Why housing innovation rarely spreads by itself
In my doctoral thesis, I investigated why innovations in housing remain difficult to adopt at scale, even when they offer better quality, lower environmental impact, faster construction or improved affordability. The sector needs change: industrialisation, digitalisation and new building systems are often presented as answers to shortages, labour constraints and climate targets. Yet promising ideas regularly remain one-off demonstrations rather than becoming normal practice.
I define adoption as the decision to use a product, process or system innovation in a housing project. That choice is never made in isolation. It is shaped by the innovation, the project, the firms involved, procurement, regulation, market conditions and the people who evaluate risk and benefit. General innovation-diffusion theories explain part of the story, but they do not fully account for housing as a fragmented, project-based sector where each development brings a new combination of stakeholders and constraints.
Connecting theory with real housing projects
The thesis brings together four studies. First, a bibliometric review of 1,260 academic articles maps the foundations and trends of innovation-adoption research, including institutional theory, reasoned action, technology acceptance, econometric determinants and diffusion theory. Second, a systematic review of housing research identifies four broad categories of determinants: the external environment, innovation attributes, industry characteristics and adopter characteristics.
The later studies move to empirical housing cases. They examine the mechanisms that influence adoption of different innovations at different moments in their diffusion, including the continued adoption of industrial housing systems rather than only the initial decision to select one. Looking across individual, firm, project and sector levels shows why even a technically promising innovation may fail to move beyond its first application.
My central conclusion is both practical and academic. Innovations do not spread simply because they look superior on paper. They have to fit project organisation, client priorities, technical standards, supply chains, timing and changing market expectations. Innovators and managers need to treat adoption as an ongoing process of alignment and learning, not as the last step after development. This thesis offers that context-sensitive view in the hope of helping housing move from isolated pilots to repeated, credible improvement.