Dissemination Practices of Construction Sites’ Technology Vendors in Technology Exhibitions

Abstract

The strategies used by vendors to disseminate information about new construction site technologies such as robotics, drones, and driverless excavators are important in their successful adoption and, ultimately, to the productivity of the construction industry. However, little research has been reported regarding the strategies that construction site technology vendors use to disseminate their products into the construction market. This paper addresses this gap in construction innovation research by focusing on construction site technology exhibitions as a specific technology innovation dissemination strategy. Using observational and documentary data collected from 221 vendors at two technology exhibitions in Australia, hard and fuzzy clustering analysis techniques were used to develop a new vendor dissemination classification framework that shows that construction technology vendors can be classified into five types by the range of dissemination strategies they use. These dissemination strategies can then be classified into five types based on their orientation to physical appearance, interpersonal relationships, and technology demonstration. The results show that the combinations of these strategies are directly related to the type of technology being disseminated. This research and the new theoretical framework presented represent an important counterpoint to the disproportionate focus on customers rather than vendors in the construction innovation literature and the historical focus on information communication technologies (ICTs) rather than emerging construction site technologies. It also addresses a neglect in construction innovation research of recent developments in mainstream innovation research that recognize the importance of customer–vendor relationships.