TY - CONF TI - A boundary-spanning playbook for digital construction innovation C1 - Singapore, Singapore C3 - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) SP - 38 EP - 49 PY - 2026 DO - 10.24928/2026/0168 AU - Salhab, Diana AU - Hamzeh, Farook AU - Mohamed, Yasser AU - AbouRizk, Simaan AD - Postdoctoral Fellow, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of Alberta (UofA), Edmonton, Canada, salhab@ualberta.ca, orcid.org/0000-0003-0307-6193 AD - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, UofA, Edmonton, Canada, hamzeh@ualberta.ca, orcid.org/0000-0002-3986-9534 AD - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, UofA, Edmonton, Canada, yasser.mohamed@ualberta.ca, orcid.org/0000-0001-9170-9557 AD - Distinguished Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, UofA, Edmonton, Canada, abourizk@ualberta.ca, orcid.org/0000-0002-4788-9121 ED - Hamzeh, Farook ED - Poshdar, Mani ED - Garcia-Lopez,, Nelly P. AB - Beyond the prevailing gap between academic research and industry practice, construction enterprises often lack the mechanisms to systematically identify and develop digital innovation opportunities embedded in their everyday operations. In practice, many operational challenges are recognized informally but are not consistently translated into digital tools, data-driven processes, or automation initiatives that can scale across the organization. Hence, this paper introduces the Boundary-Spanner Playbook as a structured framework that supports construction enterprises in systematically identifying and developing their internal innovation potential while institutionalizing collaboration with academia. The methodology adopts a Design Science Research approach and comprises six phases: Elicitation, Coding and Normalization, Prioritization, Mapping to Academic and Research Projects, Governance Setup, and Portfolio Replication. It operationalizes the boundary-spanning role as a repeatable process that translates operational challenges into digital tool-enabled innovation opportunities, integrating organizational learning and research translation. The framework is implemented within a large Canadian construction enterprise. Results demonstrate that the Playbook allows rapid identification and prioritization of digitally mediated innovation opportunities and embeds research collaboration within corporate decision-making structures. KW - Boundary spanning KW - digital innovation KW - industry-academia collaboration KW - research translation. PB - T2 - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) DA - 2026/06/22 CY - Singapore, Singapore L1 - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2480/pdf L2 - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2480 N1 - Export Date: 19 June 2026 DB - IGLC.net DP - IGLC LA - English ER -