A global taxonomic review and analysis of the development of BIM research between 2006 and 2017

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to review the status of development of building information modelling (BIM), its trends and themes across the six continents of the world. Design/methodology/approach A total of 914 journal articles sought from the search engine of Web of Science (WOS) based on the country/region option of the WOS to group them into continents. A best-fit approach was then applied in selecting the suitable software programmes for the scientometric analysis and comparisons and deductions were made. Findings The findings revealed that there are differences in the development of BIM across the six continents of the world. South America and Africa are lagging in the BIM research and Australia and Asia are growing, whilst Europe and North America are ahead. In addition, there exist differences in the research themes and trends in these continents as against the single view presented in extant studies. Originality/value This study introduced a new approach to carry out a comparative and taxonomic review and has provided both academic researchers and industrial practitioners with a clear status of development of BIM research and the trend across the six continents of the world.

A Scientometric Review and Metasynthesis of Building Information Modelling (BIM) Research in Africa

“…Despite the low number of respondents in these studies, it tends to portray the level of awareness in these countries. The high number of BIM publications from Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa equally matches the high level of awareness in in these countries [62]. However, the level of awareness does not imply the level of implementation.…”

“…It also revealed that Africa, South America, and the Middle East are lagging, whilst North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia are clearly ahead in BIM adoption. This is supported by the global taxonomic review of BIM by Saka and Chan [62]. Gu and London [50] corroborated this by asserting that BIM development varies from country to country, discipline to discipline, and client to client.…”

“…Hosseini, et al [61] adopted it to review BIM literature and identified research themes. Notably, Saka and Chan [62] analyzed 914 BIM articles that were taxonomically based on the six continents of the world and revealed that there are differences in BIM development across the continents.…”

“…BIM adoption and implementation in Africa is slow and lagging that of developed countries [62]. Table 1 shows the level of awareness of BIM in Africa from extant studies.…”

“…The increase in the publications is synonymous with the global growth in BIM publications [58,61]; however, the growth in Africa is slow. There is expected to be a continuous increase in BIM research on the continent as the BIM is just gaining awareness and proliferation [62,69]. Figure 3 shows the distribution of the papers across the countries and regions in Africa.…”