Disruptive Innovations in the field of construction

Abstract

In a globalized, connected world we often see the phenomena of disruption, where a new player in the market takes away a substantial part of the market share of the former big players by using technology or new ideas. This dissertation is to evaluate the general potential of disruptive innovations in the sector of construction and its initial scientific question is: Is it possible, that new market players or new products have a big enough influence in this industry, to change the current business models? In order to find an answer to this question, the author analyses in the first chapter the general economic specialties of this industry in comparison to others and shows, where other research has led to until now. The methodology is to distinguish fields of innovation with disruptive potential, in order to point out ways to adopt the current business models accordingly. Based on that, the author evaluates in chapter two the potential fields of disruptive innovation, where innovation in construction happens in general, and then their economic potential and implementation level. Furthermore, the author analyzes, which theories of disruption are applicable to construction and develops a questionnaire to quantify disruption potential in different innovation fields. Those results show the disruptive potential regarding to single innovation topics. Furthermore, those results conclude, that two parts of the construction process have the highest and most significant potential of disruption: the construction process itself (on site) and all fields connected to data. Therefore, the author takes a closer look into those two sectors. Within Disruptive innovations in the construction process the author analyses the fields and concludes with the hypothesis, that several disruptive potentials lead to one big change in the execution of works: the change from a traditional execution to a software, standardized workflows and data-based approach. In order to prove the hypothesis, the author carry outs an experiment with workflow-based digital task-management on site and follows with the prospective further potentials of such an approach. These results indicate as well, that in the field of data in construction the disruptive potential is large. In the fourth chapter the author takes a deeper look into this and exemplifies the problems and therefore potentials within the IT-infrastructure of a largescale general contractor. By analyzing data paths and the form of transmittal, the author demonstrates, that the construction sector presently does not use the full potential of data. Two theoretical systems of changing this problem are shown and evaluated. As a conclusion, the author examines additional disruptive factors and concludes with suggestions for the whole industry but also for single companies of how to not be scared but take advantage of the futures changes and disruptions.