Enhancing the impacts of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration in BIM-enabled construction projects – an SLT perspective

Purpose This study employs situated learning theory to elucidate the mechanisms of interorganizational collaboration by analyzing the relationships among absorptive capacity, institutional compensation, task cognitive integration and interorganizational collaboration in BIM-enabled construction projects. Design/methodology/approach An online questionnaire survey was conducted with managers and professionals involved in building information modeling (BIM-) enabled construction projects, and 220 valid responses were received. Data were analyzed by means of the linear regression models and bootstrap method. Findings The results show that (1) absorptive capacity, institutional compensation and task cognitive integration have a positive impact on interorganizational collaboration; (2) institutional compensation partially mediates the effect of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration; (3) task cognitive integration fully mediates the effect of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration; (4) institutional compensation and task cognitive integration serially and fully mediate the relationship between absorptive capacity and interorganizational collaboration and (5) the serial mediating model has a greater indirect effect than the other two models considered in this study. Originality/value This study contributes to the body of knowledge by demonstrating the way to break through the three types of organizational boundaries (i.e. syntactic, semantic and pragmatic organizational boundaries) and provide an internal collaborative mechanism from the perspective of situated learning theory. This study presents the critical effects of absorptive capacity, institutional compensation and task cognitive integration on interorganizational collaboration, selects the enhanced mediating model for explaining the effects of absorptive capacity on interorganizational collaboration and enables managers to update the traditional collaborative model in BIM-enabled construction projects.