The shift towards digitalisation has been empowering growth in the construction industry, especially in the past decade. Construction stakeholders are offered myriad benefits by embracing digital advancements to achieve efficiency. However, the exploitation of digital opportunities is bounded by the need for a practitioner skillset that aligns with the digital era, a requirement that has been described as difficult to meet and justified by the low degree of digital literacy among construction employees. This paper reports findings from interviews with 19 leaders and decision makers in the construction sector to reveal the indicators that can predict construction employees’ digital literacy. Such an approach offers a comprehensive exploration of the likelihood of employees’ digital literacy through socially oriented characteristics. Overall, 19 individual characteristics emerged from the thematic analysis and highlight the critical connection between social behaviour and digital literacy. The findings of this paper are timely and important for those businesses assessing their employees’ willingness and maturity with regard to technological change through social and behavioural information. The qualitative approach led to the development of a conceptual framework that can explain the dynamics needed to assess employees’ digital literacy in construction organisations. This study, therefore, reveals the effectiveness of predicting employees’ readiness to shine in the digital era by shedding light on their digital literacy through examinations of individual characteristics in a construction workplace. This paper is among the first to encourage research efforts that take into account the importance of studying social and psychological complexities, which are subject areas that are limited in recent construction literature. As such, it is of value to employers wishing to embed greater digitalisation in their firms, as well as researchers in this domain and policymakers looking to encourage greater digital transformations.

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Purpose Due to the practical complexity and fragmented nature of the construction industry, digitalisation, like other innovations, is not easily achieved. This study aims to explore organisational influences on digitalisation within construction firms. Design/methodology/approach The study uses structured open-ended questions as a data collection tool for a qualitative investigation. The qualitative approach enabled participants to express their inputs and maximise the diversity of data, offering new insights and discussions that are distinct from previous works. Findings Construction professionals from 22 organisations provided their perspectives on digital transformation and their organisations. Under four constructs – structure, culture, leadership and internal processes, findings uncovered 16 determinants critical to digitalisation in construction firms. The study offers a theoretical perspective supported by empirical data to explore the complex dynamics and internal interactions of organisational influence on the uptake of digitalisation in the construction industry. Originality/value This paper offers arguments from a theoretical lens by applying the organisational influence model and capturing the variables under each construct in an exploratory manner to highlight the reasoning behind the low digital uptake in construction firms. This research aids academia and practice on the pressure points responsible for enhancing, or undermining, digital uptake in construction firms at an organisational level.

Construction has long been identified as an industry resistant to change and innovation, a reality that has prevailed to shape its overall reputation. The public sector includes an influential client type that dominates the major percentage of construction demand and is subject to public law. The Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) have been championed recently by the UK government and early adopters upon the emergence of data indicating their effectiveness in addressing key construction challenges. However, the uptake of MMC has been low among UK construction clients, particularly among public client organisations. Theories emerge across decades to inform researchers of variable clusters that can aid a broader understanding of decision-making and innovation adoption. One of the popular innovation theories suggests a relation between the characteristics of decision-makers and their own innovation decisions. This paper, therefore, aims to investigate the characteristics that are responsible for public clients’ low MMC uptake despite the associated relative advantages. Overall, 91 public client organisations have responded to this research’s survey, reflecting their organisation’s characteristics in line with the constructs adapted from the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) theory. Results suggest that among the ten influences that are captured from a detailed review of the literature, confidence in MMC firms supersedes all other factors in critically influencing the organisation’s favourable decision towards using MMC. Evidence provided in this paper suggests that a communication issue is presenting itself in the public construction sector, which is evident by the lack of confidence that public clients have in MMC businesses. This is the first study to utilise quantitative means to examine construction clients’ characteristics and relate the same to the adoption of construction innovation. Future research is encouraged to acknowledge the most influencing characteristics and detail how such knowledge can be embraced by supply to develop business models that can orchestrate better confidence in the public sector.

PurposeIn the past decade, transforming key processes and activities towards a more digital nature has been the focus of most industries to exploit the associated advantages. Despite that, organisations in the construction sector are lagging the list of early adopters. The slow rate of a fundamental digital transformation is being linked to the challenges facing an effective leadership. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to shed light on the barriers to digital leadership enactment in the construction industry. Limited research has empirically analysed and discussed these barriers to explain the low transformation rate in the existing body of knowledge.Design/methodology/approachThis paper empirically investigates the perspectives of construction industry professionals acquiring various roles in the industry. This study captured the views of 38 participants, adopting a qualitative methodological approach to detail the barriers and explain the slow digital transformation rate.FindingsFindings are grouped into five themes: leadership characteristics, management and organisational issues, resource constraints, technological issues and risk perceptions. The findings are helpful to business leaders, researchers, trainers and educators to develop measures to encourage leaders in the industry to be at the forefront of digital transformation in their organisations.Originality/valueLiterature, however, is discreet in reflecting the challenges and barriers facing today's leadership in facilitating digital transformation among construction stakeholders. This paper provides insights into the variables that may be undermining wider digital adoption across the construction sector's organisations.