BIM adoption within Australian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs): an innovation diffusion model

Abstract

Despite the envisaged benefits of BIM adoption for SMEs, BIM in SMEs has remained an underrepresented area within the available academic literature. This study proposes and draws upon a framework grounded on innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to provide an illuminating insight into the current state of BIM and the main barriers to BIM adoption within Australian SMEs. Based on analyses of 135 questionnaires completed by SMEs through partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and grounded on the proposed framework, the current state of BIM adoption and barriers to BIM adoption for SMEs are discussed. The findings show that currently around 42% of Australian SMEs use BIM in Level 1 and Level 2 with only around 5% have tried Level 3. It comes to light that lack of knowledge within SMEs and across the construction supply chain is not a major barrier for Australian SMEs. In essence, the main barriers stem from the risks associated with an uncertain return on investment (ROI) for BIM as perceived by key players in SMEs. The findings also show the validity of the framework proposed for explaining BIM adoption in Australian SMEs.

Roadmap to Mature BIM Use in Australian SMEs: Competitive Dynamics Perspective

“…Consequently, various roles across the construction supply chain show different levels of interest towards BIM (ACIF and APCC 2017;. Eadie et al (2013) proffered that company size is an important determinant of BIM use while Jaradat and Sexton (2016) and Hosseini et al (2016) claimed that construction management research conducted has favored BIM adoption in large practices and megaprojects -such work has inadvertently created the impression that BIM is for large organizations. In support of this largely unsubstantiated conjecture, Dainty et al (2017) Dainty et al (2017) implies that a cavernous 'digital divide' has transpired between SMEs, large firms and their respective BIM adoption level -caused by insufficient resources, finance and/ or knowledge or skills inherent within the workforce (Eadie et al 2013).…”

“…Nevertheless, embedding widespread and mature use of BIM is essential to an industry that is heavily reliant upon engaging SMEs (Hosseini et al 2016;Lam et al 2017). As asserted by Shelton et al (2016):…”

“…And implementation of BIM in SMEs post adoption has received scant attention (Gholizadeh et al 2018;Hosseini et al 2016). It is still unknown what factors drive integrated forms of BIM use in Australian SMEs.…”

“…However, the academic discourse reveals that pertinent research is largely monothematic, almost entirely focused on models, frameworks and lists of barriers to address the problem of BIM adoption in SMEs (Hosseini et al 2016;Lam et al 2017). …”

“…For example, Hosseini et al (2016) presented a model of barriers whilst Lam et al (2017) proposed a decision making system to support SMEs to make appropriate decisions on BIM adoption.…”