BIM-Enabled Conflict Management Framework for Construction Project Success in the UAE

Abstract

This study aims to develop a BIM-integrated framework for managing conflict causes to enhance construction project success in the UAE. It addresses critical gaps in the existing literature regarding comprehensive conflict analysis and BIM potential in conflict management for delivering successful construction projects. This study identified five significant gaps in the existing literature: (1) limited comprehensive analysis of construction conflict causes across project lifecycle phases in the global context, and the UAE is no exception ; (2) the narrow scope of previous technological solutions for conflict management; (3) the isolated study of BIM capabilities rather than as an integrated conflict management approach; (4) the lack of quantitative analysis of BIM's influence on project success through conflict management; and (5) insufficient investigation of BIM's relationship with conflict management. The research employed a quantitative method underpinned by a pragmatist epistemology, combining inductive reasoning through a critical literature review for conceptual framework building and Abductive reasoning through a quantitative survey of 273 UAE construction professionals. Principal component analysis (PCA) and multiple liner regression were adopted to analyse the quantitative data. The study examined 23 conflict causes across the project lifecycle phases and investigated the relationship between BIM-enabled conflict management (36 BIM solutions) and project success. The analysis identified five primary conflict categories—Design, Planning, Cost, Communication, and Documentation—encompassing 23 specific conflict causes. The final statistical analysis revealed Information Management as the strongest influence on project success (β = 0.206), followed by Cost Management (β = 0.184), Design Management (β = 0.174), and Planning Management (β = 0.136), collectively explaining 30.8% of the project success variance. The study mapped empirically validated BIM solutions to the 23 identified conflict causes and developed empirically validated BIM-based solutions across four management stages: Prevention (10), Identification (9), Mitigation (9), and Resolution (8). The study scope is limited to the UAE construction sector and the five categories of the BIM-enabled conflict management framework. Future studies will consider other aspects, such as sustainability. This research presents the first comprehensive analysis of BIM's role in managing construction conflict management for construction project success in the UAE context, providing practitioners with an actionable framework for implementation while quantitatively validating the relationship between BIM-enabled conflict management and project success.