Organizing for technology in practice: implementing Building Information Modeling in a design firm

This research examines how technologies are implemented in firms. As the rate of technological change increases, the ability of firms to implement technologies effectively is increasingly important. By adopting a practice perspective of implementation, this study generates insights that contribute to our theoretical and practical understandings of the process of implementation. Specifically, it is guided by two research questions, which are: a) How do organizational routines and practices influence processes of technological implementation in firms? And b) How can firms organize for technological implementation in complex operations? This study draws on data collected about the implementation of one technology in the construction industry. Specifically it studies contemporary attempts to implement Building Information Modeling (BIM) in a large design firm working in the industry. An embedded, longitudinal case study is developed to describe the process of implementation at multiple levels, including individual actors, firm and institutional. A process model of technological implementation is derived from the data. This conceptual circular model identifies four stages in an iterative implementation process, comprising preparing, forming, enacting and reflecting. The source of generative change in the process is organizational routines, which are created and adapted during implementation. The relationship between practices and routines is unpacked, and illustrated by applying the conceptual model to a project in the construction industry. In taking a practice perspective of implementation, it is seen as an iterative and continuous process rather than a linear and finite one, as suggested in a number of past studies (Leonard-Barton, 1998; Tyre and Orlikowski, 1992; Edmondson et al, 2001). This indicates that in the present-day, firms are constantly undergoing processes of technological implementation, at varying rates and stages. This research generates insights into organizing for implementation. It suggests that firms play a key role in enabling implementation, despite viewing it as a user driven process. In organizing for technological implementation in complex operations, activities occurring at firm and practice level should be aligned. The role of the firm is to create aninfrastructure of support, changing and being changed by the actions of internal actors and seeking to influence external institutions on their behalf.