Moves to collaborative working and other new procurement routes carry with them a suggestion that collaborative working is better because it makes good business sense. This book is the result of research into this hypothesis, and seeks to test the business case for collaborative working in the construction sector. In order to do this, the differences between procurement methods have been characterized and categorized rigorously for the first time, enabling a proper analysis of collected data to relate the costs of procurement to the procurement methods.

This work is evidence-based, and the evidence does not provide a clear case for collaborative working. It shows that collaborative working will not necessarily incur extra costs, and yet costs vary enormously. Most importantly, influences exist which are more significant than the way that relationships are organized. In the process of carrying out this research, the team has produced a comprehensive study of procurement methods, and this provides the first such articulation of the relative benefits and costs of different ways of working. This work not only informs practitioners about the complexities of the procurement decision, but also informs theorists about the relevance of some aspects of economic theory to the construction sector.