Innovation strategy or policy pressure? The motivations of BIM adoption in China’s AEC enterprises

Abstract

As a set of new technologies to enhance life-cycle construction management processes, Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been introduced to China’s Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries. Adopting the framework of Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) and the theory of innovation diffusion, this study provides an empirical analysis of BIM adoption and its impact on corporation performance, using a time series panel sample of 1109 observations of AEC enterprises listed in China’s A-share stock market. This study reveals that the decision of BIM adoption could be driven by corporate innovation strategy and government policy pressure. Overall, BIM implementation brings positive financial performance to the BIM adopted enterprises, but the differences of BIM performance between innovation strategy-led and policy-driven adoption are only significant in enterprises of state-controlled. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge in enriching the TOE framework by adding innovation strategy motivations in the organization context and government policy forces to the environment context. In addition, the findings of this paper might help policy makers around the world improve the acceptance of BIM technology and evaluate the effects of BIM policy.