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British construction industry KPI data collected over recent years shows a trend in projects exceeding their time schedules. In 2013, the UK Government set a target for projects timeframes to reduce by 50 per cent. Proposed interventions included more rapid project delivery processes, and consistent improvements to construction delivery predictions, deployed within the framework of 4D Building Information Modelling (BIM). The purpose of this paper is to use Rogers’ Innovation Diffusion theory as a basis to investigate how this adoption has taken place.

In total, 97 construction planning practitioners were surveyed to measure 4D BIM innovation take-up over time. Classic innovation diffusion research methods were adopted.

Results indicated an increasing rate of 4D BIM adoption and reveal a time lag between awareness and first use that is characteristic of this type of innovation.

Use of a non-probability sampling strategy prevents the results being generalisable to the wider construction population. Future research directions and methods are suggested, including qualitative investigations into decision-making processes around 4D BIM, and case studies exploring the consequences of 4D BIM adoption.

Recommendations of how to facilitate the adoption of 4D BIM innovation are proposed, which identify the critical aspects of system compatibility and safe trialling of the innovation.

This paper reinforces 4D BIM as an innovation and records its actual UK industry adoption rate using an accepted diffusion research method. By focusing on UK industry-wide diffusion the work also stands apart from more typical research efforts that limit innovation diffusion exploration to individual organisations.

The UK construction sector of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has received criticism for a perceived lack of desire to innovate. Previous research has identified attributes such as company size and levels of research and development expenditure as being significant and causal variables determining this response. The purpose of this study was to further explore organisational attributes that determine innovation likeliness within construction SMEs.

Web-based questionnaires were administered to 101 construction professionals. Responses from large companies and SMEs were compared, and data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods.

The findings indicate that SMEs do implement a substantial amount of innovation to improve profitability. Both organisational maturity and in-house design capability were found to impact SME innovativeness.

The study provides further evidence that the UK construction SME sector is evolving away from traditional to more innovative practices.

Exploratory research was undertaken focusing upon an innovation adoption decision taken by a regional UK division of a large international contracting organisation implementing building information modelling (BIM) into their project delivery processes. The purpose of this paper was to gain new insights through observations of the process and analysis of the views of employees about organisational BIM adoption during the implementation stage of the innovation-decision process.

Case study research was performed focussing on initial BIM projects delivered by an early adopter organisation. Observations and semi-structured interviews were used as part of a data collection strategy, and an iterative research approach was adopted.

During implementation stages of BIM innovation adoption, organisations may have to make use of hybrid project delivery methods on initial adopter projects while also working concomitantly with existing systems, processes and personnel not yet ready to adapt to BIM methodology.

The work captures previously unseen phenomena of how such an organisation and its staff have adapted to BIM innovation adoption during a programme of organisational change. The identification of hybrid project delivery processes has generated further implications for practice and research into the effectiveness of construction production information management.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a unique conceptual framework for integrated asset management strategy that includes making use of available facility assessment methods and tools such as BREEAM In-Use, and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED); and highlights proposes areas of commonality between these and the use of as-built Building Information Modelling, that ultimately becomes the Asset Information Model (AIM). This framework will consider the emerging requirements for the capture of Building Performance Attribute Data (BPAD), and how these can be managed in order to assist with effective post-construction building performance evaluation.

A review of the current process relevant to the development of as-built BIMs and AIMs was undertaken which included a discussion of BIM standards and of the COBie process. This was combined with data provided by industry practitioners. This led to the concept of BPADs being developed, to be used within existing green building tool, BREEAM In-Use, COBIE and FM/Asset management methods. In turn these methodologies were used to identify possible synergies and areas of integration in AIM-enabled environments.

Recognising the cyclical nature of asset management and BIM, a conceptual model was generated. It was found that BPADs could be aggregated within an AIM model which could influence the delivery of effective facilities and asset management. The model considers the use of existing Building Management Systems (BMS) and Computer Aided Facility Management Systems (CAFMs) and identifies issues associated with the overall sustainability strategy.

A conceptual framework is generated that proposes the use of effective information management and aggregation of BPAD within an AIM.

Against a background context of Construction 4.0, this study aims to explore what digital leadership in construction firms is, why it is necessary and what considerations it involves. It provides a digital leadership considerations framework to aid organisational digital transformations.

To address the research question informing what digital leadership involves, an interpretivist study was conducted. Eleven purposively selected expert practitioners, including construction business leaders and company digital champions were surveyed using in-depth semi-structured interviews. This obtained insights and reflections on how construction leaders can impel digital transformations.

How construction leaders can embed the skills to drive such transformation in their firms, what the essential digital skills for construction businesses now are in Construction 4.0 and how leaders can attempt to evaluate the value of digital technology for their business practices, are all crystallised. Impacts of digital transformations on the construction workplace are also highlighted.

Because of this work, business leaders will be better equipped to lead and support further digital transformation efforts in Construction 4.0. Future research directions aid academics.

Clear definitions of digital transformation and digital leadership are provided, and a digital leadership considerations framework is provided to support firm-level digital transformations for Construction 4.0.

The purpose of this study is to establish an enhanced model of the innovation-decision process (IDP), specifically for construction. As context, innovation diffusion theory (IDT) is concerned with explaining how some innovations successfully stick whilst others fail to propagate. Because theoretical models provide abstracted representations of systems/phenomena, established IDT models can help decision-making units with innovation-related sense-marking and problem-solving. However, these occasionally fail or require enhancement to represent phenomena more successfully. This is apparent whenever middle-range theory seems ill-fitted to the complexity of construction.

Qualitative research via 13 semi-structured interviews occurred, with participants recruited via convenience and purposive sampling strategies. The study forms part of a broader mixed-method study (n = 246) informed by a research philosophy of pragmatism, investigating the applicability of classic IDT to the adoption of four-dimensional (4D) building information modelling (4D BIM) by the UK construction sector.

This diffusion study resulted in the adaptation of an existing IDP model, ensuring a better contextual fit. Classified more specifically as a modular-technological-process innovation, 4D BIM with its potential to provide construction planning improvements is used as a vehicle to show why, for construction, an existing model required theoretical extensions involving additional stages, decision-action points and outcomes.

This model can assist construction industry actors with future adoption/rejection decisions around modular-technological-process innovations. It also aids the understanding of scholars and researchers, through its various enhancements and by reinforcing the importance of existing diffusion concepts of compatibility and trialability, for these innovation types.

An enhanced model of the IDP, specifically for construction, is established. This construction-centric contribution to IDT will be of interest to construction scholars and to practitioners.

In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Maslow suggested the “Hierarchy of Needs” as a classification system that described the stimuli for human behaviour. Presently, project behaviour research, which inspired this work, encourages undertaking research on behavioural aspects within and across organisational and project settings. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse project-based organisations’ (PBOs) seemingly reluctance in engaging in organisational learning from past project failures by drawing upon both institutional theory (since it focuses on how firms interact) and Maslow’s model within a project behaviour piece of research.

Interviews were held with purposively selected construction professionals from the UK construction industry, and data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Besides the need to learn from failures, PBOs’ main competing needs revolve around their “competitiveness”; “profitability and productivity”; “repeat business” and “reputation and partnering”. Mirroring these needs against Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, “competitiveness” and “profitability” are analogous to foundational “physiological” and “safety” needs. The need for “repeat business” and “reputation” is approximated with Maslow’s “affiliation” and “self-esteem” needs, and organisational learning is associated with “self-actualisation”. From an institutional theory perspective, such response to failure is influenced by the need to show legitimacy and conformity imposed by institutional factors.

Instead of taking a simplified approach to learning from failure such as the use of technological tools, PBOs and the sector at large should consider more robust approaches, by appreciating the influence of institutional factors and the external environment on their efforts to learn from failure.

Unlike past studies that present organisational learning within PBOs as a straightforward process, this study instead highlights the need of understanding various competing needs within a PBO and the external pressure.

The purpose of this study is to examine the feasibility of using 3D simulation transfer processes to streamline the environmental assessment of buildings that have been designed digitally using building information modelling (BIM). The case study presented relates to a competition (“Build Qatar Live”) in which one of the winning team’s objectives was to create a smart process for assessing the design against the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) criteria. The experience indicated that a rapid, concurrent and efficient LEED evaluation was possible within the BIM process. The study presents technological approaches that can be adopted within the BIM environment to simplify the environmental assessments and embrace practices that reduce environmental and ecological impacts.

The methodology encompassed an overview of how rapid high-value data exchange occurs within BIM to achieve a sustainable building design as part of an international design competition. Achieving a LEED rating through sustainable design was a key requirement of the competition.

The findings of this case study has revealed that key credits in LEED can be integrated within the BIM design process. Therefore, tackling such important environmental design issues in parallel to building design and providing key information on building elements needed to meet the sustainability criteria.

This research highlights the benefits of streamlined, architectural and data software exchange through applying data interoperability of a building design; thus, skipping conventional 2D building and conventional documentation for environmental and energy designs simulations needed for LEED certifications and general low carbon design.