Enhancing the impacts of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration in BIM-enabled construction projects – an SLT perspective

Abstract

PurposeThis study employs situated learning theory to elucidate the mechanisms of interorganizational collaboration by analyzing the relationships among absorptive capacity, institutional compensation, task cognitive integration and interorganizational collaboration in BIM-enabled construction projects.Design/methodology/approachAn online questionnaire survey was conducted with managers and professionals involved in building information modeling (BIM-) enabled construction projects, and 220 valid responses were received. Data were analyzed by means of the linear regression models and bootstrap method.FindingsThe results show that (1) absorptive capacity, institutional compensation and task cognitive integration have a positive impact on interorganizational collaboration; (2) institutional compensation partially mediates the effect of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration; (3) task cognitive integration fully mediates the effect of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration; (4) institutional compensation and task cognitive integration serially and fully mediate the relationship between absorptive capacity and interorganizational collaboration and (5) the serial mediating model has a greater indirect effect than the other two models considered in this study.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the way to break through the three types of organizational boundaries (i.e. syntactic, semantic and pragmatic organizational boundaries) and provide an internal collaborative mechanism from the perspective of situated learning theory. This study presents the critical effects of absorptive capacity, institutional compensation and task cognitive integration on interorganizational collaboration, selects the enhanced mediating model for explaining the effects of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration and enables managers to update the traditional collaborative model in BIM-enabled construction projects.

Distributed team cognition and collaborative problem-solving in project management

“…Within the DTC study range in project management, studies correlate CB issues (Poirier et al, 2017;Zhang et al, 2021); collective communication and interaction (Drury-Grogan, 2021; Wang et al, 2021); trust building (TB) (Han and Hovav, 2016;Pavez et al, 2021), and social cognition and knowledge building (KB) (Hyldeg ard, 2006;Liu et al, 2022). Still in the reasoning, if on the one hand the DTC can be used to explain cognitive events within the project team, there are proposed antecedents that relate the leadership capacity of the project manager (PM),…”

“…Within the DTC study range in project management, studies correlate CB issues (Poirier et al. , 2017; Zhang et al. , 2021); collective communication and interaction (Drury-Grogan, 2021; Wang et al.…”