Industrialized housebuilding contractors use standardized processes and building systems to improve time and cost efficiency. Recent governmental investigations argue that Swedish local planning authorities’ requirement setting practices stifle the potential for increased industrialization. Yet, no previous research has accounted for the industrialized housebuilders’ perspective. We aim to explore industrialized housebuilders’ interpretationsof local requirement setting, using institutional logics to increase the understanding of how structure and human agency influence the emergence of local requirements. Interviews were conducted with representatives of fiveindustrialized housebuilders who together span the Swedish multi-family housing market. Findings indicate that industrialized housebuilders do not perceive intentional local requirement setting as problematic, yet struggle tocope with interpretive local requirement setting. Findings also necessitate distinguishing local requirement setting in the exercise of public authority from local requirement setting in public procurement. The agency structure dualism contributes an understanding of interpretive local requirement setting in the exercise of public authority as an expression of agency and of local requirement setting in public procurement as one of structure. Furthermore, using an institutional logics approach is found to provide an accentuation of human agency and the individual level of analysis that is often absent from construction management research.

We explore how Swedish Local Planning Authorities perceive standardized housing construction and attempt to use an ideal type typology of institutional logics to describe how Local Planning Authorities make use of the multiple institutional logics available to them. Increased standardization in Swedish housing construction has been suggested as a means to meet the growing need for housing with reasonable rent levels. However, housing contractors that use standardization and repetition of processes and components claim that the variation of requirements set by Local Planning Authorities prevents them from taking full advantage of their standardization. A recent empirical study of standardized housing contractors’ perceptions suggests that Local Requirement Setting, the requirement setting practices of Local Planning Authorities, are interpretational responses to a lack of familiarity with standardized housing construction. Yet, Local Planning Authorities’ perceptions of standardized housing construction have never previously been explored. Empirical material for this on-going study was collected through in-depth exploratory interviews with local planning officers from three municipalities situated in Swedish population growth regions. Findings suggest that Local Planning Authorities perceive potential benefits with standardization, but ultimately expect standardized housing concepts to adapt to local standards for processes and products. In projects with high ambitions for architectural quality standardized housing concepts need to be highly flexible. Conversely, highly standardized housing concepts benefit from project ambitions that favour reasonable rent levels. Therefore, Local Requirement Setting is indicative of a mismatch between the Local Planning Authority’s project ambitions and the standardized housing contractor’s degree of product standardization.