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.