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Troje, D and Sloot, R (2023) Technology Adoption in Public Client Organisations: Institutional Perspectives from Sweden and the Netherlands. In: Tutesigensi, A and Neilson, C J (Eds.), Proceedings 39th Annual ARCOM Conference, 4-6 September 2023, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 103-112.
- Type: Conference Proceedings
- Keywords: change, institutional logics, public client, technology adoption.
- ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-9955463-7-0
- URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/da977dc2cdeca5d639b8a4b6c58202f2.pdf
- Abstract:
Public construction clients have a large role to play in contributing to sustainable development, but previous research has found that they are slow to adopt new sustainable technologies. This inertia is investigated by studying two cases of public clients, the first being public housing companies in Sweden, and the second being the public infrastructure transport agency in the Netherlands. By comparing and contrasting the experience of technology adoption in two different geographical contexts and in two different sub-sections of the construction sector (housing vs. infrastructure, small client vs. large client), we can get a more comprehensive understanding of why technology adoption is limited in the sector. The findings show how technology adoption is difficult in public client organisations due to institutionalised norms and bureaucracy, overemphasis on the financial bottom line, and a short-term project-based logic and more long-term asset management logic competing for dominance. By applying an institutional logics framework, the paper contributes an understanding of not only what change is difficult, but also why it is difficult, and what issues the sector must address to construct for the future.