Industry discussions and academic literature abroad that profess the ability of Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodologies to increase productivity have been abundant. These are further endorsed by many instances of successful use of BIM in practice. In Taiwan, despite signs of increased BIM adoption by leading AEC firms in design projects, little is known about their performance due to a scarcity of publications. It is difficult to ascertain the extent to which BIM is being adopted to improve productivity. In response, this thesis aims to investigate the BIM performance of Taiwanese AEC firms at design stage, where decisions are the most critical to overall project success.

BIM process standardisation is explored at four levels: innovation, firm, industry and economy levels. Studies consider BIM as a systemic innovation that impacts multiple firms. To evolve from firm level use to industry level adoption requires integration among project teams through business process re-engineering, with the end goal of achieving an integrated project delivery (IPD). The scope of BIM use is studied in terms of number of organisations and variety of domains. To capture a more detailed insight into BIM performance, BIM Capability and Maturity models are examined to produce a list of indicators that are used to generate a BIM Performance Analysis Framework for evaluating the BIM performance of firms in Taiwan that have adopted BIM.

Two research questions are established and addressed through field study. The investigation of practice adopts a case-study approach where four of the country’s leading architecture firms and engineering consultants (ECs) and an international architecture design firm are selected. Strategies for data collection involve participation and direct observation, interview and study of documents and archival records.

Findings reveal BIM to be deployed primarily for visualisation and design coordination where collaboration remains largely intra-organisational. Where BIM has the potential to generate transformational effects for firms, only automational and informational effects are achieved, due to difficulties of applying strategic thinking and increasing the BIM market. The utilisation of BIM for purposes of Analysis and Supply Chain Integration to achieve transformational effects is hampered by problems that are legal, technological and organisational. The thesis concludes with suggestions of ways to facilitate a top-down approach to BIM implementation to reap true productivity benefits from BIM use.

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