Smart Building Construction Technology, A Digital Innovation for Enhancing Builders Entrepreneurial Sustainability

Abstract

The building construction industry is currently on the pathway to digitalization in line with the ongoing fourth industrial revolution. However, builders have been quite slow in aligning with the digitalization pathway due to lack of adequate understanding of digital innovative skills. This study aims to develop digital skills needed by builders to become enterprising in the building construction industry. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Two research questions and hypotheses were used to carry out the study. The population for the study comprised 115 male & female practicing builders from some selected building construction industry in South-east states of Nigeria. Structured questionnaire was used to deduce respondent’s perception about digital innovative skills needed for constructing smart buildings. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was determined by the use of Cronbach alpha reliability test which yielded a value of 0.76. Data generated were analyzed using mean to answer research questions. T-test was used to test the hypotheses at probability level of 0.05. findings from the study revealed that BIM, IoT, BSM and data analytics are among the chief digital skills needed by builders to align with the digitalization of building construction industry. The findings further suggested that builders with possession of digital innovative skills promises to stay enterprising in the building construction industry. The study recommended that training opportunities on acquisition of digital skills relevant to the building construction industry should be sought for by all practicing builders in Nigeria to address the evolving dynamics in the built environment.