Plain building - plain sailing? Exploitation of knowledge in the building and construction industry

The project analyzes how knowledge is utilized in the building and construction industry, in order to find out why existing knowledge is underutilized. The project is carried out by NIFU STEP in collaboration with BI, Veidekke, BNL and other firms and org anisations in the building and construction industry. A core research task in the project is a series of case studies. In these industry partners and researchers are linked in a practical context where each have specific roles. Case studies are employed to collect data on procect practices, and to observe and evaluate the implementation of new organizational measures. The research partners observe project interactions, and analyse actor specificities, systemic relationships and lock-in phenomena (NIFU ST EP) as well as inter- and intrafirm learning (BI). Two Ph. D. projects will be carried out as part of the project. Industry partners will integrate project activities with strategic business plans. The goal is to carry out process innovation that will in crease the overall utilization of relevant knowledge in projects. The effects of such changes will be observed. BI and NIFU STEP develop specific analytical themes. BI focus on learning in and across firms and organisations, and seek to create synergies with an ongoing study of the Norwegian building and construction industry cluster. NIFU STEP aims at developing an analysis which show how specificities of individuals and groups in the industry influence the ability to learn, to combine heterogeneous kno wledge bases and for firms to absorb knowledge and to manage effectively interaction and learning in building projects. The project gives priority to dissemination in project meetings and seminars, involving project participants as well as external exper ts (from government, commercial firms, industry confederations and unions, research institutes, etc.), and in peer review publications directed at the scientific community. However, background reports and a final project report will also be delivered.