"You should see my partners' fingers": A Qualitative Study of Construction Artisans' Perspective on Technical Innovation

2026-07-22

AI Summary

This study addresses the long-overlooked receptivity of small construction firms to technological innovation, highlighting a critical gap in understanding their practical needs and concerns. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 25 artisan builders in northeastern Italy conducted between 2018 and 2019, the research employs an integrated inductive–deductive thematic analysis to systematically examine technology adoption logic within the distinctive context of micro-enterprises where owners act as both investors and users. The analysis yields 15 foundational premises underpinning artisans’ perspectives, synthesized into four core themes: whether the technology falls within their professional scope, its cost–benefit profile, practical utility, and the perceived value of communication devices for business operations. Building on these insights, the study proposes a transferable qualitative framework that offers a novel lens for understanding technology acceptance behaviors in micro-enterprises.

Abstract

Construction industry scholars have advocated increasing digitalization as a harbinger of manifold improvements, from safe training to efficient waste management. Small construction enterprises, which often face greater difficulties in embracing such a paradigm, are frequently overlooked in investigations of stakeholders' views on technical innovation. This study aims to start filling this gap by investigating the views of small construction enterprises on technical innovation. We report the themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis of interviews with construction artisans in North-East Italy in 2018-2019, including installers, restorers, carpenters, painters, and upholsterers (N=25). We asked what makes new technical devices acceptable to them and conducted inductive and deductive thematic analyses to identify recurrent arguments supporting their positions. The analysis identified fifteen premises underlying the interviewees' positions on technical innovation, grouped around four issues: Is technological innovation part of my job? Is the financial cost of innovating worthwhile? Will the new technology be practical? What part of my business is served by communication devices? The study sheds more light on an underrepresented sector and the articulated view of technological innovation in small enterprises, where there is no distance between investors and users. It also adopts a qualitative methodology that can be exported to investigate the acceptability requirements of other samples and specific devices.

Problem

• construction artisans
• technical innovation
• small construction enterprises
• technology acceptance
• digitalization

Innovation

• technical innovation
• small construction enterprises
• qualitative study
• technology acceptance
• construction artisans