Fixing the construction industry’s ills: tinkering, patching and the congested state in Hong Kong’s BIM policy implementation

Governments around the world are increasingly pushing for a digital transformation of the construction industry. Central to this drive are public policies promoting widespread use of BIM. Drawing on a qualitative, in-depth, longitudinal case study of BIM policy in the Hong Kong construction industry, this paper examines the development of BIM policy instruments and the implications arising from their implementation. Findings show that policy instruments are seldom designed as a coherent whole, but instead emerge through tinkering and patching, adapted by a range of actors moving through a congested implementation landscape. As a result, individual instruments may be successful in encouraging BIM use, yet at times work at cross-purposes, deepen industry fragmentation and allow firms to comply with requirements without meaningfully transforming underlying practice. This calls for closer attention to how policy instrument mixes are coordinated, so as to limit unintended consequences and better realize their combined potential.