Premium
The impact of e‐information on residential real estate services: transaction costs, social embeddedness, and market conditions
Author(s) -
Saber Jane Lee,
Messinger Paul R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
canadian journal of administrative sciences / revue canadienne des sciences de l'administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.347
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1936-4490
pISSN - 0825-0383
DOI - 10.1002/cjas.136
Subject(s) - disintermediation , real estate , embeddedness , business , database transaction , transaction cost , value (mathematics) , cost approach , industrial organization , marketing , real estate development , finance , computer science , sociology , programming language , machine learning , anthropology
Abstract This paper examines the possibility of disintermediation of residential real estate agents arising from increased customer access to property information on the Internet (e‐information). The transaction cost viewpoint suggests that since customers now have ready access to e‐information without an agent, customer‐perceived value of agents and agent usage will decline. The social embeddedness perspective, by contrast, suggests that these changes are unlikely because the added value of agents goes beyond mere information aggregation and includes essential transaction activities that are embedded in social networks. A survey of buyers and sellers of real estate in Alberta provides partial support for the transaction cost viewpoint. However, buyers and sellers respond differently to market conditions (slow versus hot markets) in their proclivities to use real estate agents. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.