BIM adoption as a perceived source of competitive advantages and competitive strategies for construction consultancy SMEs: Evidence from Vietnam

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has been proven to bring about multiple benefits to construction projects, therefore, it has been gradually adopted in various types of construction companies. In an increasingly competitive market, BIM adoption could assist construction consultancy Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SMEs) to enhance their competitive capability. This study explores the perception of Vietnamese SMEs regarding BIM as a source of competitive advantages and competitive strategies. Two groups of firms, who have and have not adopted BIM, were selected to interview with semi-structured questionnaires to first investigate drivers, benefits/potential benefits of BIM application in relation to the competitive advantages of the firms, and then a comparison was conducted within the two groups to see their viewpoints in different aspects. The results show that none of the six interviewed SMEs chose implementing a competitive strategy as a motive of BIM adoption, but they all do agree that BIM could bring in some other benefits to help them stand out from others. One the one hand, differentiation strategy is the most chosen BIM-deployed competitive strategy, on the other hand, cost benefits have been experienced by firms who applied BIM; therefore, cost strategy is opted by this group.