Building for Tomorrow: Global Enterprise and the U.S. Construction Industry

摘要

The market share of U.S. design and construction firms in international business has in recent years fallen sharply, and foreign firms have been capturing a still small but rapidly growing share of the U.S. domestic markets. Reasons for declining competitive position of the U.S. building industry include lack of coordination within the industry, extraordinarily low levels of research and development activity, shortcomings in professional training and education, restrictive and sometimes damaging government policies, and the absence of institutional focus for national policy development. Statistics of the industry's performance and case studies demonstrate that changes are warranted to enhance the ability of the U.S. industry to compete in the increasingly global marketplace. Action is needed to strengthen the national institutional focus and emphasize research and development, reduce the barriers to innovation, and rekindle the enthusiasm for technical leadership. New opportunities emerging in advanced building technology, especially for infrastructure, suggest that these objectives may best be pursued in a spirit of international cooperation.