Enhancing the adoption of building information modeling in the Iranian AEC sector: insights from a Delphi study
Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management
ISSN: 0969-9988
Article publication date: 30 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) is an important industry worldwide and one of the largest economic sectors in several developing countries, particularly in Iran. The Iranian AEC sector suffers from low productivity and needs to adopt building information modeling (BIM) to reduce inefficiencies. Therefore, this paper was conducted to identify the BIM barriers and propose practical solutions to overcome them in Iran.
Design/methodology/approach
A comprehensive literature review, two rounds of the Delphi technique and semi-structured interviews with 12 Iranian experts in the AEC sector were conducted. The data were analyzed using the mean score, standard deviation and nonparametric tests.
Findings
The present study identified 26 BIM barriers in the Iranian AEC community and provided practical strategies for improving BIM adoption. The identified barriers were categorized into six main groups including source barriers, financial barriers, unawareness barriers, organizational barriers, regulatory barriers and market-demand barriers. The main three BIM barriers in Iran were the lack of government intervention, change-resistant and the gap between industry and academia. Kruskal–Wallis tests revealed that there are no statistically significant differences in perceptions of BIM barriers between respondents. The Mann–Whitney test indicated that there is no statistically significant difference in perceptions between engineers and architects except for one.
Originality/value
There are few studies on BIM adoption across developing countries, particularly in Iran. Moreover, the results can also be used in other developing nations with similar conditions.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Since acceptance of this article, the following author(s) have updated their affiliation(s): Nazanin Hatami is at the School of Building Construction, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Citation
Hatami, N. and Rashidi, A. (2023), "Enhancing the adoption of building information modeling in the Iranian AEC sector: insights from a Delphi study", Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-04-2023-0335
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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