Contextualising innovation in construction firms in regional areas

Construction firms based in regional contexts face different challenges to their metropolitan counterparts in terms of access to markets and resources, scale of operations, and the nature of their competition. This potentially provides both business opportunities and challenges particularly in relation to innovation activities. A large scale research project investigating innovation processes in an Australian regional construction industry is being contemplated and a research mechanism has been piloted. Accordingly the case of a successful regional New South Wales small-medium- sized enterprise's (SME) quest for sustainable competitive advantage is presented through the lens of a dynamic capabilities framework. It reveals four capabilities that deliver innovation, one of which is regional in flavour, indicating that a regional location need be no impediment to innovation and indeed may hold some advantages.