1. Introduction
As one of the largest industries in the world, the construction industry still faces many serious issues, such as construction safety, costs, and quality control. It is well known that quality is paramount to the success of a construction project [
1]. Fragmented and sloppy construction modes are a major cause of poor building product quality reflected in all phases of the project process, of which the construction phase has the most significant impact on the overall quality of the engineering entity [
2]. Therefore, it is important to adopt effective quality control methods for this phase.
Building quality is a collaborative effort involving many parties. From this perspective, quality can be expressed as the degree of refinement of deliverables accomplished within a fixed time and cost and measured against recognized standards and the needs of the various parties involved [
1]. The nature of the construction project determines that quality management is a key aspect throughout the project. Previous research explored the applicability and possibility of a variety of technological approaches in promoting quality management in the construction industry, such as Total Quality Management (TQM) [
3] and ISO 9000 quality management system [
4]. However, the aforementioned research [
3,
4,
5] on quality management mainly centered on the implementation possibilities and challenges, with a lack of targeted application and case validation during the construction phase. In addition, with the continuous improvement of quality management theory, the focus of its attention has gradually shifted from after-control to in- and before-control [
6]. Real-time monitoring and assessment of project quality [
7], acquisition and management of quality inspection data [
8], and monitoring and alarming of workers’ safety behavior [
9] are currently hot topics in the field of in-process control. Moreover, it is worth noting that workers are the actual executors of engineering projects, and the processes and details of workers’ operations during the construction process directly determine the final quality of the project [
6].
At present, the research on the standardization of construction workers’ processes during construction is still in its infancy [
10]. Compared with the time-consuming and labor-intensive real-time monitoring of the quality of the project in the construction process, it is more advisable to adopt effective pre-control measures for workers to fundamentally improve construction quality. A complete construction process consists of a number of construction sections in series, each of which is divided into a number of steps. The latter is also regarded as a refinement of each construction section. The standardized implementation of each section is an important guarantee of the construction quality of the project. However, in practice, due to inefficient training methods and outdated quality management tools, etc., it is often difficult for workers to accurately understand and realize quality control requirements, which, in turn, leads to eventual quality defects. It is not hard to find that current research on pre-control in the construction industry is mainly focused on innovation and validation of the effectiveness of safety training methods, and in particular, on the use of VR [
11,
12]. The research on training in construction techniques and technological process training for workers is relatively limited. Therefore, it is necessary to further explore more effective process quality control methods at the pre-process stage in order to deepen the workers’ understanding of the techniques and thus improve the quality of construction.
In recent years, digital technology has flourished and is of broad application prospect. In the construction industry, digital technologies, such as blockchain, IoT, and BIM, have been widely used to remove information barriers in various segments of construction and to optimize facility management [
13,
14]. Although digital design technology in the construction industry has become increasingly mature with the popularity of various types of 3D building design software based on BIM, the 3D digital process technology of construction products still lags behind and deserves further research [
15]. MBD [
16], first applied to the aerospace industry, is a digital definition method that integrates the design and manufacturing information of a product through a 3D model. This method gives full play to the advantages of intuitive visualization of the 3D model and organizes the information on design, manufacturing, and quality requirements in a modeled form to contain both the final state of the product and the intermediate state of the production phase of the product, which can intuitively reflect the dynamics of the process. MBD is now widely used in the representation and digital management of processes in the manufacturing industry. Wang [
17] explored a non-rotational part modeling method based on MBD and Pro/ENGINEER; Zhang [
18] investigated MBD-based integrated product design techniques for complex and customized products to achieve efficient collaboration of different business activities; Geng [
19] proposed a method for issuing 3D instructions for lightweight assembly of complex products by combining MBD techniques with lightweight models. It is evident that the effectiveness of MBD as a digital technology to assist process management and quality control has been well proven in the manufacturing industry. Though the construction industry is similar to the manufacturing industry, the research on the application of MBD in the construction industry is still in its infancy. Liu [
15] introduced MBD into the construction process management and proposed a method for 3D digital technological process of construction products in combination with BIM to deepen the workers’ understanding, which provided a new approach to process management and process quality management in the construction industry.
Figure 1 illustrates the flow of the technological process digitization proposed by Liu. However, the research on the acceptance of this technology among the construction worker population and the relevant influence factors is very limited.
With the acceleration of the process of scientific development, various types of information and communications technologies (ICTs) have been constantly innovated and evolved. Multiple theories and models have been used to assess the acceptance and dissemination of these technologies in different industries. The commonly used ones include the technology acceptance model (TAM) [
20,
21], the unified theory of adoption and utilization of technology (UTAUT) [
22,
23], the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) [
24], the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework [
25,
26], and the task-technology fit (TTF) model [
27]. Among these, TAM has been widely used in studies to explore user acceptance of computer information technology and is considered to be a concise model for explaining user technology adoption behavior [
28,
29]. Its prediction of user acceptance can be as high as 50% [
30]. Meanwhile, there have been studies [
31,
32,
33] applying TAM to explore technology adoption in the construction industry. Therefore, TAM was chosen as the theory framework of this research. Based on the theory of reasoned action, Davis [
30] proposed the technology acceptance model (TAM) to explain people’s acceptance of information technology and identified perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEU) as the two main variables that determined users’ attitudes towards technology and were also directly influenced by some external variables. Several scholars have introduced a variety of factors to improve and extend the model mentioned above to explore the acceptance of different technological systems by different populations in various fields. For example, Abdullah [
34] explored the impact of several of the most common factors, such as self-efficacy as well as subjective norms, on students’ use of e-portfolio systems; Ahmad [
35] investigated the role of factors such as perceived irreplaceability and perceived trustworthiness in the willingness of elderly diabetic patients to continue using wearable devices. Moreover, TAM has also been widely used in the construction industry. Zhang [
36] investigated the factors influencing low acceptance of VR technology by combining perceived price value, self-efficacy, and perceived playability as external variables with TAM and found that perceived ease of use had the most significant effect on intention to use; Park [
31] used an extended TAM to investigate the determinants of acceptance of web-based training by professionals in the construction industry and found that user satisfaction was the most prominent indicator; Billanes [
32] used TAM as the theory framework to study the acceptance of residents towards the adoption of smart energy technologies in their residential buildings. From these studies, it can be inferred that the use of TAM has provided a valuable reference for the adoption and dissemination of different ICTs in the construction industry. In these studies, the research subjects were mostly employees of construction companies, construction students, engineers, and members of trade associations, etc., while few centered on the group of construction workers. Moreover, at present, much of the research on this group focuses on areas such as personal protective equipment and wearable devices. For example, Wong [
37] introduced safety management practice factors into the TAM model and investigated construction workers’ attitudes toward personal protective equipment (PPE); Man [
38] built a PPE acceptance model for construction workers (PAMCW) by integrating the theory of planned behavior with TAM. Technical disclosure is an important pre-control of the project quality [
39]. Traditional technical disclosure has the problems of formalization and inefficiency, and the introduction of information technology into technical disclosure has become a new tendency. Xu [
39] applied BIM to technical disclosure and confirmed its advantages in improving the quality of this process by discussing real cases; Wu [
40] proposed a method for automatic generation of technical disclosure documents based on the knowledge element model, which helped to reduce the workload of managers. The 3D digital technological process is an emerging technology based on MBD, but there have been few attempts to combine it with technical disclosure. Therefore, our study mainly introduced the 3D digital technological process into construction technical disclosure, aiming to explore the factors affecting workers’ acceptance of this new method through TAM. Specifically, cognitive level, subjective norms, technology anxiety, and enjoyment were set as antecedent variables for PU and PEU. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to identify the supporting or hindering role of the aforementioned factors in the acceptance of this approach by the construction worker group. The results of this study provided valuable information for predicting the acceptance of 3D digital technological process by construction workers in technical disclosure and technical training and may provide a relevant theoretical basis for further study of the PU and PEU in the group of construction workers.
2. Research Model and Hypotheses
The research model in this study was extended based on TAM. In TAM, PU and PEU are the two most important factors and are affected by external variables. The key to explaining user acceptance of a technology is to understand the antecedents of the core structure of TAM, which are external factors [
41]. TAM with external factors can give researchers and developers specific help in technology upgradation while predicting the adoption of the technology [
42]. Therefore, many scholars have extended TAM with different external factors to explain the acceptance or adoption of various technologies [
21,
29,
31,
43,
44]. Among them, in studying the acceptance of web-based training (WBT) by construction professionals, Park [
31] considered the external variables associated with WBT acceptance from four perspectives: individual, social, organizational support, and system issues. Herein, organizational support is understood as a personal perception of the importance of the system perceived by the organization, involving senior leadership value and resource allocation. This paper followed a similar pattern. However, since the hardware and resource part and system issue are more related to the technology than to the people themselves, we have excluded related factors. In addition to this, the management value part and social influence can be summarized as the environmental pressures exerted by others on individuals when they choose to engage in or avoid a behavior. Therefore, these two issues can be considered in combination with the external variable of subjective norms. On this basis, the emotional and practical experience of the technical disclosure was considered from the perspective of the construction workers themselves, and technical anxiety and enjoyment were chosen as external variables accordingly. In addition, the percentage of young people entering the industry has been declining due to the negative aspects of the job, which has led to a significant problem of an aging workforce in the construction industry. Ranasinghe [
45] stated that increasing age directly affected a person’s cognitive level and learning ability. At the same time, the education level of the construction worker group is relatively low. Nguyen [
46], in the study on the impediments to live-streaming among tea farmers, pointed out that knowledge and experience were key barriers to technology adoption and that tea farmers with higher education were more likely to be interested in adopting new technologies. Since age and education level could not be measured directly in SEM, cognitive level was added as a corresponding external variable. The research model is shown in
Figure 2.
2.1. Technology Acceptance Model
Four constructs were included in the original TAM model: PU, PEU, attitude (ATT), and behavioral intention (BI). Among them, PU and PEU had been identified as key factors influencing the acceptance and continued use of technology [
47]. PU described the extent to which users deem a particular technology helpful in their work [
30], and PEU was defined as the extent to which users accept or use a particular technology without expending too much effort [
31]. In this study, PU referred to how construction workers perceived the benefits brought to them by technical disclosure based on the 3D digital technological process, and PEU referred to the level of effort made by construction workers to participate in this technical disclosure. In addition, ATT referred to the extent to which construction workers were willing to accept this form of technical disclosure. Previous studies have shown that PU and PEU were closely related to people’s attitudes towards new technologies [
36,
48]. Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed:
H1: PU positively affects construction workers’ attitudes toward 3D digital technological process-based technical disclosure.
H2: PEU positively affects construction workers’ attitudes toward 3D digital technological process-based technical disclosure.
2.2. Cognitive Level
In this study, cognitive level referred to the extent to which construction workers understood as well as were willing to try out the technical disclosure method based on the 3D digital technological process. Nguyen [
46] pointed out that the lack of relevant knowledge and experience was a significant deterrent to the PU and PEU of a technology. The more people become knowledgeable about the technology and the use of the associated equipment, the more they understand the benefits that this technology can bring. On the contrary, in the case of insufficient cognitive level, people’s attitudes are more hesitant [
49]. This will particularly be the case in the increasingly aging construction industry, where age affects people’s perception, learning ability, and cognitive level [
50]. Older people may be less familiar with the operation of new technologies and have a lower level of awareness of new technologies than younger people, leading to a more difficult acceptance of new technologies. Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed:
H3: Cognitive level positively affects PU.
H4: Cognitive level positively affects PEU.
2.3. Subjective Norms
Subjective norms are a kind of passive factors promoting action. Several past studies have shown that subjective norms are an important factor in explaining people’s adoption of a technology [
29,
33,
34,
41,
51]. Possessing social characteristics, each individual is not independent and is in constant interaction with others. In this research, subjective norms were defined as the extent to which the individual perceived that other people, such as his workmates as well as supervisors, who exerted a significant influence on his behavior, believed that he should accept this new way of technical disclosure, which was a form of pressure and influence from others. The importance of subjective norms is more significant when the information technology to which people are exposed is completely new and if the adoption of this technology is mandatory, just as the acceptance of technical disclosure based on the new technology leaves little room for refusal for the workers [
29,
41]. If those around them are more supportive of a technical disclosure based on the 3D digital technological process, then the workers themselves will be more inclined to adopt an optimistic and positive attitude. Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed:
H5: Subjective norms positively affect PU.
H6: Subjective norms positively affect PEU.
2.4. Technology Anxiety
Technical anxiety is a negative emotional response that refers to the emotions such as nervousness and helplessness that workers feel when faced with this new way of technical disclosure [
52]. When individuals are exposed to new technologies, those with high levels of anxiety are prone to “absent-minded” behaviors, leading to a decrease in PU [
53]. By analyzing patient acceptance of a home telecare system, Rahimpour [
52] found that technology anxiety affected people’s assessment of PU and PEU. Currently, the files of the 3D digital technological process can only be presented in exe file form. While this format is free from the limitations of the CATIA platform, it still requires a computer environment to view the complete technological process. This may cause workers who are not familiar with computer operations to feel uneasy or anxious due to the fear that they may not be able to understand or use it well, thus negatively affecting the PU and PEU. Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed:
H7: Technical anxiety negatively affects PU.
H8: Technical anxiety negatively affects PEU.
2.5. Enjoyment
Emotions have an important influence on the acceptance of new technology by individuals. This variable measured the degree of pleasure and interest aroused by the new technical disclosure method to the workers. The role of enjoyment in technology acceptance has been investigated in many studies [
31,
34,
44,
54]. The results suggest that higher levels of enjoyment lead to the promotion of better acceptance of a technology. Enjoyment reduces the perceived burden and anxiety of using new technology and influences people’s assessment of ease of use through increasing their sense of experience [
55]. Park [
31] confirmed the positive relationship between enjoyment and PU and PEU when investigating the influencing factors affecting the acceptance of web-based training in the construction industry. In the context of this study, workers who experience more fun from this new approach may also have higher PU and PEU. Therefore, the following hypotheses were proposed:
H9: Enjoyment positively affects PU.
H10: Enjoyment positively affects PEU.
5. Conclusions
The aim of this article was to systematically investigate construction workers’ acceptance of a technical disclosure method based on the 3D digital technological process and to investigate the factors influencing acceptance through an extended TAM model.
It was found that the proposed TAM model, which integrated cognitive level, subjective norms, technology anxiety and enjoyment, could be used to explain and predict how construction workers accept this type of technical disclosure. In particular, enjoyment was a key factor influencing workers’ perceived usefulness, so their perceived level of pleasure should be emphasized in order to promote positive attitudes. In terms of workers’ PEU, cognitive level played a more important predictive role than other external variables. This confirmed the importance of workers’ knowledge and familiarity with new things. How to actively promote the dissemination of the technical disclosure method based on the 3D digital technological process is an issue that deserves the attention of the management of the construction industry. In this process, the effectiveness and practicability of this technical disclosure method should be fully explained. In addition, the cognitive learning ability of the workers’ group needs to be taken into account, and more appropriate as well as reasonable methods of dissemination and guidance should be chosen accordingly. Although subjective norms played a relatively smaller role in PU and PEU, it was still a significant antecedent. The management should encourage and motivate workers to participate. Furthermore, technology anxiety was the only negative factor found in this study’s model, suggesting a need for management to provide some organizational support, such as through specialized teaching tutorials and introductory computer training, to alleviate construction workers’ technological anxiety. In order to promote and successfully apply the technical disclosure method based on the 3D digital technological process in the construction industry, in addition to the diversification of export forms, 3D digital technological process developers and designers should recognize the limitation of the computer terminal view and pay more attention to the mobile phone interface and online apps, which are not subject to the aforementioned limitations and easier to use. Good interface design and clear instructions in development are very important to improve the PEU for workers. Moreover, perceived usefulness was also a key determinant of workers’ acceptance of this new technical disclosure method. Therefore, during the ensuing development and diffusion process, developers and the management group should keep frequent contact with the workers to obtain their dynamic feedback on optimization and take both timely and appropriate adjustment measures to continually improve the acceptability of this technical disclosure method. In addition, there are still relatively few construction processes that are digitally handled. How to make the 3D digital technological process fit more accurately with the construction program of different projects, especially in the detailed operation of the process, in order to apply it more efficiently in the technical disclosure also needs to be further explored.
Although this study provided some insights into the acceptance of the technical disclosure method based on the 3D digital technological process by the construction worker community, there were still some limitations. Firstly, this study only focused on the hypothesized relationships between the selected variables and never investigated moderating effects, such as gender, age, and education level, on pathways. Secondly, this study was cross-sectional, measuring perceptions and attitudes at a static point in time. A longitudinal approach should be more appropriate for the dynamics research of workers’ acceptance as they continue to learn more about and become familiar with this method of technical disclosure. Finally, this study was carried out in China and focused on the infilled masonry wall process as a case study, so the generality of the conclusions needs to be further verified.