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Zomer, T, Neely, A and Parlikad, A (2020) Institutional Pressures and Decoupling in Construction Projects: An Analysis of Building Information Modelling Implementation. In: Scott, L and Neilson, C J (Eds.), Proceedings 36th Annual ARCOM Conference, 7-8 September 2020, UK, Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 325-334.
- Type: Conference Proceedings
- Keywords: building information modelling, institutional theory, policy implementation
- ISBN/ISSN: 978-0-9955463-3-2
- URL: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/5eba4a23308c4a22db9e2e932d603dd2.pdf
- Abstract:
Many countries are currently developing strategies and mandates in an attempt to integrate their industries with the use of building information modelling (BIM), which has been acknowledged as an enabler of the construction industry transformation agenda. However, evidence has shown that this transformation has been slower than expected. Moreover, although adoption of BIM in these countries has gradually increased, there have been claims that improved performance has not always been achieved. In this paper, we investigate BIM implementation and the transformation of the construction industry by drawing on an integration of institutional and practice theories. We theorise the change process and differences in responses to environmental pressures through the concept of decoupling. We rely on ethnographic methods to investigate BIM implementation in practice, integrating observations, interviews and document analyses of nine BIM projects. Through inductive analysis of the data, our findings uncover two varieties of decoupling phenomena occurring in construction projects—policy–practice and means–end decoupling—and a range of antecedents of those phenomena at both the organisational and industry levels. The results show that decoupling from policy or symbolic adoption of practices occurs for reasons that include lack of experience, resources and knowledge. Decoupling between means and ends (achievement of a policy’s envisaged goals) or symbolic implementation occurs mostly because of the influence of institutionalised structures, including sociohistorical rules, norms, workflows and division of work. Consistent with practice theory, our results reveal that the achievement of outcomes depends not only on the adoption of policies and their practices (the ‘what’), but also ‘how’ those practices are actually enacted. Our findings contribute both to the construction management literature, by illuminating more realistic views of the conditions surrounding BIM and overall innovation implementations, and to the broader management literature, by revealing new facets of decoupling phenomena at an inter-organisational level.