BIM in Europe: Innovation networks in the construction sectors of Sweden, France and the UK

European countries are developing or implementing policies that promote or require the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and give BIM a central role in strategies for national sector-level transformation. It is necessary to understand BIM as a systemic innovation that is enacted and adopted by firms, projects and users but also by national actors. The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) approach has shown how the evolution of innovations can be understood in terms of networks in which actors mobilise and combine technical and social resources in order to perform activities – the Actors-Activities-Resources (ARA) model. A comparative study of BIM adoption in France, Sweden and the UK was undertaken using data from independent country-specific research projects and a pooled desktop study. A grid was developed based on the ARA model that provided a framework to inform data collection and analysis salient for explaining the extent, processes and type of adoption of BIM in each country. Similarities between countries included: the importance of large and international firms in the innovation network; and project types (non-residential public buildings and either complex or repetitive building types). Differences were found in, for example, the activities and national institutions of architecture and the policy positions and mechanisms of government actors. The analysis highlights both the value and some limitations of a country-level focus and provides a basis for thoroughgoing network analysis.