Torku, Alex, Owusu-Manu, De-Graft, Pärn, Erika, Addy, Michael Nii and Edwards, David J. (2017) Impedance to innovation practices in the Ghanaian construction industry consultancy services : the perspective of quantity surveying firms. In: CITC-9 : Ninth International Conference on Construction in the 21st Century (CITC-9); 05-07 Mar 2017, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

The construction industry is recognised as a universal driver of the economy, nevertheless it is berated for its reluctance to innovate. However, firms that adopt and boost innovation are bound to increase productivity and gain competitive advantage over their rivals. The rate at which innovation is adopted in Ghanaian quantity surveying (QS) firms is very slow and very alarming to the industry’s stakeholders. This motivated this study to empirically identify the challenges impeding innovation adoption amongst Ghanaian QS firms. Quantitative research approach and census sampling technique was adopted for this study. Mean score analysis aided by Friedman test and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were employed in the analysis. The results indicated that internal impediment has the highest impedance on innovation in the QS firms followed by external and demand impediments respectively. This paper importunate request for management of QS firms, Ghana Institute of Surveyors and the Government of Ghana to formulate policies, and promote measures to enhance innovation adoption. The main contribution of this study is the classification of all the challenges impeding innovation in the Ghanaian QS firms into three sets of groups and also expanding the knowledge base of these identified impediments.

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