Author(s)

NAM BUI, CHRISTOPH MERSCHBROCK, BJØRN ERIK MUNKVOLD, EILIF HJELSETH

Abstract

The construction industry is notorious for being slow to adopt technological innovations. One way to support the industry and accelerate the uptake of technologies is to establish open standards. This paper examines how the buildingSMART community helped the Norwegian construction industry in their attempts to implement Building Information Modelling (BIM) with open standards. The interventions were identified by using the Institutional Intervention Model in the data analysis. Data were collected through interviews with industry experts affiliated with the Norwegian chapter of buildingSMART. The interviewees were selected for their central role in the community and for working hands-on with developing open standards, processes, guidelines and educational resources for BIM implementation. Our findings show that the community has succeeded in their efforts to further BIM-related competences in the industry. Moreover, we document how the interventions of non-profit communities have contributed to creating tangible business values for firms in the construction industry. The insights from this study have implications for other industries or countries which desire to develop innovations based on a community approach.

Keywords

building information modelling, construction industry, open community, open innovation