Innovation Creation, Innovation Adoption, and Firm Characteristics in the Construction Industry

Purpose – This study aims to assess the construction firm's innovation orientation and to investigate its relationship with firm characteristics.Design/methodology/approach – A structured survey was conducted among 105 firms in the Malaysian construction industry. The results of the factor analysis revealed two underlying dimensions of innovation, namely, innovation creation and innovation adoption. For the cluster analysis, the firms were segmented into four subgroups according to four dimensions, namely, non-innovative, innovation-creator, imitator and innovative firms.Findings – Firm's business scale and age significantly affected the innovation orientation of construction firms.Originality/value – This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge by adding a new firm characteristic, business scale, as a potential predictor of firms' innovativeness. This study is the first to explore the effect of firm characteristics on the innovation orientation of firms