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Holmen, E, Veen, B v d and Dorée, A G (2002) Inter-organizational relationships in construction: present lack of consensus and inspiration for further research. In: Greenwood, D (Ed.), Proceedings 18th Annual ARCOM Conference, 2-4 September 2002, Northumbria, UK. Association of Researchers in Construction Management, Vol. 2, 709–18.

  • Type: Conference Proceedings
  • Keywords: inter-organizational relationship; network; concept diversity; feature inventory
  • ISBN/ISSN: 0 9534161 7 8
  • URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2002-709-718_Holmen_Veen_and_Dor�e.pdf
  • Abstract:
    The construction industry is often portrayed as a traditional industry, segregated, low on integration, innovation and profitability, and plagued by adversarial relationships. There seems to be quite some consensus on the necessity to change "something" in construction relationships. This is paralleled by studies of business markets that put the inter-organizational relationships into focus; i.e. the supply chain and network perspectives. Recent analyses and publications concerning construction industry frequently acknowledge the scope and benefits of the interaction and interplay between organizations. Various authors have argued that in order to improve the nature of relationships between actors within this industry should be redefined. However, when we look at the way relationships in construction are presented in various publications, there seems to be only little consensus on whether there are relationships or not and, thereby, what constitutes a relationship. To understand this lack of consensus, we may get inspiration from looking at the way in which research into inter-organizational relationships has evolved in various perspectives which, for decades, have tried to capture the nature of such relationships. Furthermore, we may try to understand the diversity by means of a "feature-inventory" and use this as a point of departure for furthering understanding of relationships in construction.