Investigating the Critical Factors of Professionals’ BIM Adoption Behavior Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

In recent years, building information modeling (BIM) has been receiving growing interest from the construction industry of China. Nevertheless, although BIM has many foreseeable advantages, many studies claimed that these advantages have not been sufficiently achieved in practice at the current stage. In this circumstance, it is interesting to investigate what really drives the adoption of BIM. Based on Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior (TPB), a hypothetical model which involves nine latent variables is initially established. Then, a questionnaire is designed and distributed to the construction professionals in the Chinese context. After reliability and validity analysis, the goodness-of-fit of the initial model and the related theoretical assumptions are tested through structural equation modeling (SEM). Based on the modification indicators, a modified model is finally derived. Results show that economic viability and governmental supervision are the most critical factors that influence construction professionals’ BIM adoption behavior in China, sharing weights of 0.37 and 0.34, respectively, whereas other factors play limited roles in this regard. The research findings revealed from this study can provide insightful references for countries that intend to promote BIM adoption in a similar circumstance.

What Determines BIM Competition Results of Undergraduate Students in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry?

“…SN does not significantly influence BI, so there is no significant indirect influence on CR through “BI → CR”. This result is different from the research conclusions of Howard et al [ 13 ] and Wu et al [ 37 ], whose studies verified that individuals would be affected by surrounding people. The reason may be that their research is aimed at industry employees, and whether industry employees adopt BIM technology is more subject to the requirements of enterprises and industries [ 13 ].…”

“…Cronbach’s α coefficient is used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. It is generally believed that the questionnaire has good reliability when the Cronbach’s α coefficient reaches 0.8 [ 37 ]. The overall Cronbach’s α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.959.…”

“…All the indexes meet the recommended optimal value requirements except GFI. Although GFI does not meet the requirements of the optimal recommended value, it is also very close to the required 0.9, and it is also considered to be within the range of acceptability when GFI is greater than 0.8 [ 37 ], so it could be considered that the model has a good fitting. The model fitting results are shown in Table 4 .…”

“…Some scholars also use TPB to explore the final use behavior of BIM technology. For example, Wu et al [ 37 ] confirmed the applicability of the TPB with the study of critical factors of professionals’ BIM technology adoption behavior.…”

Investigation of the current usage of BIM capabilities by large-sized building contractors in Kenya based on theory of innovation diffusion

“…Success on growth of BIM usage by contractors witnessed in the developed world is not fully replicated in the developing world. While there has been success in improvement of BIM usage in a country like Chile that has had deliberate government interventions and mandates (Loyola and L opez, 2018), this cannot be said about China which Wu et al (2021) and Zhang et al (2020) have separately and independently concluded that by 2020, BIM usage among all actors was still low. In Kazakhstan, BIM usage is also low with cited barriers being low competency levels and lack of clear workflow processes (Aitbayeva and Hossain, 2020).…”