Project organization as a drvng force and hindrance for industriall renewal in the construction industry : a casestudy of Skandionkliniken

Understanding how innovation and renewal occurs in an industry is important for how to manage technical development for individual companies. It is also important for creating a beneficial industrial context for renewal, from both a political and an industrial perspective, in which new solutions can arise and spread through the involvement of several actors of the industry. How innovation and renewal occurs in the construction industry in Sweden is however viewed differently. One challenge that has been pointed to is that most of the work performed in the construction industry is organized in projects, which in turn should affect how innovation and renewal can be achieved. The aim of this thesis is to provide an understanding of how the project organizing in the industry affects innovation and renewal. This is executed through a case study of the construction of Skandionkliniken, a proton therapy clinic, and by using an industrial network theory that challenges the traditional view of how innovation is achieved. One important understanding drawn from this study is that renewal is created in the interface between companies and their resources. The kinds of innovation and renewal that can take place in the projects highly rely on technical interdependencies and organizational features of the involved actors. Three conclusions are drawn from this study; firstly, innovation and renewal in the construction industry occurs gradually across projects, secondly, the type of innovation that occurs is not what is expected from a traditional point of view, and thirdly, therefore it is not necessarily obvious when or how it takes place, which has implications both for policy and company management