Learning Mechanisms from Digital Innovation Projects : A Case Study of the Swedish Construction Industry

Sammanfattning: Today, organisations in multiple industries are faced with challenges connected to digitalisation. The construction industry is one of the sectors in Sweden that are struggling most to digitalise, despite their efforts. The construction industry consists of project-basedorganisations, which literature have proven to have difficulties with managing complexity. Furthermore, there is a lack of experience with innovation projects and digitalisation knowledge. The purpose of this study is to investigate how large-size construction companies utilise learning mechanisms to capture the knowledge obtained from digital innovation projects and retain it as an organisational memory. By increasing the focus on managing learning mechanisms with a suitable knowledge management strategy, it is possible to improve the organisational performance in relation to digital innovation. The theoretical approach of interproject learning is used to analyse the Swedish construction industry by doing a case-study of four large-size construction companies which are operating in Sweden. The data is gathered through semi-structured interviews of two different hierarchic members in each case company and through investigations of their webpages, annual reports and existing written materials. Additionally, interviews with experts and interest organisations are included in the data gathering. The investigation presents that digitalisation and digital innovation in the construction industry are connected to digital tools, such as BIM. We also see a shift in attention, where digital tools originally were supposed to solve concrete tasks, whereas they now have a more process oriented focus with changes in the organisations to smoother digital implementations. Creating standard digital tools, which is utilised in all the projects in the industry and are ready for use will smooth the implementation. The learning mechanisms that exist in digital innovation projects are presented in relation to the decentralised environment. The variety of individual knowledge codification is high, with an absence of knowledge articulation and a high presence of experience accumulation. From a project perspective, there is an evolvement from local to a more central focus for digital innovation initiatives. In an organisational perspective, there is no clear knowledge management strategy, but we argue to see a shift towards a more navigator learning landscape, where emphasises on knowledge articulation is increasing. A discussion of the shift in perception of digital innovation and the evolvement to a more central focus of innovation initiative will increase digitalisation is provided, with a conclusion where the importance of not losing the advantage of having a project-based approach is highlighted. The main limitation of this work is that the research only consists of large-sized companies; therefore, this investigation may not highlight the whole industrial organisational behaviour. Instead, it can provide an understanding of the different learning mechanisms in relation to digital innovation. Further work should investigate small- and medium-sized organisations in the construction industry.