Innovation In Small Architectural And Civil Construction Firms In Kenya
Abstract
Innovations are acknowledged because of playing vital roles in value creation and also
maintenance of the construction firms' competitive gains. However, the innovation traits
vary from one industry to the other, and this creates external or internal challenges for
construction firms. Besides, new inventions are very risky, costly plus possibilities of
being successful deem to be very small, which dampened the ability of small construction
and architectural firms to adopt new technologies. Compared to large firms, small firms
in the construction sectors are characterized by low productivity with a lack of new
technologies being the fundamental cause of low outputs. This study, therefore, examined
the degree to which innovation practices were adopted by small architectural and civil
construction companies and the factors influencing the adoption of innovation in small
architectural and civil construction companies in Kenya. The research was anchored on
the technology adoption life cycle theory, diffusion of innovation model, and the
resource-based view. The research employed a cross-sectional descriptive study design,
and the population was made of 650 licensed civil construction firms and 80 architectural
firms in Nairobi County from which a sample of 73 companies was carefully chosen
through simple random sampling. The study entirely used primary data, which was
gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data was sorted and keyed
into the SPSS then summarized using descriptive statistics and factor analysis to establish
the interconnection and decrease the various factors into small variables. The findings
revealed that the major innovation practice used by small construction and architectural
firms in Kenya included continuous research and development, internet adoption,
entering new markets, adoption of modern equipment and timely completion and delivery
of projects, engineering innovations, retraining of human resource and devolving to
counties respectively. The study also found that the major challenges included financial
resources, research and development funds, competition, and pressure from other
industries, equipment availability, available skill level, and project risks and insurance.
The other challenges included industry standards, leadership support, user desires, and
industry networks. The study recommended that management of small architectural and
civil construction firms should ensure that the adopted innovation practices are frequently
reviewed to ensure that they conform to the firms' goals and objectives and that they are
cost-effective in the long run.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- School of Business [1411]
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