BIM And Construction Contracts: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Building Information Modelling (BIM); Construction Contracts; Cluster Analysis; Digital Risk Allocation; Contract Standardization

Abstract

Building Information Modelling (BIM) has emerged as a transformative technology in the construction industry, reshaping project planning, contract administration, collaboration, and risk allocation. However, its integration into construction contracts continues to face conceptual, operational, and legal challenges. This systematic literature review synthesizes current research on the intersection of BIM and construction contracting to identify prevailing themes, gaps, and future research opportunities. The review examines contractual dimensions such as roles and responsibilities, liability frameworks, intellectual property rights (IPR), data ownership, interoperability challenges, and risk-sharing mechanisms within BIM-enabled projects. A key finding is the growing need for contract structures that support collaborative working environments, transparent information flows, and digital accountability. The study also emphasizes the importance of analytical tools such as cluster analysis, which can help categorize research contributions into thematic clusters—such as legal frameworks, technological integration, collaborative contracting models, dispute resolution, and BIM-based risk management. Such clustering strengthens the conceptual clarity of existing literature and provides evidence-based justification for emerging research directions. Despite increasing global adoption of BIM, significant gaps remain in contract standardization, digital liability frameworks, and dispute resolution protocols. Based on these gaps, the study proposes future research questions focused on: (i) developing standardized BIM contractual clauses applicable across jurisdictions; (ii) designing digital risk-allocation models for multi-stakeholder BIM environments; (iii) exploring the role of smart contracts and blockchain in automating BIM-related obligations; (iv) assessing how BIM maturity levels influence contract structure; and (v) evaluating legal implications of real-time data sharing and model-based decision-making. Overall, this review highlights the evolving interplay between BIM and construction contracts and underscores the need for rigorous legal—technological alignment to support efficient, collaborative, and digitally enabled construction project delivery.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Sreeranjini Sreekumar
AU  - Arjun Jothi Prasad
AU  - Sagar Malsane
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/26
TI  - BIM And Construction Contracts: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Infrastructure Development and Sustainability (ICIDS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 128
EP  - 148
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_9
ID  - Sreekumar2026
ER  -