Collaboration in BIM-enabled projects : a socio-technical perspective

Abstract

Building Information Modeling (BIM) enables project participants to perform more efficiently and effectively. Recently, many studies have reported the rapid growth of application of the use of BIM system in global construction industry used by Architects, Engineers and Contractors and clients etc. Many users report benefits of using BIM including more accurate information, less re-work, reduced construction time, fewer claims and better project performance. Those reported benefits have stimulated more acceptances of BIM and rapid adoption worldwide in past five years. As adoption increases and BIM becomes more pervasive in the construction industry in Hong Kong, clients and forefront users of such technology begin to question the effectiveness of BIM implementation. Firms that have adopted BIM invest an extensive amount of money and time in training professionals, but they barely enjoy the real benefits from BIM adoption. Construction is a project-based activity, wherein different disciplines work collaboratively to achieve the project goal. Effective collaboration and coordination among all project participants is essential to achieve the full advantages of BIM. Thus encouraging different disciplines (architect, engineer, surveyor, contractor, etc.) to collaborate in BIM-enabled construction projects is critical for optimizing BIM adoption and improving project performances. A project team constitutes professionals from different organizations (e.g. architectural, engineering, and construction). It is important for the project participants to work closely together to share their information, coordinate working flows, jointly make decision, achieve inter-organizational collaboration, and deliver projects effectively and efficiently. This study aims to explore and investigate factors affecting multi-discipline collaboration in BIM-enabled construction teams in Hong Kong.

Socio-technical Theory is employed as theoretical lens to construct a conceptual research framework. To further develop a validated research model, a two-stage research design is adopted including an exploratory study and an explanatory study. The exploratory study uses semi-structured interviews to confirm factors identified from existing literatures as well as to explore any new important factors from empirical context. The exploratory study validates the finalized research model by content analysis of qualitative data. In the explanatory study, a quantitative research method is adopted. A questionnaire survey is conducted and a total of 249 responses are collected for data analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is applied to test the finalized research model and postulated hypotheses.

The research findings and results confirm that common understanding, trust and joint decision-making significantly determine the collaborative team environment. Such collaborative team environment in turn influences inter-organizational BIM collaboration. Research results also reveal that collaboration experiences among project participants impose significant positive influence on interoperability. Research findings also confirm that continuous training is a critical support factor to BIM collaboration. BIM acceptance is found to be the most significant predictor to BIM collaboration. Moreover, BIM collaboration is proved to be important to project success and BIM success. Besides, research also finds that different professionals have significant differences in BIM collaboration. Professionals with more BIM experiences tend to act more collaboratively in the project. In addition, early involvement of project participants also imposes a positive impact on BIM collaboration.

This study provides an integrated view on inter-organizational collaboration in BIM-enabled construction projects in Hong Kong, and addresses the social, technological and process factors associated with effective inter-organizational collaboration. A triangulated research method is employed. Some new measurement scales and factors are developed specifically for BIM-enabled construction projects. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the significant factors that affect the collaborative adoption of BIM in the construction industry in Hong Kong. Such findings are useful and valuable to practitioners to improve the effectiveness of BIM adoption in construction projects.