Promoting Owners’ BIM Adoption Behaviors to Achieve Sustainable Project Management

Abstract

Although building information modeling (BIM) has a promising future in the architecture, engineering and construction industry, its wider adoption and implementation is desired. Grounded with a technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and the theory of technology acceptance model (TAM), this study extracted “social influence”, “organizational support”, “BIM technical features”, and “government BIM policies” as four key external antecedents—in reference to the particular BIM practices in China—and proposed a model to predict project owners’ BIM adoption behaviors. To test the proposed model, structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was applied for configuration analyses on a sample of 188 project owners from the Chinese construction industry. Results show that BIM technical features, and government BIM policies have positive effects on perceived usefulness, but social influence and organizational support have no significant influence on perceived usefulness. Furthermore, both social influence and BIM technical features have positive effects on perceived ease of use, while organizational support and government BIM policies have no significant influence on perceived ease of use. Attitude plays a significant intermediary role among perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and behavior intention. Additionally, attitude significantly affects behavior intention, and behavior intention can also affect BIM adoption behavior. This study is the first attempt to investigate project owners’ behaviors toward BIM adoption and the findings are expected to provide a better understanding of the essential elements of project owners’ BIM adoption behaviors and guide industry practitioners in developing proper strategies to achieve more effective BIM implementation.

An Institutional Approach to Digitalization in Sustainability-Oriented Infrastructure Projects: The Limits of the Building Information Model

“…Since C. Eastman and colleagues introduced the basics of BIM in the 1970s, it has come to be seen as an evolution of CAD design systems that provide a more 'intelligent' form of interoperable information. At the core of BIM technology is the promotion of data models involving information on buildings, infrastructure and thus as innovation, it plays a central part in the digital transformation of the infrastructure sector towards sustainable management practices [6,14]. BIM innovation therefore affects the project organizational behavior, but it is at the same time affected by the industry at large [11,27,28,46], thus introducing a processual character.…”

“…One digitalization tool which has become pervasive in the infrastructure sector is the Building Information Model (BIM). BIM is reportedly the technology enabling the infrastructure sector transition to sustainability [12][13][14]. This implies that organizational actors in infrastructure delivery are integrating BIM technology into their transition route, thus adhering to the long-term Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs).…”

Diffusion of Building Information Modeling in Building Projects and Firms in Singapore

“…Besides, "owner's requirement and leadership to adopt BIM" (D05) occupied the third position. As the project team leader, the owner is key in requiring, via certain contract documents, and motivating its service providers to follow and implement BIM work practices [62,63]. Without the owner's leadership, the service providers may continue to deliver their scopes of work in conventional ways, hindering project-wide collaboration.…”

Exploring Cultivation Path of Building Information Modelling in China: An Analysis from the Perspective of an Innovation Ecosystem

“…The main reason is that BIM has allowed implementing manufacturing concepts such as lean design and modularization into the AEC industry [8]. Also, BIM is a technological innovation that can drive the transition to sustainability in the construction sector [9,10]. This means that BIM needs to be integrated into the whole lifecycle of construction projects.…”