The Role of Early Contractor Involvement in Facilitating Exploration and Exploitation of Innovations in Megaprojects

This article demonstrates how early contractor involvement (ECI) facilitates the exploration and exploitation of innovations in megaprojects. Contractors possess knowledge of innovations that project owners often lack. By involving them in the front end, owners can explore this knowledge when there is more flexibility to change design. Additionally, this article contributes to understanding project ambidexterity by illustrating how collaboration between contractors and project owners represents a form of structural ambidexterity. Last, the findings suggest the development of a model of ECI that enables project owners to simultaneously evaluate multiple alternatives with several contractors in an organized convergence process.