Modelling the indicators of a reduction in BIM adoption barriers in a developing country

There are no clear-cut thresholds to classify the BIM implementation-centred efforts in the construction industry. This research seeks to remedy this problem by identifying the reduction indicators for tracking BIM adoption barriers and providing evidence of the indicators in South Africa. A model of BIM implementation thresholds was developed highlighting industry-level indicators (ILI), organisation level indicators (OLI), and project-level indicators (PLI). A quantitative research design was employed where data were collected through e-mail invitations and web links from a total of 975 purposively selected BIM supply chain members. Three hypotheses were postulated from the model and tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The SEM result validates the hypothesis which theorises that the indicators of a reduction in BIM adoption barriers are more noticeable at the organisation level. The results revealed that BIM adoption barriers, such as lack of BIM resources, and non-readiness of employees to accept changes, have been significantly reduced. It was concluded in this research that the South African construction industry is a BIM-frontier construction industry with noticeable indicators at the organisation level. The findings and conclusions of this research are geographically limited because the data were collected and analysed in the South African context. An important issue for future research is the investigation of essential BIM implementation strategies for the different levels in the BIM implementation thresholds.