What drives the adoption of building information modeling in design organizations? An empirical investigation of the antecedents affecting architects' behavioral intentions

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Highlights

  • This study empirically examines the factors affecting architects' adoption of BIM.

  • The TAM was extended by adding five external variables as the theoretical framework.

  • The research model was validated with 162 responses from design organizations.

  • The results of this study broaden our understanding of adoption behavior of BIM.

Abstract

For years, building information modeling (BIM) has attracted much attention in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. BIM has furthermore been widely employed in design organizations. Although BIM is emerging as a useful tool for facilitating design processes, the expected benefits of BIM have not yet been fully realized during the course of its implementation. The aim of this study is to empirically examine the factors that can potentially facilitate architects' adoption of BIM through an extension of the technology acceptance model. The results revealed that top management support, subjective norm, compatibility, and computer self-efficacy are critical factors affecting architects' behavioral intentions to adopt BIM. The relationships between these antecedent factors and behavioral intentions are mediated by perceived usefulness and/or ease of use. This study provides a framework to broaden understanding of adoption behavior within this context and thereby increasing the chances for successful adoption of BIM.

Introduction

Recently, building information modeling (BIM) has attracted much attention in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. BIM can be defined as the technology of generating and managing a parametric model of a building [1]. The successful implementation of BIM is beneficial for project stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. In particular, the benefits to architects who use BIM in the design process seem apparent. These benefits include reduced document errors and omissions, reduced rework, and reduced cycle time of the design process [2]. The study by Sacks [3] found that three-dimensional (3D) parametric modeling results in a reduction in the cost of drafting of approximately 80–84%. Another study by Sacks and Barak [4] reported that the potential productivity gain from 3D modeling is estimated to be in the range of 15–41% of the hours required for drawing production. Moreover, the successful implementation of BIM can be a source of productivity improvement for subsequent processes such as construction and operation and maintenance.

However, the benefits of BIM have not yet been fully realized during the course of its implementation. According to the SmartMarket Report from McGraw-Hill Construction, only 3% of survey respondents stated that they received the full benefits of BIM [5], [6]. Such a discrepancy between expected benefits and the realized benefits of BIM may be explained by the low adoption rates of BIM by architects [7]. In the literature, various issues causing architects to be afraid to adopt BIM have been reported (see, for example, [8], [2]). In a summary of previous studies, the main issues related to BIM adoption can be summarized as 1) management support [8], [2], 2) technical support [8], 3) compatibility of BIM [8], 4) software/computer skills [8], and 5) organizational culture [8], [2]. However, the impacts of such issues on BIM adoption by architects have not been empirically validated.

Thus, the aim of this study is to empirically examine the factors affecting architects' adoption of BIM. Specifically, this study investigates the following research question: how do the organizational, social, technical, and individual factors affect architects' adoption behaviors as related to BIM? This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) by incorporating constructs such as top management support and facilitating conditions from the organizational domain, subjective norm from the social domain, compatibility from the technical domain, and computer self-efficacy from the individual domain. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 develops the theoretical background of our study, focusing on the technology acceptance theories and current practices of BIM in Korea. Section 3 presents the research model and hypotheses. Section 4 provides a discussion of the research methods. Section 5 provides the analysis of the survey results. Section 6 discusses the results with the summary, contributions, implications, and limitations of the study.

Section snippets

Current BIM practices in Korea

BIM has been recognized as the emerging technology to improve the practices of design, construction, and maintenance of building in the Korean architecture, engineering, and construction industry. With the recognition, the use of BIM has recently rapidly increased in Korea. According to a survey by McGraw-Hill Construction [9], approximately 74% of architects have experience using BIM in their design works. The Korean government has been a major force for the rapid introduction of BIM. For

Theoretical framework and hypotheses

In this study, TAM was used as a basis for investigating the architects' behavioral intentions to adopt BIM. The TAM, suggested by Davis [13], explains the determinants of technology acceptance in general and traces the impact of external factors on internal beliefs-perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use-intention to use, and actual usage [14]. According to the TAM, adoption behavior is determined by the intention to use a particular system, which in turn is determined by the perceived

Subjects

This study targets architects at Korean design organizations that actively use BIM. Three design organizations that actively use BIM for their design works were selected for the survey. These design organizations were listed as top-five design organizations in terms of BIM usage [9] and also listed among the top 100 design organizations in the world [72]. The survey began in the first week of February 2013 and concluded in the fourth week of the same month. The survey was administered using

Results and analysis

In this study, a two-stage analysis was carried out to identify and understand the critical factors that lead to the successful implementation of BIM in design organizations. A confirmatory factor analysis was first conducted to assess the measurement model in terms of reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the constructs. Then, each of the hypotheses was tested utilizing a structural equation modeling approach.

Conclusions

BIM software and their increasing use are prompting some deep changes in design organizations. Even if design organizations have made significant investments to adopt such technology, we still know little about architects' behavioral intentions to adopt BIM. To move forward on this issue, this study attempted to explain architects' behavioral intentions to adopt BIM and then investigated the factors affecting the adoption of BIM through an extension of TAM. The empirical examination of

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education (NRF-2013R1A1A2A10058175).

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