Identifying management research priorities

Abstract

An agenda for management research can be set by the academic community with more or less input from practising managers. The purpose of this note is to describe a model for collecting, structuring and analysing practitioner views of what should be the priorities for construction management research. A meeting with construction sector participants gave rise to proposals that were consolidated into 20 management themes. Next, a questionnaire sent to 260 individuals received 140 responses where these themes had been ranked and the strength of recent industry development for each theme assessed. Results show that high priority was assigned to leadership issues and identification of customer needs. The process should be possible to replicate abroad, although cultural differences are expected to influence priorities.

Keywords:

• Management research
• construction management
• research priorities

Acknowledgements

Support from the Development Fund of the Swedish Construction Industry (SBUF) and the Centre for Management of the Built Environment (CMB) at Chalmers University of Technology is gratefully acknowledged.