Adoption of Digitalization in Construction Safety: A TCCM-based Literature Synthesis and Development of the DSRAO Framework

Abstract

Digitalization has been increasingly portrayed as a game-changing approach to enhancing construction safety through the adoption of technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM), sensors, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and data analytics-based safety tools. While research interest and adoption of digital safety technologies have been increasing, the evidence of long-term improvement in safety performance is unclear. To understand this challenge, this research adopts a systematic review approach to critically synthesize the existing research on digitalization for construction safety, using the Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) framework. The review examined 120 peer-reviewed journal articles published from 2010 to 2026 to map research patterns, structural gaps, and cross-dimensional gaps. The results show a heavy emphasis on adoption-focused theories, location of studies in developed countries with little discussion of how they apply to developing construction settings, isolated technology-driven studies, and use of cross-sectional and perception-based research designs. These characteristics fuel a gap between digital technology adoption and safety outcomes. Drawing on the synthesis, this study develops the Digital Safety Readiness-Adoption-Outcome (DSRAO) framework, which conceptualizes digitalization in construction safety as a mediated and outcome-focused process. It places the organizational digital safety readiness as a key explanatory factor connecting contextual enablers and barriers, digital technology adoption, and explicit safety outcomes. The research contributes to the body of literature on digital construction safety by moving beyond descriptive synthesis and adoption-focused explanations, and providing an evidence-based and structured framework that explains how digitalization can enhance construction safety outcomes.