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To solve grand challenges, the collaboration between construction management and urban development professionals is essential. This article proposes that ecosystem conceptualizations can enhance our understanding of collaboration, but how these concepts contribute to this field is unclear. Therefore, a literature review is presented on how ecosystem concepts are operationalized in construction management and urban development research. The article classifies conceptualizations into seven categories and analyzes their potential for contributions to ecosystem theorizing. An ecosystem research agenda is developed, arguing that it can serve as a theoretical bridge between these disciplines. The article also highlights how research on ecosystems in the built environment sector can contribute to management and organization research fields more broadly. Notably, conceptualizations of ecosystems as project-based or location-based are valuable contributions to ecosystem research., QC 20230911

Societies today have increasing economic, social, and environmental needs for their built environments. The performance of the built environment depends largely on urban development, with the role of digital technologies therein being a long-standing research topic. The extant literature, however, has focused less on the organizational capabilities, such as absorptive capacity, that are needed for new technology adoption and organizational change. The capabilities of real estate owners, who are key decision makers throughout the built environment life cycle, have also, surprisingly, been neglected. The purpose of this thesis is to increase the understanding of digitalization and sustainability in the built environment. To this end, this thesis presents the results of an empirical study of the capabilities of real estate owners, technology suppliers and industry associations in the context of a business ecosystem within the Swedish real estate sector. The findings show that real estate actors have developed new organizational capabilities related to digitalization and within collaborations inside the business ecosystem overall. For example, real estate owners have invested in R&D labs and business development functions that are atypical within the sector. These new capabilities may contribute to digitalization and sustainability within the built-environment sector more broadly. Nevertheless, many structural issues characteristic of a fragmented sector remain. Additionally, this thesis contributes to ecosystem theory and its methodology and to the built environment research methodology. The literature on the use of social network analysis methods in ecosystem and built environment research is reviewed, with the conclusion that social network analysis methods have great research potential despite being rarely used. Furthermore, formal concept analysis of ecosystem concepts is conducted, and a methodological framework for understanding ecosystems as multilevel str, Samhällen har idag ökande ekonomiska, sociala och miljömässiga behov av sina byggda miljöer. Den byggda miljöns prestanda beror till stor del på stadsutveckling, där den digitala teknikens roll är ett mångårigt forskningsämne. Den befintliga litteraturen har dock fokuserat mindre på de organisatoriska förmågor, såsom absorptiv kapacitet, som behövs för att ta i bruk ny teknik och organisatorisk förändring. Förmågan hos fastighetsägare, som är viktiga beslutsfattare under hela den bebyggda miljöns livscykel, har också, överraskande nog, försummats. Syftet med denna doktorsavhandling är att öka förståelsen för digitalisering och hållbarhet i den byggda miljön. För detta ändamål presenterar denna avhandling resultaten av en empirisk studie av fastighetsägares, teknikleverantörers och branschorganisationers förmåga i ett affärsekosystem inom den svenska fastighetssektorn. Resultaten visar att fastighetsaktörer har utvecklat nya organisatoriska förmågor relaterade till digitalisering och inom samarbeten inom affärsekosystemet överlag. Till exempel har fastighetsägare investerat i forskning och utveckling -labb och affärsutvecklingsfunktioner som är atypiska inom sektorn. Dessa nya förmågor kan bidra till digitalisering och hållbarhet inom den byggda miljösektorn bredare. Ändå kvarstår många strukturella frågor som är karakteristiska för en fragmenterad sektor. Dessutom bidrar denna doktorsavhandling till ekosystemteorin och dess metodik och till forskningsmetodik för byggd miljö. Litteraturen om användningen av sociala nätverksanalysmetoder inom ekosystem- och byggmiljöforskning granskas, med slutsatsen att sociala nätverksanalysmetoder har stor forskningspotential trots att de sällan används. Vidare genomförs formell begreppsanalys av ekosystemkoncept, och ett metodiskt ramverk för att förstå ekosystem som flernivåstrukturer som består av flöden mellan ekosystemaktörer och emergenta systemni, QC 20220302

Innovation in the built environment has taken giant leaps in the past decade. To manage digital transformation, new innovation leaders have risen to the forefront of industry development. Based on a global survey of 176 innovation leaders, and seven interviews with the survey respondents, this report is a comprehensive study of the roles of innovation leaders in the industry. The report is structured around five themes and recommendation for organizing digital transformation in the built environment: 1: The survey results show that cultural barriers prevent a broader acceptance of innovations in the industry. Therefore, we see that cultural change should be identified as a key objective in strategy. Our first recommendation is to make cultural change a priority in transformation work. This has major implications for how the roles of innovators should be seen in the industry. 2: The survey results show that innovation is a part-time role in the sector, and that innovation work suffers from resource scarcity. As innovation is a challenging task that requires expertise, time and other resources, our second recommendation to innovation leaders is that you should demand that your role has a full-time focus on innovation. Effective digital transformation and cultural change are only possible with sufficient resources and commitment. 3: The survey results show that innovation work is gaining maturity and recognition, which could be further improved by harmonizing the innovator role titles and descriptions. Our third recommendation to innovation leaders is that the nature of your team and your job title should sit within the “change” or “transformation” mandate. These descriptors would establish that the aim of digital transformation is about the wider mentality change and acceptance of innovations within the industry. 4: The survey results show that the role of innovation leaders should be about change and digital transformation, rather than technologies as such. Furthermo, QC 20221019

Purpose:The purpose of this article is to increase the knowledge of real estate firms’ capabilities to innovate and, consequently, their capacity to absorb new innovations and benefit from digital technologies in an ecosystem context.Design/methodology/approach:The results are based on 32 interviews with representatives of Swedish real estate owners, real estate owner industry associations and suppliers of digital technology to real estate owners. The data is interpreted using theories on absorptive capacity (i.e. the capacity to absorb new innovations), innovation capabilities, and innovation ecosystems.Findings:The real estate owners, technology suppliers, and real estate owner industry associations have expanded their innovation capabilities and reshaped their innovation ecosystem by initiating a number of different digitalization activities, for example, development of new IT systems, digital platforms, services and business models. The absorptive capacity has been improved as the organizations have changed routines and structures related to innovation and they have taken on new roles related to digitalization and innovation, making them better able to absorb new innovations. Also, this article identifies several drivers and obstacles to digitalization in the real estate sector.Research limitations/implications:The increased capabilities related to digitalization can lead to better absorptive capacity on an individual firm level, which can contribute to the overall development of these firms on a longer term. Also, new capabilities may lead to better absorptive capacity in the real estate sector at large, as firms may benefit from each other’s capabilities through collaboration. The limitations are that this study does not interview tenants or facility management firms, and that the findings represent the context of the Swedish real estate market.Originality/value:This article investigates innovation capabilities, absorptive capacity and innovation ecosystems of, QC 20220317

There is a rapid growth of research on ecosystems, but the critics point out that ecosystem concepts are not rigorously defined and that there is no general agreement on the definitions. This has led to challenges in operationalizations of the ecosystem concepts. To address the gap in understanding ecosystem research methodology, we examine the choice of methods in 944 empirical ecosystem research articles and argue that Social Network Analysis (SNA) as a research method can improve ecosystem research, as it provides a rich set of methods and metrics for the study of ecosystems as structures. We find several issues related to operationalization of the ecosystem concepts in empirical research, discuss the appropriateness of method choices and point out that these issues lead to challenges in theorization based on empirical research. Also, we find that SNA has two potential methodological bridging positions in ecosystem research. First, SNA provides a natural methodological counterpart to the ecosystem conceptualizations that are focused on ecosystems as structures or complex systems. Second, SNA can be used creatively together with other qualitative and quantitative research methods. Further, we identify methodological research gaps in ecosystem research and propose a research agenda for SNA in ecosystem research. Therefore, this review extends the critical ecosystem research from the critique of ecosystem concepts to a less developed topic of methodological questions in ecosystems research., QC 20220317

The concept of the innovation ecosystem has attracted much research in strategy and innovation fields. Recently, several authors have criticized the conceptual and methodological rigor in innovation ecosystem research and called for research focusing on the systemic nature of innovation ecosystems. This paper builds on these critical accounts by developing a methodological approach for innovation ecosystem research. The paper shows how a research project may progress from qualitative data collection to quantitative SNA analysis and presentation and demonstrates protocols to ensure rigor in each of the research project phases. The methodological approach allows for a multi-level, multi-layer innovation ecosystem research. Also, an argument is made that this methodological approach may pave the way towards conceptually and methodologically rigorous innovation ecosystem research, which is a necessary condition for ecosystem performance analysis or comparative ecosystem research., QC 20220309

Ecosystem theory has emerged as a useful conceptualization for understanding the logic of business and innovation in complex business environments. The theory has especially helped researchers model the interrelations among social, environmental, and technological factors, which are all necessary conditions for innovation. However, several critics have called for more conceptual and methodological rigor in ecosystem research. The purpose of this article is to address the challenge that ecosystem theory lacks a congruent perspective of the conceptual structure of the theory. To that end, the article presents a formal concept analysis of 92 definitions of business, innovation, entrepreneurial and platform ecosystems. The analysis identifies and critically reviews the conceptual structure of ecosystem theory and concludes that the theory is largely congruent. Different perspectives are related to centralization and process- vs. structure- based views of ecosystems as well as to specific conceptualizations of ecosystem types. Two arguments are proposed based on the analysis. First, ecosystem theory serves the purpose of explaining activities and relations between actors that engage in interorganizational innovation if the theory is considered in terms of structure, beyond its metaphorical meaning. On the other hand, current ecosystem theory includes fewer substantive conceptualizations of assets, outcomes, and institutions. Second, the analysis shows that ecosystem theory operates at a high level of abstraction and remains vague in terms of what elements constitute an ecosystem; therefore, the theory would benefit from further theorization on microstructures. In addition, the article discusses potential research gaps and proposes research strategies for further ecosystem theorizing., QC 20220309

Understanding of business environments is a universal managerial problem, and the ecosystem theory has provided useful conceptualization for making sense of the logic of business and innovation in complex environments. Still, the use of the concept in empirical research has proven to be a methodological challenge, much due to the lack of methodological development, especially related to ecosystem microstructures, quantitative methods, and comparative research. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to address the shortcomings in the ecosystem methodology by developing a methodological framework for understanding ecosystems based on their microstructures. For this, we propose and operationalize a methodological framework that is based on Social Network Analysis and event data, such as financial transaction data. The central features of the framework are flows between actors that form actor-level -networks, and system-level network structures that emerge from these microfoundations. An argument is made that the network structures can be analyzed using Social Network Analysis methods and metrics. Based on an analysis of a network of 2 buyers and 412 suppliers, the operationalization illustrates how ecosystem-level properties, such as actor roles, interdependency, and business goals, emerge from bilateral ties between buyers and sellers. The benefits of using event data for ecosystem analysis are that data is comprehensive, and analysis methods are scalable, efficient, and possible to automate. Therefore, the methodology enables quantitative and comparative research, and efficient analysis of ecosystem microstructures. Such improvements in the cost–benefit ratio related to ecosystem analysis may have wide implications for research and practice in the future., QC 20220317

From an organizational and business perspective, current 3D cadastre lacks clarification of the complex network of various involved actors and poses challenges to coordinate the actors, which is time consuming and costly for 3D cadastral management. To better understand and address the actors' coordination and collaboration issues, we introduce business ecosystem-based 3D cadastral management that clarifies the interconnections between different involved actors. It focuses on ecosystem-level business value creation as a collective and inter-organizational coordination of the actors in the ecosystem. Moreover, based on and expanding the business ecosystem-based 3D cadastral management to a wider ecosystem – cadastre ecosystem, we propose a conceptual framework of cadastre ecosystem with five general components: policy, people, process, technology and business and identify 20 mechanisms by which these components interact. The network results indicate that each ecosystem components are interrelated to and interdependent of other components. The implication of our study is that a cadastre ecosystem is of strategical importance to the 3D cadastral management, that international cadastral standards are central for 3D cadastral management, that the cadastre ecosystem influences how to collaborate and manage the 3D cadastre, as well as how to develop the 3D cadastral business sustainably., QC 20221011

QC 20230504

QC 20230504