Revisiting collaboration dilemmas among stakeholders in digital projects: A transaction cost lens

Abstract

• Grounded in transaction cost economics, this study adopts process and stakeholder perspectives to contextualize the hidden costs underlying BIM collaboration dilemmas. • High asset specificity makes it difficult for designers and contractors to recover the efforts invested in BIM-related learning and training, resulting in sunk costs risks. • Information asymmetry and non-standardized BIM contracts expose developers to opportunistic behavior. • The temporary and uncertain nature of projects limits the cost-reducing effects of transaction frequency, leading to routinized burdens in collaboration. • High transaction costs drive stakeholders to adopt risk-averse, low-commitment strategies, leading to fragmented collaboration and the BIM collaboration dilemma. Building Information Modeling is recognized as a key socio-technical system driving stakeholder collaboration in the construction industry. However, at the project level, it often encounters the paradox of difficult collaboration. Previous research has primarily compiled static lists of barriers, overlooking the processual challenges and stakeholders' behavioral responses during collaboration. To address this gap, this study applies transaction cost economics to examine the challenges stakeholders encounter throughout the collaborative process. Drawing on empirical data from expert focus groups and semi-structured interviews, the study first contextualizes a transaction cost map. Secondly, it identifies the learning and training costs arising from high asset specificity within organizations and uncertainty-driven coordination costs across organizations. The findings explain that under pressure from high transaction costs, stakeholders tend to adopt low-risk strategies, leading to collaboration dilemmas. This study offers a new perspective for understanding digital collaboration dilemmas and provides practical implications for project management.