Development of an agent-based model to understand the diffusion of value management in construction projects as a sustainability tool

Despite the rich literature about VM in construction, questions about how practitioners decide to adopt VM and what motivates adoption remain unanswered. The paper presents an Agent-Based Model as a microsimulation tool, where contractors and policy makers interact in a shared environment, to help understand the adoption of value management (VM) based on a bottom-up approach, considering contractors’ heterogeneity in terms of the perceived benefits of VM, social influence, and innovativeness. By allowing for various diffusion curves to be evaluated, our study conclude that mass media, and incentives will increase the uptake of VM.