5.1. Discussion
This research investigates which configurations of drivers can lead to collaborative innovation in a specific background, i.e., megaprojects. The existing literature considers a single factor in collaborative innovation [
55] or, if considering more than one factor, ignores the asymmetric relationships among drivers and the nonlinear relationships [
56]. We overcame this limitation using the fsQCA to explore collaborative innovation in megaprojects, where organisations and various innovation activities coincide but are not reciprocally restricted [
57].
The result indicates that four equifinal pathways will promote collaborative innovation in megaprojects. The result also verifies the configurational theory that different equivalent pathways could lead to the same outputs [
43].
Configuration 1 includes four core conditions and one peripheral condition that contribute to collaborative innovation. These four core conditions involve both the internal drivers, such as project requirements, improving performance as well as learning, and external drivers, i.e., external changes. A peripheral condition is an external change. A similar example of this configuration might be the system innovation in megaprojects (e.g., the introduction of Industry 4.0 and lean thinking into the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau megaproject), in which the organisations have to explicitly integrate and share knowledge on new technologies and heterogeneous resources to avoid failure, reduce uncertainty and challenges, and improve productivity. This configuration can be explained by the fact that megaprojects are greatly complex, requiring different stakeholders to balance the collaboration and competition relationships to solve the external changes along with further facilitating megaproject performance [
58]. Additionally, the client is often considered a champion in innovation activities and also the integrator of the project society, which facilitates tight collaboration in megaprojects and organisations and promotes the environment where knowledge and information are shared, and collaboration and competition relationships are balanced [
59]. This configuration is theoretically explained, referring to resource dependence theory, i.e., the organisation’s social and organisational resources. Each organisation in megaprojects has a unique pool of tangible and intangible resources, which help them show their distinct identity and competitiveness. For example, design consultants participate in various types of projects (e.g., highways, railways, long bridges) to learn and apply the latest technologies and knowledge to support the organisations’ development. The result also indicates the cost reduction of organisations that depend on external resource providers to manage uncertainty. Because of the resource limitation, each organisation hinges on external resource providers to obtain complimentary resources, reduce both primary uncertainties from the expected or unexpected changes (e.g., changes in client’s requirements, regulation changes, the natural environment changes) and increase their possibilities to obtain rewards [
16]. Based on the analysis above, we call configuration 1 a “system innovation-oriented” pathway.
Configuration 2 contains three different conditions, as presented in
Table 4, ranging from requirements and improving the performance of the project to the organisation’s learning motivation. This result may be interpreted considering radical innovations in megaprojects where few organisations can independently bear the huge challenges and deliver the project (e.g., deep undersea island-tunnel construction in a long bridge) [
60]. In such circumstances, hardly any single stakeholder can innovate on their own. They are faced with huge challenges from megaprojects, sharing knowledge and resources to achieve the project objectives within schedule, quality, and budget restriction work as the most salient forces to facilitate collaborative innovation. For example, to solve the world-class construction problems of building the immersed tunnel project within a limited time and budget, HZMB Authority invites three famous Chinese construction enterprises, including China Communications Construction, China Railway Construction Corporation Limited, and China Railway Group Limited, to bid and encourage them to integrate domestic resources for industrial M&A to solve the construction problems. After careful preparation, China Communications Construction integrates domestic and international enterprises and collaborates with COWI, AECOM, etc., to seek, learn, and even create new construction technologies to finish the project. Based on the analysis above, we call configuration 2 a “radical innovation-oriented” pathway.
Configuration 3 takes gaining rewards, huge competition in the market, and the organisation’s learning goal into account to explain their positive effects on collaborative innovation. This result may be illustrated by considering a second-tier supplier that provides material, equipment, and information based on the requirements of the first-tier supplier [
61]. The second-tier supplier has no direct connection and relationships with clients/owners, and often, the first-tier suppliers work as the systems integrator [
61]. In this condition, the second-tier supplier captures the opportunities of collaboration with the first-tier supplier to accumulate experiences, knowledge, and social resources, obtain monetary or non-monetary rewards and further increase its competitiveness for its long-term survival [
62]. Based on the analysis above, we call configuration 3 a “second-tier supplier-oriented” pathway. The “second-tier supplier oriented” pathway indicates that as a rational economic agent [
62], organisations depend on external resources to improve competitiveness and achieve survival [
63].
Configuration 4 is composed of four variables concerning the internal drivers, including the requirements and performance enhancement of the megaproject, along with the external drivers containing changes from the environment and humans and positive rewards. This result indicates that external drivers can also pose a huge influence on collaborative innovation [
4]. This finding is distinctive from existing findings that argue that collaborative innovation is primarily dominated by internal motivations and that external factors play hardly any role [
64]. This is because megaprojects are proposed and launched by the government and have a strong political orientation [
65]. Meanwhile, with the project implementation, stakeholders must establish collaborative innovation relationships with the aim of carrying out construction work smoothly and jointly addressing construction problems. This result may be understood by considering modular or architectural innovations. Modular or architectural innovation typically involves just minor modifications within a concept or component, with less restricted influence on relevant components or systems. Based on the analysis above, we call configuration 4 a “modular or architectural innovations oriented” pathway.
5.2. Conclusions
Collaborative innovation is considered a salient innovation paradigm that facilitates an increasing number of different organisations to share sustainable sources of competitive advantage from external resource providers. Nevertheless, much research cannot provide useful findings on whether and how the configurations of drivers impact collaborative innovation. Based on fsQCA of the survey collected from Chinese megaproject experts, we find that four equivalent configurations can facilitate collaborative innovation, i.e., “system innovation-oriented” (configuration 1), “radical innovation-oriented” (configuration 2), “second-tier supplier oriented” (configuration 3), and “modular or architectural innovation-oriented” (configuration 4).
The research findings could promote both theoretical advancement and managerial implications.
From a theoretical perspective, the research advances collaborative innovation research in megaprojects using the configurational theory. Although drivers are regarded as vital determinants that motivate organisations to engage in collaborative innovation, and despite existing literature finding that collaborative innovation can facilitate project performance, the mechanisms regarding how configurations of drivers contribute to collaborative innovation have not been deeply explored. In this context, this study suggests appropriate configurations of drivers that impact collaborative innovation in megaprojects, as various drivers jointly produce stimulating effects for organisations. This study extends existing research by providing four appropriate configurations of drivers for promoting collaborative innovation in megaprojects. It also reveals that different configurations of drivers can achieve different types of innovation in megaprojects; for example, the combination of knowledge and learning, rewards, and competition can contribute to the formation of “second-tier supplier oriented” collaborative innovation. Future research can investigate the relationships between different configurations of drivers and the type of innovation in megaprojects.
For the managerial implication, the four paths can provide managers or organisations with a better understanding of how to promote collaborative innovation through strategies that appropriately combine different drivers. Understanding the drivers that impact collaborative innovation can help managers improve innovation performance and even further facilitate project performance. Each driver has an important role in promoting collaborative innovation [
4], and it is rarely the case that managers use a certain driver solely in practice. Thus, managers must reflect on how to efficiently combine the various drivers based on realistic practice to achieve better collaborative innovation.
In megaprojects, clients can adopt diverse configurations of drivers based on the innovation types. Clients should select potential suppliers carefully for those radical innovations, provide detailed requirements on the form of collaborative innovation and the performance indicators in the contract, and build a knowledge management system to promote collaborative innovation. The project-based organisations (e.g., main contractors, designers, consultants) could grasp the opportunities to learn and codify the most advanced technologies and knowledge and improve their competitiveness with almost no transaction costs. Clients are supposed to integrate and organize organisations to be involved in different collaborative innovation activities for those system innovations by putting detailed collaborative innovation requirements, knowledge management requirements, and project performance improvement requirements. The project-based organisations should follow instructions and adapt quickly to external changes. Second-tier suppliers need to respond to market changes and development opportunities in megaproject’s collaborative innovation to facilitate themself getting valuable rewards, learn knowledge, and further improve their competitiveness.
This study has two main limitations. First, the data were cross-sectional rather than longitudinal. However, collaborative innovation is a dynamic process in a megaproject context. Thus, more studies should be conducted to extend the generalization of the findings in the current study, for example, by using different research methods, such as combining multiple case studies and the system dynamics approach, to replicate this study and verify the findings obtained from it. Second, this study is focused on government-sponsored megaprojects in China. Generalising the findings to other types of projects and other countries needs further research.