation, and suggest types of couplings that construction firms should experiment with and change in order to boost innovation. A case study of a contractor developing a new technology is presented in terms of Dubois and Gadde's concepts and implications. The findings partly support and partly contradict their hypotheses. It seems that innovation is possible even if only a few of the existing couplings are changed. The most important changes relate to the tightening of intrafirm sequential inter‐project couplings enabling learning from project to project, and contract‐related couplings especially the design‐construction interface.     

知识管理及其在监理企业中应用的研究

知识已成为继劳动力和资本之后的第三大经济增长要素,处于知识经济中的监理企业也在追求组织绩效的同时,体验到了知识管理为企业带来的巨大变革。知识管理改变了监理企业经营的时空观,彰显了智力密集型企业的巨大潜力。论文利用知识管理有关理论,结合监理公司实践,论述了知识积累、知识共享与知识创新过程,指出了监理企业在显性知识与隐性知识互动过程中的知识管理方法,体现了知识管理在监理企业持续组织绩效提高,以及监理企业核心竞争力动态培育过程中的根基作用,阐明了知识资源的资本化为监理企业持续创新之源的主题。     

中国城市规划理论及相关期刊述评

中国城市规划实践已到了“归纳、总结、锤炼、提升”的时候,着力构建适合中国国情,城市化特点与城市问题的城市规划理论成为时势所需。研究中国的城市化特点,立足于中国特色的城市问题,城市规划理论的发展必须跳出传统城市规划的狭小圈子,在更大的范围内思考城市,汲取更多相关边缘学科的营养,将建筑学的工具理性与地理学的地域思维相结合,并融合经济学、社会学、管理学、生态学的人文关怀,城市规划理论才会不断创新。众多城市规划类期刊必将担当起城市规划理论创新与实践探索的但是导者和传播者的角色。     

The project-oriented organization and its contribution to innovation

This paper presents a new conceptualization of the project-oriented organization. The project-oriented organization is conceptualized as an entrepreneurial, future- and stakeholder-oriented innovating organization, which uses projects as temporary, task-focused organizations, to define, develop, and implement its strategies, to transform its structure, culture and behavior, and to define and develop new products, services, and business models. The concept of the project-oriented organization consists of the three segments (1) values, (2) structures, and (3) people. For each segment three important areas are described, which characterize a project-oriented organization. The model is theoretically based on a wide spectrum of management disciplines: (1) The orientations in the value segment have been developed in entrepreneurship, strategic management and technology and innovation management; (2) The foundations for the design of the socio-technical artefacts in the structure segment of derived from organizational design, planning and controlling, and ICT systems theory; (3) The foundations for the elements of the human side come from organizational behavior, human resource management, and knowledge management theories. Our model shows a clear linkage to these theories, references key articles, and gives special consideration to empirical studies in the realm of projects, programs, project portfolios, and project-based or project-oriented organizations. Thus, our assumption that the elements of our model are supposed to increase project success, innovation success, and business success is based on empirical evidence.     

Dialectic of design,rhetoric of representation

This paper examines the role of representation in mediating contentious developments. To the extent that contentions over form may arise from concerns about future development, design-based communication may minimize conflict. This paper argues the design process itself is mediation. Design arguments entail a rhetorical act since all arguments require rhetorical postures. From discourse analyses of three twenty-plus-year-old and two contemporary Southern Californian developments that include interpretation of compositional contents of graphic representations, this paper posits the rhetorical purpose of design representations and how their styles, modes and technologies were utilized to mediate development disputes presented in these case studies.     

READING,VOICE AND VOWEL: L PETER KOLLAR'S ARCHITECTURAL THEORY AS RHETORIC

L. Peter Kollar is best known for his proto-Platonic architectural theory and, for those who have heard him speak, for the way he delivers his concepts. Drawing upon the story of the ancient Greek maiden Phrasiklea as a rhetorical figure whose name equates with ‘famous-for-her-thoughts’, related by Jesper Svenbro in his book of the same name, Kollar's architectural theory is subjected to a structural then a rhetorical analysis. The structural analysis is tentatively proposed around his extensive use of triads, trichotomies and other multiples of three. The rhetorical analysis is proposed as a 'rhetoric of architecture' parallel with Lawrence J. Prelli's ‘rhetoric of science’, but primarily in three (!) discourses: the invented, the addressed, and the reasonable. A weak construction of architectural theory as a rhetorical practice is put forward following on from arguments offered in my book, The Theory of Architecture. Kollar's theory is proposed as a masterful, yet orthodox, weak rhetorical practice which is largely unadmitted as such. Because it claims reasonableness as the basis for its appeal and its closure, Kollar's theory leaves itself open to an interpretation that belies its claims to universality. In the largely tough-minded, pragmatic environment of architecture, Kollar is a lender-minded theorist using tough-talking to try to insinuate delicate and subtle ideas.     

建筑业技术创新与管理创新协同模型研究

在竞争日益激烈的建筑业环境下,技术创新与管理创新是建筑业企业保持其竞争力优势的重要因素.基于此,建筑企业技术创新与管理创新协同、匹配尤为重要.文章论述了建筑业企业技术创新与管理创新内涵,构建了创新系统测度模型和指标体系,并对重庆市某建筑企业技术创新与管理创新系统进行测度,表明协同模型有助于提升建筑企业的竞争力.     

梅里雪山风景名胜区总体规划过程和技术研究

梅里雪山风景名胜区总体规划吸收借鉴了国际上较为先进的理论、技术和方法,结合梅里雪山保护管理的实际需要,制定了适用于梅里雪山的规划技术和方法。首先介绍了梅里雪山风景名胜区总体规划的思路和流程,将整个规划过程分为7个阶段;然后,总结了编制规划的5个特点;最后,详细论述了规划在以下6个方面所做的探索：资源保护等级光谱（CDS）、三层次协同规划体系,管理政策分区规划、分区规划图则、解说规划以及社区规划。     

The First Two Decades of Smart-City Research: A Bibliometric Analysis

This paper reports on the first two decades of research on smart cities by conducting a bibliometric analysis of the literature published between 1992 and 2012. The analysis shows that smart-city research is fragmented and lacks cohesion, and its growth follows two main development paths. The first one is based on the peer-reviewed publications produced by European universities, which support a holistic perspective on smart cities. The second path, instead, stands on the gray literature produced by the American business community and relates to a techno-centric understanding of the subject. Divided along such paths, the future development of this new and promising field of research risks being undermined. For while the bibliometric analysis indicates that smart cities are emerging as a fast-growing topic of scientific enquiry, much of the knowledge that is generated about them is singularly technological in nature. In that sense, lacking the social intelligence, cultural artifacts, and environmental attributes, which are needed for the ICT-related urban innovation that such research champions.     

How to build quality into your team

Quality has become the philosopher's stone of management practice with consultants and gurus vying to charm lead-laden corporations into gold-winning champions. Quality is primarily viewed in terms of corporate culture, multi-departmental ad hoc forces and the salvation of entire companies. The author, instead, views these ideas as they might be applied by a team leader with a small permanent staff     

场域视角下大学生创新能力培养方略初探

创新能力是管理能力、专业能力与拓展能力的叠加和耦合,是整体功能有机结合形成的生态系统。以南昌大学建筑学132班的人才培养实践为个案,探讨场域视角下创新能力培养的方略和效果,认为管理能力场域强调本科生班级导师制和批判性思维的培养,通识教育和理论实践学习则是专业能力场域的重要组成,而学科竞赛和科研训练项目与创新创业训练计划则是拓展能力场域的推进器。结果显示,该方略以学生为中心,将科研融入课堂,在实践中检验,有利于培养学生的批判性思维和创新能力。为完善创新能力培养方略,认为应植入多元观点,打破现有知识的固化和权威态势;坚持动态发展的眼光,应对全球化、新型信息化下的知识更新;营造包容性支撑环境,为大学生创新能力培养创设制度保障。     

助推本地研发创新——伊顿中国创新中心实验室落成

2012年7月中下旬，伊顿公司宣布其中国创新中心实验室正式落成，将致力于研发能效管理技术，为本地市场服务，进一步推进公司在中国的发展。