Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature of qualitative construction partnering research.

Design/methodology/approach
In total, 20 qualitative peer-reviewed papers about construction partnering research are reviewed.

Findings
The results show four methodological gaps. All identified gaps have in common that specific time and place dependent details that may have influenced understanding of studied individuals are underexposed.

Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of this study is that empirical-based papers are divided into either qualitative or quantitative research, but the boundary between those categories is not as black and white as it may look like in first instance.

Practical implications
The identified gaps are translated to recommendations for further study. This will help the reader to become more aware of the difficulties and decisions encountered by the researcher, and in that way the reader is more aware and gains more understanding of the context-related character of the study. Applying the recommendations will lead to different conclusions and recommendations to improve construction partnering in working practice.

Social implications
More focus on local time- and place-dependent factors of the studied individuals as well as the process of studying it, inevitably leads to encountering (and becoming more aware of) personal, subjective and unexplainable decisions and behavior. Describing and analyzing these personal, subjective and unexplainable points in the research process will improve the quality of the research.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the further development of academic research on this topic and increase effectiveness of partnering in the construction sector.@en

This book is about work floor experiences of professionals at work floors of housing organizations in The Netherlands in their attempts to apply supply chain partnering. I did not only choose this topic because of its academic and practical relevance. The choices I made, and the personal motivation behind those choices say a lot about what has driven me to do this research. Therefore, this prologue focusses on the experiences that have led me to conducting this PhD-research. In answering this question, I will describe a few milestones that I consider important events that led me towards this research.@en

Although much research has been conducted about advantages and challenges for supply chain partnering (SCP) in the construction sector, focus has been mostly on formal aspects of implementation within organizations. Understanding social aspects, however, might be just as crucial to implementation of SCP as understanding managerial and intra-organizational dynamics. Therefore, this paper presents the results of a study in which a work floor professional together with a researcher tried to contribute to the implementation of SCP within the maintenance and refurbishment processes of a Dutch housing association. The results showed that stakeholders could not come to shared understanding of strategic needs, and that that pattern influences and was influenced by social aspects such as leadership and trust, which confirms the importance of explicit attention for social interactions at work floor level for successful implementation of supply chain partnering.@en