Determining Decision-Making Factors for Technology Adoption in the Construction Industry

Abstract

Construction organizations have been undergoing major efforts as the industry acknowledges the need to improve and change its traditional business-as-usual model. Inspired by the wave of technological advancement brought forward by the fourth industrial revolution (i.e., Industry 4.0 or its construction counterpart known as Construction 4.0), the need to investigate and successfully exploit technologies has never been more critical for construction researchers and practitioners. One research topic that remains limited pertains to the organizational aspect of successful technology adoption and the impact on the business environment in which the organization operates. To address the gap, the study utilizes the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework and synthesizes the existing research corpus to develop a comprehensive list of 23 decision-making factors for construction organizations to evaluate when adopting technologies. The study also offers an overview of existing research on the adoption of Construction 4.0 technologies, proposes 97 potential measures to evaluate the factors, and provides a discussion of the research trends. Accordingly, findings from this study can lay the foundation for decision-making processes and frameworks as technology adoption research grows and change efforts expand across the construction industry.