The Client uses this report or any information provided by the Collaborative Research Center for Construction Innovation in connection with the Consulting Services at its own risk. It is assumed that the slow rate of adoption does not reflect the maturity of the technology, but is due to adoption barriers specific to the nature of construction. The results have also shown that barriers to e-business adoption function differently according to organizational type and culture.
It is suspected that the slower rate of adoption does not reflect the maturity of the technology, but is due to barriers to adoption inherent in the nature of construction. For this reason, a number of e-business adoption models relevant to the construction industry are discussed. As the barriers to e-business adoption have different effects, they have been classified according to their "levels of impact".
In the next section, we will define the key terms and context for the barriers to e-business. For the purposes of this study, we adopted the NOIE (2001c) definition for e-business, namely “the facilitation and integration of business processes.” There are a number of processes that can be associated with e-business. The following table summarizes and defines the four major processes associated with e-business (NOIE 2003).
The barriers to e-business adoption appear in different ways across industry sectors and within specific segments of each industry.
Qualitative Inference Interpretation
In this case, the figure shows SME impact levels in relation to barriers to adoption. In summarizing the findings, the average of all rated barriers was calculated using the following equation, which adds all ratings and then divides them by the total number of times a barrier was rated.
CLUSTER ANALYSIS
Cluster Tree Diagram
It should be noted that the clusters relate differently according to the type of organizations, for example the relationship between clusters and type of business – such as SME, contractor, consultant and supplier. High values or dark patterns (eg 5 or 4) indicate high shock levels and low values or light patterns indicate low shock levels (eg 1 or 2). From left to right, the tree diagram starts with “privacy issues”, this barrier connects only 62.5% with any other barrier on the list, suggesting a low level of impact across the four types of organizations.
From the pattern grid (Fig. 3), this cluster shows a higher impact level for SMEs (higher values). The next cluster (middle cluster Figures 3 and 4) shows all those barriers that appear to be more general across the four types of organizations. Although this second cluster is defined as generic (as it scores high for all types of organizations), it can be seen that the list of barriers has the greatest impact on SMEs, then on contractors, then on consultants and finally on suppliers.
The last cluster from Figure 4 relates to all the obstacles that have a higher degree of impact on contractors (this is where the average scores show high.
DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS
- Barrier for SMEs
- Impediments for Suppliers
- Impediments for Contractors
- Impediments for Consultants
- Generic impediments to the Construction Industry
The identified barriers for this group include system maintenance and operating costs, issues related to financial fraud, connection speed from sites, the cost of infrastructure for temporary or short-term projects, process and cultural change, and finally skills development. Interestingly, some of the obstacles affecting medium and large contractors perform as enablers for SMEs. It could be argued that this is a perceived rather than a real barrier as it relates to 'the way of doing business', especially in an industry where the face-to-face and paper paradigms remain strong.
This may be related to perceived risks, especially related to legal issues such as dispute resolution and intellectual property. Electronic versions of a company's intellectual property submitted to a procurement procedure can easily be copied by third parties for their own use. Generic barriers such as lack of awareness appear to affect all types of construction organizations.
This uncertainty is compounded by the lack of reliable metrics, so the costs and benefits of e-business need to be clarified. The lack of industry literature showing success stories in e-business adoption has contributed to the barrier of “uncertainty”. Organizations also need to trust testimonials, and one way to overcome this is for information to be disseminated by professional or government bodies.
CONCLUSION
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