Unpacking construction site digitalization: the role of incongruence and inconsistency in technological frames

Oscar Lundberg, Daniel Nylén and Johan Sandberg

Construction Management and Economics, 2022, vol. 40, issue 11-12, 987-1002

Abstract: Construction site operations often involve multiple actors with substantial variations in assumptions, expectations, and knowledge about technology. This could impair digitalization, which involves development of socio-cognitive environments that foster use of digital technology in new organizational procedures. Nevertheless, construction industry digitalization research has mainly addressed firm-level transformation of engineering phases and focused on technology, largely ignoring challenges arising from cognitive differences among actors at construction sites. Thus, we report a case study of attempts to spark construction site digitalization through a shared information management system (IMS). Applying technology frame of reference theory, we demonstrate how differences within groups among actors’ frames (inconsistency) shape group-level frame misalignment (incongruence) and thus digitalization outcomes. The IMS was implemented successfully at the focal firm’s headquarter and regional office levels. However, substantial construction site-level frame inconsistency led to misaligned group-level expectations and generated a fragmented socio-cognitive environment that hindered strategic digitalization. In conclusion, socio-cognitive environments at industry, construction site, and group levels recursively shape individual frames, and harmonization of frames is important to realize construction digitalization.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01446193.2021.1980896 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:40:y:2022:i:11-12:p:987-1002

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2021.1980896

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().