Collaboration through innovation: Implications for expertise in the AEC sector

Collaboration is key for successful delivery of building projects in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector. Innovative project delivery approaches developed over the past two decades envision new ways of collaborating and specifically aim at improving the performance of and value generated by this key economic sector. Collaboration, however, remains an ill-defined and highly amorphous concept. This makes it difficult to investigate and consequently develop a body of knowledge, which is central to defining a field of expertise in this area. The aim of this investigation is to explore the notion of an expertise in collaboration in the AEC sector and the implications of these innovative project delivery approaches on this expertise. The concept of collaboration is developed across five core entities: structure, process, agents, artefacts and context. These entities are then framed through a critical realist lens to lay the groundwork for a body of knowledge of collaboration in the AEC sector. The impact of the current shift to these innovative approaches is investigated within this framing. The findings set a course of action to develop a body of knowledge and a field of expertise on collaboration in the AEC sector.