Adoption of prefabricated housing–the role of country context
Autor: | Dale A. Steinhardt, Karen Manley |
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Rok vydání: | 2016 |
Předmět: |
Engineering
Jurisdiction Renewable Energy Sustainability and the Environment business.industry 020209 energy media_common.quotation_subject Geography Planning and Development 0211 other engineering and technologies Transportation Context (language use) 02 engineering and technology Innovation adoption Housing industry Prefabrication Transport engineering Content analysis 021105 building & construction 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Demolition Quality (business) business Industrial organization Civil and Structural Engineering media_common |
Zdroj: | Sustainable Cities and Society. 22:126-135 |
ISSN: | 2210-6707 |
Popis: | This exploratory paper examines secondary sources to develop hypotheses for future testing in quantitative research, around the question ‘How do housing industry contexts in different countries influence the adoption of prefabricated housing construction?’ This is a management study of innovation adoption. Prefabricated housing has been routinely promoted as a means to improve the efficiency, quality and environmental performance of house construction, use and demolition. The uptake of prefabrication internationally has not however been consistent, with a clear division between leading and laggard countries. The role of the national housing industry in developing and maintaining a jurisdiction’s prefabrication industry has not been previously explored comprehensively. This gap in knowledge is addressed in the current paper. A focus is given to collecting verifiable data to expose the differences between jurisdictions with both high and low levels of prefabrication adoption. Adoption is measured using data on prefabrication use. Based on content analysis, the main determinants of adoption are revealed to be (1) annual number of housing completions, (2) rates of new building versus renovation, (3) new housing ownership models, and (4) types of housing constructed. Analyses revealed the complexity of interacting factors and their potential influences on the uptake of prefabricated housing. The academic contribution of the paper is in providing a robust basis for more refined investigations of this emerging topic. The practical value of the paper is in providing guidance for policy makers to help them improve adoption of prefabrication, through demonstration projects for example. A limitation of this paper is that the data available is insufficient to facilitate more comprehensive analysis. Future quantitative, theory-driven research is needed to formalise the hypothesised relationships and conduct thorough statistical testing. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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