Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Innovation ecosystems beyond construction projects – a case study of Swedish cross laminated timber building networks
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Industrilized and sustainable construction.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7564-006X
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Industrilized and sustainable construction.ORCID iD: 0009-0003-0820-880X
Luleå University of Technology, Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Industrilized and sustainable construction.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-3067-9451
2025 (English)In: Wood Material Science & Engineering, ISSN 1748-0272, E-ISSN 1748-0280, Vol. 20, no 5, p. 968-980Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

While innovation ecosystems have been proven effective for driving innovation in high-tech industries, their application in construction with cross laminated timber (CLT) products have received limited attention, with most studies adopting a broad perspective on ecosystems, encompassing the entire supply network around individual building projects. This study explores niche innovation ecosystems within the context of construction with CLT products. Data from 15 CLT-based building projects in mid Sweden were collected through observations and interviews and analysed using a method combining existing theory on innovation ecosystem structure with social network analysis. Innovation ecosystem structure was identified within five of the projects, encompassing two unique ecosystems. These ecosystems feature interorganisational links and actor-level expected value capture in two dimensions: value creation within the standard contractual framework of the projects and the innovation ecosystem superimposed on these projects. The novel method bridges the gap between innovation ecosystem research and CLT practices. The findings reveal that niche innovation ecosystems interact with CLT-based building projects through collaborative efforts across multiple projects and partners. These ecosystems feature alignment links that indicate both intra – and inter-project interdependencies, potentially driving innovation in construction. Role extensions within these ecosystems highlight the complexity and adaptability required in the construction industry.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2025. Vol. 20, no 5, p. 968-980
Keywords [en]
Innovation ecosystem, construction, cross laminated timber, building project, innovation
National Category
Construction Management
Research subject
Construction Management and Building Technology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-108360DOI: 10.1080/17480272.2024.2376180ISI: 001271092700001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85198510024OAI: oai:DiVA.org:ltu-108360DiVA, id: diva2:1885144
Note

Validerad;2025;Nivå 2;2025-11-13 (u8);

Funder: Swedish Wood Building Council (Sveriges Träbyggnadskansli);

Fulltext license: CC BY

Available from: 2024-07-22 Created: 2024-07-22 Last updated: 2026-04-14Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Framing innovation ecosystems in cross-laminated timber construction networks
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Framing innovation ecosystems in cross-laminated timber construction networks
2026 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Alternative title[sv]
Innovationsekosystem i nätverk inom byggande med korslimmat trä
Abstract [en]

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) has emerged as a climate-positive alternative to carbon-intensive building materials. However, its full potential remains underutilized, partly due to low levels of and poorly coordinated system-level resource optimization and innovation. Systemic development of CLT-based construction necessitates collaboration across industries. Although collaboration among specialized contractors and suppliers within single projects is supported by established industry practices, sustained inter-firm collaboration across multiple building projects remains under-investigated. While innovation ecosystem (IE) theory offers a promising framework for examining sustained co-innovation through shared value propositions, existing IE research in construction lacks a practice-based understanding of how organizations execute such collaboration across projects. This thesis addresses these gaps through a dual theoretical stance, combining IE theory to explain what needs to be coordinated across projects with dynamic capabilities (DC) theory to explain how firms develop and enact the necessary capabilities to do so. The thesis explores how firms in CLT-based construction collaborate to innovate and to create and capture value from innovation. The research builds on a six-year (2020-2025) longitudinal study on company networks within CLT-based construction, drawing on data from interviews, focus groups, observations and public documents, retrospectively covering events back to 2013. The findings show that the fragmented, project-based nature of construction requires IE actors to commercialize co-innovated products outside the ecosystem, making IE-specific capabilities for value capture central to competitive advantage. The shared value proposition enables co-innovation, observed in this study, as both building project-initiated and supplier-initiated processes. As products matured and the shared value proposition became established on the market, the focal firm began vertically integrating suppliers, consistent with the long product life cycles characteristic of the construction industry. The findings further describe IE coordination as a superimposed structure on conventional building project organization and activities. These superimposed mechanisms for co-innovation and value capture enable collaboration across multiple building projects through the sharing of resources and risks among IE actors. The thesis contextualizes IEs within project-based on-site construction and within industrialized house building (IHB). In doing so, it extends IE and IE life cycle theory by conceptualizing IEs as organizational structures superimposed on individual firms and temporary building project organizations. The thesis contributes to IHB theory by introducing an ecosystem perspective to industrialization and enriches construction management literature with a new perspective on network-based approaches to innovation. It also provides a methodological contribution to DC research in construction through a framework for analyzing DCs via their underlying situated practices, and to IE theory through a contextualized method for identifying ecosystems in the construction industry, as well as by testing a longitudinal process approach to analyzing temporal IE development. The managerial implications offer insights for managers in the construction industry seeking to realize the benefits of co-innovation, as well as guidance for policymakers aiming to support network-building among firms pursuing co-innovation and shared value propositions.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Luleå University of Technology, 2026
Series
Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology, ISSN 1402-1544
Keywords
innovation ecosystems, dynamic capabilities, co-innovation, value capture, networks, cross-laminated timber, timber construction
National Category
Building Technologies
Research subject
Construction Management and Building Technology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:ltu:diva-117149 (URN)978-91-8142-046-3 (ISBN)978-91-8142-047-0 (ISBN)
Public defence
2026-06-04, A109, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, 09:00 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2026-04-14 Created: 2026-04-14 Last updated: 2026-05-13Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1225 kB)29 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT02.pdfFile size 1225 kBChecksum SHA-512
974aec1c6073a6f5fea653291682da06cd15ba3ddd873ecb8bd6f32903e8a93485e31dae52c20ecd65e8da6151c349d08337492c8674c41aeb87bce9e9eae83b
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Erikshammar, JarkkoGull, Anna-LenaStehn, Lars

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Erikshammar, JarkkoGull, Anna-LenaStehn, Lars
By organisation
Industrilized and sustainable construction
In the same journal
Wood Material Science & Engineering
Construction Management

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 160 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 470 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf