Paper info

The Construction Industry as a Loosely Coupled System - Implications for productivity and innovativity

Anna Dubois and Lars-Erik Gadde

The paper was published at the 17th IMP-conference in Oslo, Norway in 2001.

Previous research suggests that the construction industry is characterised by (1)particular complexity factors owing to industry specific uncertainties andinterdependencies, and (2) inefficiency in operations. The aim of this paper is toanalyse the operations and behaviour of firms as a means to deal with complexity.Our observations indicate that the industry as a whole appears to be featured as aloosely coupled system. Taking this as a starting point the couplings among activities,resources and actors are analysed in different dimensions. The pattern of couplingsbuilds on three interdependent layers; tight couplings in individual projects, loosecouplings in the permanent network and collective adaptations in 'the community ofpractice'. The paper concludes that the pattern of couplings seems to favour short-termproductivity while hampering innovation and learning.