The construction industry is a fragmented industry involving many stakeholders and faces many issues, primarily time and cost overruns. There is a need for digital technology that can aid the project management system. One of such digital technologies is Building Information Modelling (BIM), which is a collaborating way of working using efficient methods of designing, creating, and maintaining assets. BIM has many uses such as enhanced coordination, reduction in duration of work, and bringing together participants from different geographical locations that help the project teams from early conception to demolition of the facility. Though BIM has the potential to help the industry, the adoption rate is low. Researchers have identified many success factors that can help the utilization of BIM in construction firms. However, the existing literature on success factors does not discuss how these factors materialize and aid in BIM implementation. A process-based understanding of the change, transformation, and BIM adoption is absent in the literature. Digital transformation brings about change in existing practices, beliefs, and structure in organizations due to the involvement of actors. Doing differently is unthinkable, and the conventional practices are deep-rooted in organizations. Hence, an institutional and practice perspective is considered the best lens to understand change and innovation. Thus, the motivation to undertake this study is to find out what drives organizational change in the context of digital technology adoption in construction. The specific research questions underpinning this study are 1. How is organizational change operationalized with regards to BIM?; 2. Which actors emerge as institutional entrepreneurs and what institutional work trigger the change?; and 3. How are these new practices institutionalized in construction firms? To answer these questions a qualitative case-study approach is relevant as it will help achieve an in-depth understanding of the change process. This study does not have any ex-ante hypotheses, and the findings need to evolve from the data inductively. The BIM evolution journey from 2005 to 2020 of two leading construction firms in India is considered for the study. Data collection will involve multiple interviews with the project personnel who have lived through the projects. The data analysis will be through open and axial coding by reviewing the field notes and dissecting the data meaningfully. As this study uses a qualitative and inductive research, the data and the existing theory will be considered in tandem and continue till conceptual saturation is achieved. A preliminary study conducted with personnel from one of the two construction firms helped to trace the BIM adoption journey. The observations hint at the active and situated involvement of actors in the form of institutional work. This study intends to contribute to the theory by identifying different institutional work that brings about a change by creating new practices and transforming the existing practices. These mechanisms can also facilitate other construction firms in utilizing the best practices to give rise to a digital transformation.
Keywords: BIM adoption, Organizational change, Digital transformation, Institutional work, Institutional entrepreneurs, Practices, Qualitative research.