Organizing for digitalization through mutual constitution: the case of a design firm

Abstract

As the pace of digital change accelerates, so the ability of firms in the construction industry to organize for digitalization is becoming increasingly important. While extant research identifies the diffusion of digital innovations in firms as a non-linear process influenced by embedded contextual elements stemming from several complex social systems, it does not address the relationship between these social systems. A longitudinal embedded case of the process followed by one incumbent firm as it adopts building information modelling (BIM) is presented. Data covers a 15-year period and charts the adoption process at multiple levels: user, firm and institution. The case supports existing research by showing that BIM adoption in the firm is successful through a combination of actions involving 1) investment and leadership support, 2) standards and policies and 3) training and skills development. Drawing on Gidden’s Structuration Theory, it contributes to this research by finding that the adoption of BIM is facilitated by a mutually constitutive relationship between user, firm and institution. Firms play a central role in enabling this relationship, by both attending to and enabling endogenous user-led change while seeking to influence exogenous institutional change.