Construction Contractors in Cross-Industry Innovation Networks: An Interactive Perspective

Licentiate thesis, 2026

This licentiate thesis examines the involvement of construction contractors in cross-industry innovation networks aimed at developing digital solutions. While cross-industry innovation has become increasingly relevant in the context of digitalization, few studies have investigated it in construction. Furthermore, in construction, innovation often emerges in projects for problem-solving, but scaling through embedding in more permanent organizational structures is challenging, which hampers renewal in the industry. This calls for a deeper understanding of how the innovation process evolves within the cross-industry network across project, organizational, and industry boundaries.

This study employs the Industrial Network Approach (INA) as theoretical framework and draws on the Activities-Resources-Actors (ARA) model to study how cross-industry innovation emerges through interaction, understood as an ongoing process through which actors mutually adapt by linking activities and combining resources. Accordingly, the aim of this thesis is to explore cross-industry innovation networks in the construction industry. The study pays particular attention to how the role of the construction contractor is shaped through interaction.This research is guided by two research questions: (1) How does interaction unfold in cross-industry innovation networks within and across project, organizational, and industry levels? and (2) How is the role of the construction contractor characterized in innovation processes within cross-industry innovation networks?

A qualitative case study approach is used to examine cross-industry innovation networks. The case study draws on two empirical sub-studies involving a large Swedish construction contractor. The first sub-study, Efficient Load Out (ELO), covers a cross-industry innovation process with the automotive industry to develop an app that optimizes the loading of materials in construction projects. The second sub-study, Smart Vests, examines a cross-industry innovation process involving the technology development industry, aimed at developing smart vests to enhance safety in road construction. Data collection involved 27 semi-structured interviews and site observations.

The thesis builds on two appended papers. The thesis shows that cross-industry innovation in the construction industry is a multi-level, evolving network configuration shaped by temporal and spatial interdependencies. The interaction between actors addresses particular issues across initiation, development, pilot, and scaling phases, where the actors’ previous experiences and future expectations of the innovation process affect how they manage interdependencies. Accordingly, a key characteristic of the construction contractor’s role, in the form of research and innovation teams, is dynamic role shifting. Also, these teams perform multiple roles simultaneously through diverse boundary-spanning activities aimed at connecting and integrating within and across project, organizational and industry levels. Thus, the construction contractor’s role in cross-industry innovation is highly context-dependent, varying in time and space.