Making the zero-carbon standard home: understanding project-firm innovation in UK house building

这项拟议的研究探讨了碳减排议程对英国房屋建筑商构成的重大挑战。聚焦于项目层面的新产品和流程的开发以及它们在大型跨地区公司中的传播，我们将提出一些关键的研究问题，包括：建筑公司如何利用项目层面的创新？他们如何应对目前渐进式碳减排目标带来的挑战？这些创新如何在大型、复杂的公司中传播？标准如何塑造创新，创新如何促进标准实践的持续变化？这项拟议的研究通过考察Hanham Hall的技术创新的开发、吸收和传播来探索这些问题。Hanham Hall是Barratt Developments的一个试验性住房开发项目，旨在满足2016年要求所有新住宅达到零碳标准的要求。Barratt Developments是英国最大的房屋建筑商之一。这家房屋建筑商拥有四个品牌，在25个部门的任何时候平均都有大约400个活跃地点。Hanham Hall的具体技术创新如何在Barratt Developments传播和稳定的问题，解决了将零碳标准建筑纳入主流的一些核心挑战。虽然许多学者强调了跨项目学习和创新扩散的挑战，但在企业层面上，很少有关于创新锚定的实证或理论工作。同样，在一家大型、跨地区的公司内，创新在项目之间的传播方面也几乎没有做过什么工作。当人们考虑到即将到来的雄心勃勃的碳减排目标以及这一挑战在很大程度上是有组织的性质时，这个问题尤其紧迫。正如一些观察家指出的那样，该部门知道如何在试验性开发项目上建造低碳建筑；但它不知道如何将这种专门知识纳入标准实践。研究问题来自于将行为者网络理论和新制度主义应用于研究巴拉特开发公司在Hanham Hall的关键技术创新：(1)确定和解释Hanham Hall为响应碳减排要求而开发的一些关键产品和工艺创新；(2)研究这些创新对公司一级实践(包括供应链、采购、内部管理系统、商业模式、政策和战略)的影响；(3)跟踪将这些创新引入Barratt Developments的其他住房项目，并记录项目级适应这些要素的异同；(4)利用这一分析，对大型项目公司内的创新、扩散和稳定化/制度化过程(在公司级战略、系统和实践中)进行理论化；(5)比较新制度主义和行为者网络理论在单个复杂实证案例研究中的应用结果。重点案例研究将采用文献分析、相关人工制品、深度访谈和观察。对这些来源的分析将使团队能够追踪人和物体在Barratt Development多个地点的关联和移动。

The proposed research explores the significant challenge which the carbon reduction agenda poses for UK house builders. Focusing on the development of new products and processes at the project level and their diffusion across a large multi-regional firm we will ask key research questions that include: How can construction firms take advantage of project-level innovations? How can they meet the challenges which progressive carbon reduction targets currently pose? How do these innovations travel across large, complex firms? And how do standards shape innovations and how do innovations feed into ongoing changes in standard practice? The proposed research explores these questions by examining the development, uptake and diffusion of technical innovations from Hanham Hall, an experimental housing development which Barratt Developments has used to address the 2016 requirement that all new homes meet a zero-carbon standard. Barratt Developments is one of the largest house builders in the UK. The house builder has four brands and had an average of around 400 active sites at any one time across 25 divisions.The question of how specific technical innovations from Hanham Hall are being diffused and stabilised across Barratt Developments addresses some of the core challenges for the mainstreaming of zero-carbon standard buildings. While many scholars highlight the challenges of cross-project learning and the diffusion of innovations, little empirical or theoretical work has been done on the 'anchoring of innovations' at the firm-level. Similarly, little work has been done on the travel of innovations across projects within a large, multi-regional firm. This problem is especially pressing when one takes into account the ambitious upcoming carbon reduction targets and the largely organisational nature of the challenge. As a number of observers have noted, the sector knows how to build low-carbon buildings on experimental developments; what it does not know how to do is to incorporate that know-how into standard practice.The research questions are informed by the application of actor-network theory and neo-institutionalism to the study of key technical innovations at Hanham Hall across Barratt Developments:(1) to identify and explain the development of a number of key product and process innovations at Hanham Hall in response to carbon reduction requirements;(2) to examine the impact of those innovations on firm-level practices (including supply chains, procurement, internal management systems, business models, policies and strategies);(3) to follow the introduction of those innovations into other Barratt Developments housing projects and to document similarities and differences in project-level accommodation to those elements;(4) to use this analysis to theorise processes of innovation, diffusion and stabilisation/institutionalisation (in firm-level strategies, systems and practices) within large, project-based firms; and,(5) to contrast the findings produced by the deployment of neo-institutionalism and actor-network theory in the study of a single complex empirical case.The focal case study research will draw upon the analysis of documents, relevant artefacts, in-depth interviews and observations. The analysis of these sources will allow the team to trace the associations and movement of people and objects across multiple Barratt Development sites.