Contextual, structural and behavioural factors influencing the adoption of industrialised building systems: a review

The adoption of industrialised building systems (IBS) technology, with its focus on off-site prefabrication and modularisation, offers a significant reduction in environmental degradation, while simultaneously achieving significant productivity gains, decreasing labour requirements and improving working conditions. IBS technology is now one of the prevalent and growing building technologies in developed and developing countries. Policy approaches in some countries have thus concentrated on providing tailored support to encourage IBS technology adoption. Despite the obvious benefits of IBS technology, the adoption is very slow. This paper reviews literature aimed at understanding the different influences impacting on IBS adoption. The aim of the paper is to categorise and synthesis factors identified in the literature that explicitly or implicitly impact on IBS adoption decision-making. It specifically focuses on how emerging (a) contextual factors (e.g. economics conditions, technology development, government involvement, sustainability feature and stakeholders participation), (b) structural factors (e.g. Project condition, procurement setup, management approach, communication process and decision-making style) and (c) behavioural factors (e.g. experience, bounded Rationality, awareness and attitude) influence IBS adoption. Hence, identifying influencing factors on the decision to adopt IBS in construction provides support in terms of better understanding and facilitating the increased use of IBS technology and thus, improving levels of sustainability and competitiveness in the construction industries