Understanding innovations in Malaysia’s construction industry: a study of four large national firms

Little published work exists on innovation in construction, which is not helped by the diverse setof activities that characterise the industry. The early attempt to category sources of innovation inthe industry depicted it as a supplier driven industry using large data sets from secondary sources. Given the lack of profound firm-level research in the industry, this paper uses four case studies ofnational firms in Malaysia to examine innovation in the industry. The evidence shows that majorinnovations in these firms evolve as a crystallization of project demand that drives firms to seekexternal sources of knowledge that is adapted to meet the construction demand of clients. Indoing so two firms demonstrated radical innovations as its diffusion has transformedconstruction in Malaysia. The remaining two firms are engaged in incremental engineeringactivities. Also, innovations in two firms were led by their own managements, while theremaining two were supplier-led. In addition, while innovations in all four firms arecharacterised by re-conceptualisation of foreign sources of knowledge, innovation in one firminvolved architectural designing and another modularisation. A blend of institutionsconstituted by government policy, in-house command, trust and collaborative practices,markets, and industry standards have shaped these innovations.