Prefabrication strategies in the timber housing industry : a comparison of Swedish and Austrian markets

Sammanfattning: The functional-based building regulations issued in 1994/95, made it possible to once again build higher buildings with timber structures in Sweden. At the same time there was a need to make the traditional project- oriented construction process more efficient, with prefabricated building systems and products as one possible solution. Since then, a number of timber housing companies have established product strategies and developed system solutions to meet the demands from different markets. In other European countries, changes in rules and regulations have positively facilitated the development of timber building products and systems and established new companies and strategies. Austria is one example, where architecture and technology are in focus, developing different product strategies in the timber housing industry. External factors and their changing, affect the formulation of viable business strategies in the timber housing industry. This dissertation aims to describe and analyse the strategic development of timber housing companies in Sweden and Austria. Strategy theories on the alignment of internal elements and external factors to create competitive advantage are applied in this dissertation. The results are based on empirical data gathered in a multiple case-study with two cases from Sweden and Austria, respectively. Result show that the strategic development of the Austrian timber housing companies was determined by the established conditions in the construction process. Timber structures already had strong positions in specific market segments; hence, the strategic behaviour of timber housing companies progressed with an inside-out approach. The strategic focus was to develop efficient internal processes that focus on design skills, flexible production facilities and on-site assembly resources to improve competitive advantage. The strategic development of the Swedish timber housing companies was based on what was possible from the changes in basic conditions, which partly diverted from the common and shared understanding in the construction process; hence the strategic behaviour of timber housing companies have had an outside-in approach to create competitive advantage. They have developed product platforms of standardised modules or elements and where cooperation with technical and system design complementors have been important to offer competitive timber building system solutions. The results indicate a strong correlation between basic conditions - construction process - firm conduct. Changes in basic conditions will give raise to firm conduct, different from the normative behaviour in the construction process, by firms with resources and capabilities by the changing basic conditions.