The digital wave has reshaped the construction industry’s organizational ecosystem, driving the continuous evolution of project organizational capabilities. As environmental turbulence increases, these capabilities exhibit new evolutionary traits.The study combined the forward-looking logic of how organizational capabilities affect project performance with the retrospective evolutionary logic based on performance analysis, and proposed a comprehensive framework for the evolution of organizational capabilities. A hybrid method combining structural equation model and system dynamics is employed to explore the mechanism of organizational capabilities evolution. The findings show that, all five dimensions of project organizational capabilities show significant fluctuating growth, with information technology capability and innovation capability as primary drivers in adapting to environmental change; A 25% increase in environmental turbulence can effectively facilitate the evolution of organizational capabilities. However, if environmental turbulence surpasses the threshold prematurely, it may impair the organization’s response efficacy and interfere with the progression of organizational capabilities evolution. The study reveals the evolution mechanism of project organizational capabilities under the digital construction mode, providing theoretical support and practical references for construction project organizations to effectively respond to increasingly turbulent environment. Simultaneously, it provides reference and reflection for the research on organizational change.

In the context of high-quality development and the digital age, digital technology-enabled construction projects have become the only choice to promote organizational capabilities and innovation. However, the micro foundation of the organizational capabilities of construction projects has not been clarified, and its formation path is even less clear. This paper focuses on the characteristics of the times when digital technology and engineering construction are deeply integrated, conducts in-depth research on typical projects in the context of digital construction, and uses the qualitative research method of grounded theory to explore the antecedents of the formation of organizational capabilities. The results of the study establish a systematic antecedent model framework, including value integration, data traction, resource integration, technology integration, digital collaboration, and digital routines, and find out the “black box” process of the formation of construction project organizational capacities under the digital construction context. The conclusion of this study provides a theoretical basis and practical enlightenment for the construction of organizational capabilities of construction projects to cope with technological turbulence.