Factors Affecting BIM Adoption in the Yemeni Construction Industry: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

The construction sector is one of Yemen's most important economic pillars. Building information modelling (BIM) is a new information technology implementation that can create an intelligent digital design of buildings to support a variety of tasks and provides a wide range of benefits throughout the project life cycle. However, BIM is not widely embraced in Yemeni construction firms. Compared with other countries, Yemen presents a unique case for BIM adoption due to the ongoing war in the country, which will assist in rapid rebuilding processes. Thus, a complete and systematic investigation of the factors affecting BIM adoption in the Yemeni construction industry is required. This study utilises five categories of impacting factors: Technology, Process, Policy, People, and the Environment to model the strategic implementation for BIM in the Yemeni construction industry. A random sample was used to achieve homogeneity and increase the consistency and quality of data. Purposive sampling was used to choose participants for the framework validation. The data were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM), and the key factors influencing BIM adoption were determined and modelled. The results show multivariate results indicate a high correlation within the measurement model for all factors affecting BIM adoption in Yemen. In addition, the developed model was deemed to fit because the analysis result of the model's coefficient of determination test (R-2) is BIM adoption having 0.437, Environment at 0.589, and People having 0.310, demonstrating high acceptance. Moreover, the results reveal a high correlation between policy and people (>0.50), while the environment significantly affected BIM adoption (0.304). Overall, the model illustrated how various factors influence BIM adoption. The created framework highlights the importance of understanding BIM adoption concepts and challenges in the Yemeni construction industry. It is believed that this study highlights the BIM implementation in developing countries such as Yemen and the possibility of implementing the proposed method in other countries to develop their own BIM implementation strategy.