Alemayehu, S; Nejat, A; Ghebrab, T and Ghosh, S (2022) A multivariate regression approach toward prioritizing BIM adoption barriers in the Ethiopian construction industry. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 29(7), pp. 2635-2664. ISSN 0969-9988
Abstract
Purpose: Building information modeling (BIM) is a process of creating an intelligent virtual model integrating project data from design to construction and operation. BIM models enhance the process of communicating the progress of construction to stakeholders and facilitate integrated project delivery, coordination and clash detection. However, barriers within the construction industry in Ethiopia has led to slow BIM adoption in the country. The aim of this paper is to identify perceived BIM barriers, provide a platform to quantify their importance and develop a regression model to link individual's personal/professional attributes to their perception of BIM barrier. Design/methodology/approach: To address the objectives of this research, an online survey was developed to collect feedback from construction professionals in Ethiopia on 20 major adoption barriers extracted from a thorough review of literature. Relative importance index and strength of consensus metric were employed to identify the significance of barriers. This was then succeeded by performing exploratory factor analysis to determine the major constructs of BIM barriers which was then used to develop a multivariate regression model linking respondents' personal attributes to their perception of BIM barrier. Findings: Results revealed the importance of project complexity and BIM maturity level in prioritizing barriers that are more relevant under various contexts. More specifically, results indicated the following study highlights: Project complexity led to higher perceived weights for lack of appropriate physical/cloud infrastructures, and a BIM standard. Higher levels of BIM maturity signified the importance of BIM internal issues such as liability, licensing and maintenance issues among other adoption barriers. Female participants tended not to consider intangibility of BIM benefits as a major barrier towards BIM adoption compared to male participants. Age of the participants turned out to be the least important factor in their prioritization of BIM perceived adoption barriers. Originality/value: While many research studies have explored BIM adoption barriers in various countries around the world, none to the best of the authors' knowledge have attempted to develop a model to highlight the impact of individuals' personal/professional attributes on their perception of adoption barriers within their community which can help with prioritizing the barriers that are deemed to be more important given the characteristics of the community under study. Our result indicated the importance of BIM maturity level and project complexity in prioritizing barriers associated with BIM adoption within Ethiopia's construction industry.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | BIM adoption barriers; building information modeling; construction management; ethiopian construction industry; multivariate regression |
| Index terms: | exploratory factor analysis, liability, integrated project delivery, licensing, project data, relative importance index, Ethiopia, survey, methodology, project complexity, building information modelling, regression model, platform, maturity level, prioritizing, construction professional, construction industry, coordination |
| Subjects: | evaluation, digital design, professional development, Geography, organizational theory, research methods, management, statistical analysis, liability law, information systems, industry analysis, decision analysis, knowledge transfer, risk assessment, data collection methods, contractual arrangements |
| Topics: | Risk Management, Procurement, Research Practice, Project Management, Geographical Context, Information Management, Organizational Design, Legal Issues, Digital Applications |
| Descriptive scope: | 5 PCTEA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here