34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) - Singapore, Singapore - 2026

https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0156

33 years of Lean Construction research: academia-industry links and global contributions

Paul Christian John1, Bernard Sun2, Atle Engebø3, Ola Lædre4, Shervin Haghsheno5 & Frode Drevland6

1 PhD Student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany, [email protected], orcid.org/0009-0005-0648-9331
2Student, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany, [email protected], www.orcid.org/0009-0003-8624-7927
3Researcher, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0002-5293-0176
4Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0003-4604-8299
5Professor, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0002-0602-6370
6Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0002-4596-1564

Abstract

This paper presents a quantitative analysis of institutional and geographical participation in Lean Construction (LC) research as reflected in the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) proceedings over a 33-year period (1993–2025). Based on a dataset of all 2,413 conference papers, the study examines (i) the affiliation composition of papers (academia-only, mixed, industry-only), (ii) the most contributing organisations and countries, and (iii) patterns of (inter)national co-authorship. Results show that 65% of papers are authored exclusively by academia-affiliated authors, 27% are co-authored by academia and industry, and 9% are authored exclusively by industry. Country participation broadens over time, reaching contributions from 58 countries by 2025, while publication activity remains concentrated in a relatively small set of organisations and countries. At the continental level, Europe accounts for the largest share of contributions, followed by North America and South America. International co-authorship has also increased over time: internationally co-authored papers account for 21% of the full period and exceed 20% in most years since 2015, peaking at 37% (2021). Overall, the study provides a descriptive baseline of the institutional and national contexts from which LC research at IGLC primarily originates and of how cross-domain and cross-country collaboration is reflected in the conference.

Keywords

Research, collaboration, practitioners, organisations, countries.

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Reference in APA 7th edition format:

John, P. C., Sun, B., Engebø, A., Lædre, O., Haghsheno, S. & Drevland, F.. (2026). 33 years of Lean Construction research: academia-industry links and global contributions. In Hamzeh, F., Poshdar, M., & Garcia-Lopez,, N. P. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) (pp. 1028–1039). https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0156

Shortened reference for use in IGLC papers:

John, P. C., Sun, B., Engebø, A., Lædre, O., Haghsheno, S. & Drevland, F.. (2026). 33 years of Lean Construction research: academia-industry links and global contributions. IGLC34. https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0156

 

Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.

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