It has always been a ‘mystery’, why the Danish building industry stagnated
after the industrial breakthrough, and never was able to adapt the industrial
production, business culture, buyer perception, and leadership and
management, used in nearly all other Danish industries.
This study offers a new approach to understanding the problem - by
analysing systemic barriers to the industry’s transformation to a seller driven
industry, in the context of a widespread neglect of the need for industrialisation
(a problem addressed by relatively little literature) with the building remaining
a manual, craft based industry, based on the old building process and its
associated business model. Industrialisation has instead taken place in the
building materials industry, which in a Danish context is a separate and highly
industrialised industry.
To analyse the barriers for transformation in the building industry a
multidimensional approach is applied:
First the building industry and modern industries are compared. Two archetype
models are created using the above mentioned variables; one model for
the building industry and its “Buyer Controlled Procurement Model” and one
for modern industries and their “Seller Driven Marketing Model” with interrelated
production and sale, enabling them to sell to unknown customers.
Next the statistical productivity trends and other secondary data are examined
to analyse, if the Seller Driven Marketing Model is performing better.
Finally a Delphi Panel Consultation is conducted to discuss future development
scenarios. Michel Foucault’s principles of historical analysis and his
‘episteme’ concept are used to analyse the outcome of the Delphi Panel
Consultation