Innovation in quantity surveying practice firms : an investigation of innovation response during compressed pre-contract timelines in Nigeria
Reflecting on the pre-contract activities of a quantity surveying (QS) firm, a recent project commission came to focus in which there was an acute shortage of time to produce pre-contract documents due to the compressed pre-contract timeline given by the client. Preliminary investigations reveal that compressed pre-contract timeline is a chronic phenomenon in the Nigerian construction industry. However, literature is short on models on how QS firms do respond to this problem. In the main, this research seeks to understand how professional QS firms respond to the pressures of compressed pre-contract timelines and to determine to what extent those responses are innovative. Since the research is based in practice but presented through the academy, it also seeks to justify practice-based research in the built environment, both in rigour and substance, through a theoretical model that attempts to bridge the chasm in perception between academic purists and practitioners on practice-based research. With a research philosophical orientation of idealism, interpretivism and value-laden, a multiple-case methodology of six QS firms incorporating interviews, direct observation and documentation as instruments of data collection were employed. Data were analysed thematically using template analysis, an a priori technique common to healthcare research but hitherto unfamiliar in built environment. In the main, the study concludes that QS firms respond to compressed time demand mostly through innovative means with identified features. These features enable the development and validation of an innovation process model that could prove very useful in analysing data and understanding innovation processes in QS firms. Also, through relevant concepts, theories and models, the study appears to sit comfortably within a theoretical model developed for practice-based research. KEYWORDS: Innovation, compressed pre-contract time, practice-based research, quantity surveying practice firms, model.
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