Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been gaining widespread adoption in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry across the globe. Consequently, several research studies have attempted to construct a holistic review of the increasing BIM publications to identify the development trend using manual review, scientometric review, bibliometric review, or latent semantic review. These extant studies have often adopted a global view of the development despite the adoption of BIM varying across firms, countries, and continents. This approach is often regarded as not representative of the BIM development in countries and continents at the infancy stage. As BIM is still at the germinating stage of development in Africa and previous reviews are unrepresentative of BIM development in the AEC industry of Africa. This paper aims to present a scientometric review and metasynthesis of BIM development in the African AEC industry to explore the intellectual evolution of BIM, the status quo of BIM across the regions, and any potential barriers hindering BIM proliferation. The review findings revealed a varying level of BIM growth, with North Africa, West Africa, and Southern Africa leading the research development, whilst East Africa and Central Africa are slightly lagging behind. Additionally, the major challenges facing BIM adoption was found as people/process-related barriers. This study has provided valuable insights into BIM development and application in the growing African AEC industry.

Purpose This study aims to evaluate and investigate the dynamics of the barriers to building information modelling (BIM) adoption from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries with the Nigerian construction industry as a case study. Design/methodology/approach An interpretive structural modelling approach was adopted to develop a hierarchical model of the interrelationships of the barriers. Also, the Matrice d’Impacts croises-multipication applique a classement analysis was used for categorisation of the barriers. Findings The findings revealed that the barriers are from a sociotechnical context and that SMEs have the will to drive BIM adoption by focussing more on their internal environment. Originality/value This study presented the adoption of BIM in SMEs, which is underrepresented in extant studies. Also, it contributes to the nascent discussion of BIM from the perspective of SMEs in developing countries.

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The small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which are the backbone of any economy are often on the disadvantaged side of the digital divide in the construction industry. With the advent of building information modelling (BIM), the SMEs are facing challenges and are slow with its uptake. Hitherto, extant research studies on BIM have focused primarily on the large firms and there is an observed trend of underrepresentation of the SMEs in BIM studies. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the major drivers of sustainable adoption of Building Information Modelling in SMEs and the dynamics of these drivers in developing countries using interpretive structural modelling approach and Matrice d’Impacts croises-multipication applique a classement (MICMAC) analysis. The findings reveal that organizational readiness is of utmost importance for the proliferation of BIM in SMEs. Also, the independent drivers which are the most important drivers consist of BIM characteristics, internal and external environment drivers and thus portray the BIM adoption as a complex socio-technical system. This study categorizes the drivers for easy intervention of SMEs’ managers and policymakers. It contributes to the nascent studies of BIM adoption in SMEs of developing countries.

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.