Effects of Digital Technology Adoption on Sustainability Performance in Construction Projects: The Mediating Role of Stakeholder Collaboration

Abstract

Emerging digital technologies such as building information modeling (BIM) and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been widely adopted in construction projects and have attracted great attention from researchers and practitioners in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. To better understand the benefits of adopting digital technologies in construction projects from the sustainability perspective, this research investigated the impact of digital technology adoption on sustainability performance and proposed the mediating role of stakeholder collaboration based on organizational information processing theory (OIPT). Survey data were collected from managers and members of Chinese construction projects, and the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the hypothesized relationships. The results show that digital technology adoption has direct effects on economic, environmental, and social performance and that stakeholder collaboration can directly influence only economic and environmental performance. Additionally, stakeholder collaboration partially mediates the relationship between digital technology adoption and economic and environmental performance. These findings enrich the current research on digital transformation and project sustainability management and provide managerial implications for how to realize the benefits of digital technology adoption in the AEC industry.