Structural equation model of the barriers to preliminary and sustained BIM adoption in a developing country

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the barriers that are constituting significant obstructions to preliminary and sustained BIM adoption in the South African construction industry. Design/methodology/approach Implementation Process Theory was used to develop the theoretical model of barriers to continuous and consistent BIM adoption. This enabled the formulation of two hypotheses, the identification of two sub-constructs (barriers to preliminary BIM adoption and barriers to sustained BIM adoption), and five variables (resources, knowledge, work process, organisational and planning barriers), which were validated using structural equation modelling (SEM). Findings The SEM results show pieces of evidence that validate the hypotheses in the theoretical model. The path analysis confirms that the two sub-constructs and five variables are statistically significant. Research limitations/implications This research extends the postulations on the barriers to BIM adoption by demonstrating that organisational challenges and planning difficulties constitute barriers to sustained BIM adoption in the South African construction industry. Practical implications The findings of this research are useful in understanding the planning scope and organisational requirements towards continuous and consistent BIM adoption in the South African construction industry. Originality/value The difficulties with BIM adoption are the issues with the performance of BIM on projects and are the major reason for the non-consistent adoption of BIM on projects. Having difficulties adopting BIM on projects suggests that BIM adoption is majorly on a preliminary or trial basis in the developing countries. This research tests this theory by proposing two types of BIM adoption and their associated barriers.

BIM implementation: an empirical validation for a four-wheel model

“…, 2020; Olanrewaju et al. , 2020; Saka and Chan, 2021; Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021b) and look at BIM implementation activities and projects in emerging nations (Hamma-adama and Kouider, 2019). Furthermore, researchers have looked into measures and strategies for improving BIM implementation (Belay et al.…”

“…In undeveloped countries, BIM implementation is low Chan, 2020, 2021;Ismail et al, 2017;Belay et al, 2021). This reality has encouraged scholars to conceptualise and benchmark BIM implementation models in poor countries (Olawumi and Chan, 2019;Olugboyega and Windapo, 2019), investigate BIM implementation uptake and hurdles (Ismail et al, 2017;Babatunde et al, 2020;Adekunle et al, 2020;Olanrewaju et al, 2020;Saka and Chan, 2021;Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021b) and look at BIM implementation activities and projects in emerging nations (Hamma-adama and Kouider, 2019). Furthermore, researchers have looked into measures and strategies for improving BIM implementation (Belay et al, 2021), markers for gauging a decrease in BIM implementation barriers (Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021a), determining factors for BIM implementation (Al-Mohammad et al, 2022), scientific proof for project-level BIM adoption (Olugboyega et al, 2022) and strategic planning of BIM acceptance and integration in projects (Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021c).…”

Root factors limiting BIM implementation in developing countries: sampling the Turkish AEC industry

“…Although the use of BIM is rapidly increasing worldwide, it is still in its beginning phase in Turkey (Aladag et al, 2016;Simsek and Uzun, 2021) like in other developing countries. According to Antwi-Afari et al (2018), developing countries, such as India (Nanajkar, 2014;Ahuja et al, 2016), Singapore (Liao and Teo, 2017), Nigeria (Amuda-Yusuf, 2018; Olanrewaju et al, 2020;Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021), Iraq (Hatem et al, 2018), China (Zhang et al, 2020;Tu et al, 2021;Zhao and Wu, 2017;Zhou et al, 2019), Iran (Hosseini et al, 2016), Jordan (Btoush and Haron, 2017), and Malaysia (Rogers et al, 2015;Yaakob et al, 2016;Sinoh et al, 2020), the implementation of BIM is lagging. However, significant attempts have been made to investigate the limiting causes of BIM implementation and how BIM can be adapted to the construction industries in developing countries (Shahruddin et al, 2022;Sinoh et al, 2020).…”

“…, 2016), Singapore (Liao and Teo, 2017), Nigeria (Amuda-Yusuf, 2018; Olanrewaju et al. , 2020; Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021), Iraq (Hatem et al. , 2018), China (Zhang et al.…”

Modeling the determinants of BIM-enabled integration and collaboration

“…In developing and major African nations, BIM-related examinations are as yet examining BIM adoption and implementation. For instance, in South Africa, a considerable amount of literature has been published on BIM adoption and implementation (Olugboyega and Windapo, 2021a, b, c; Okoro et al. , 2020; Odubiyi et al.…”