BIM Innovation in SME Firms: The Impact of Developing Environmental Relationship

Abstract

Facilitated by the rapid adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM) across the globe, the Architecture,
Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry is experiencing a paradigm shift in its routine. Consequently, its adoption
has brought a twist in both the environment and business procedures for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME)
Architectural firms in developing markets. This can be attributed to the lack of a precise orientation in Environmental
Relationship development by the firms. Evaluating how BIM adoption and implementation can be significantly
influenced by developing Environmental Relationships, this paper identifies the various strategies that concern the
development of Environmental Relationships. Deploying two step analysis for the study, an empirical inquiry was
conducted to identify the various indicators of Environmental Relationship and the analysis of their impact on BIM
adoption. The empirical inquiry comprised of the research framework and fieldwork data collection, and thus, used the
framework to retrieve data from the fieldwork. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire survey with a sample
of SME architectural firms in Nigeria. The survey involved administering questionnaires to 317 firms in Nigeria with 198
responses obtained and analyzed. Through the empirical enquiry, it was discovered that there are four critical indicators
that determine the role of environmental relationship on BIM innovation, these are; the client system, technology market
dynamism, competitive environment, and government and regulatory systems. Using regression analysis, the result
indicates that Environmental Relationship development has a significant impact on the adoption of BIM in SME
architectural firms. Thus, the better SME architectural firms manage and nurture their Environmental Relationships, the
more success those firms can experience in terms of BIM innovation.