Peer Effects and Networks in Technology Adoption For Real Estate Agents

Speaker: Prof. ONG Seow Eng, National University of Singapore

THE SPEAKER
Seow Eng ONG is Professor of Real Estate at the National University of Singapore. He holds a PhD in Finance and Master in Business from Indiana University and his research interests include Real Estate Investment Trusts, securitized real estate, auctions, housing finance and affordability, and real estate innovations. As a CFA charter holder, Prof. ONG has substantial work experience in investment and portfolio management, derivative analysis and property valuation during his stints with the Inland Revenue Authority, Government of Singapore Investment corporation and Overseas Union Bank. He was an independent director of Cambridge Industrial Trust, a real estate investment trust listed on the Singapore Exchange. He was also past president of the Asian Real Estate Society and International Real Estate Society.

ABSTRACT
Real estate agencies face headwinds from increasing competition from property listing portals and emerging disruptive innovation. One agency in Singapore took an unprecedented move to introduce non-mandatory reviews and ratings for its agents. The Property Agent Review (PAR) allows clients to provide authentic unfiltered and unedited reviews on agents. The benefits for prospective clients are clear – better information, improved transparency and lower information asymmetry. As negative reviews pose a considerable risk for agents, individual agents get to decide whether to participate in the PAR or not. Initial adoption rate was low, but subsequently picked up. This paper focuses on late(r) adopters and examines whether late adopters are influenced by peers from organized teams/network. In addition, the effect of team leaders is also analyzed.