Novel Approach to Overcoming Discontinuity in Knowledge: Application in Value-Adding Frameworks in Construction Industry

AbstractKnowledge discontinuity can be a significant obstacle to knowledge growth and accumulation, resulting primarily from the excessive tailoring of borrowed concepts, theories, and approaches. Research in the construction industry is prone to knowledge discontinuity because often after adopting a concept originally developed in another field of study, the link to the original trunk is gradually severed, thus inhibiting research progress. In fact, knowledge discontinuity slows advancement in the construction industry because it is an obstacle to the realization of the benefits achieved in other disciplines by means of the concept, theory, or approach. The research presented in this paper proposes a novel approach to overcoming the discontinuity in knowledge in construction-related research. It uses value-adding practice in the construction industry as a case study, establishing a common understanding of the predominant value-adding frameworks used in the construction industry and providing a measure for the similarity between the selected value-adding frameworks along with the shortcomings of the value-adding practice that need to be addressed. The paper concludes with defining the requirements for a unified framework for value adding in the construction industry.