How to pass '-p' flag to "install"?

[Peter Simons]

Hi,

I need to specify the '-p' flag when "/usr/bin/install"ing
things because I have to retain the original timestamps of
the files -- regardless of whether it's a binary, a header
file, or just data. So I figured that running

 $ ./configure INSTALL="/usr/bin/install -p"

would do the trick, but unfortunately Automake 1.9.6
generates Makefiles that use $(install_sh) rather than
$(INSTALL). Is this intentional?

Any ideas how to solve this problem?

Peter