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

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.