Hoe beïnvloeden de marktkenmerken de belemmeringen voor innovatie in de utiliteitsbouw in Nederland?

How do the market characteristics influence the obstacles to innovation in the non-residential building industry in the Netherlands? Innovation can make an important contribution to the firm’s competitive advantage. Within the nonresidential building industry in the Netherlands the competition is very high. Therefore there should be enough motivation to innovate. The building industry has been severely hit by the economic crisis in the past years in the Netherlands, which made the competition even harder. Nevertheless the industry has a poor reputation on innovation and is known as a conservative industry. In the past decade the industry and government have put a lot of effort into making the sector more innovative. Sadly the innovation level has hardly improved. Why does the building industry fail to make itself more innovative? To make a contribution to this issue a research can be conducted to investigate the causes of this low innovation level. Research This thesis tends to make more clear about the causes of the low innovation level. Based on an extensive field research as well as a literature research the main question of this thesis is: How do the market characteristics influence the obstacles to innovation in the non-residential building industry in the Netherlands? The structure is based on qualitative research through case study research. Therefore a conceptual model is structured which is used as a fundamental base. Within the first case 21 interviews were held with the prime actors which played a direct role in the innovation level of non-residential projects. These prime actors are clients, consultancy agencies and building contractors. Also two panel discussions were organized to discuss the outcomes of the interviews. In the second and third case a part of certain market characteristics of the conceptual model were changed. The main reason to investigate these cases is to substantiate the results of the first case.