Virtual reality (VR) technology is regarded as one of the core technologies to realize the beautiful vision of meta-universe and support the development of next-generation Internet, and it has a wide application in many scenarios, such as e-commerce, social media, education and office. For the latest practice of the new generation of virtual reality technology in real estate information platform, YAN Zhenbin, Assistant Researcher of the Department of Management Science and Engineering of SEM, conducted an in-depth study and wrote a paper entitled “Does Virtual Reality Help Property Sales? Real Estate Platform” as the first author and corresponding author. The results were recently published in Information Systems Research, a leading international journal in the field of information systems.

Core content of the paper:

The rapid development of e-commerce has made it possible to sell a wide range of goods online, but there are still major difficulties for high-value, high-impact products (e.g. houses and cars). A key reason is the inadequacy of product display technology. Compared with traditional display technology (such as pictures and videos), the new generation of virtual reality (VR) builds an interactive 3D environment for consumers to obtain product information, which changes the online presentation of product spatial details and facilitates the display of highly involved products, which deserves further in-depth research.

Using a large dataset of China’s leading real estate platforms, this paper uses econometric methods to investigate the impact of VR on the marketing efficiency of real estate, including time-to-sale and transaction price. The study finds that VR is an “efficiency enhancer” that accelerates the time-to-market of properties, rather than a “market value influencer” that changes the sales price of properties. Further mechanistic analysis shows that, firstly, VR as an ‘information-rich’ tool can significantly accelerate the property sales process, especially for houses with a large number of rooms and quality concerns. Secondly, the study proposes the concept of ‘information credibility’ of VR, which proves that VR can help improve the credibility of property information presentation, enabling consumers to more accurately assess the quality of properties and avoid the information bias problem that can occur in traditional presentation methods. Finally, the study reveals the relationship between VR and real estate brokerage services, finding that VR can be used as an “alternative information source” to help consumers obtain more information about a property, thereby speeding up the sales process when the quality of brokerage services is low.

The research provides a new theoretical framework for the use of VR technology in the sale of high-intervention products and deepens the academic understanding of the mechanisms by which VR affects the market for complex, high-value products. In particular, the study highlights the potential of VR to improve transaction efficiency and promote information transparency, which has broad implications for online sales of other high-intervention products (such as cars). From the perspective of academic research serving industry practice, the findings of this study can provide practical guidance for the marketing of real estate platforms and other high-value and high-impact products. VR not only accelerates the sales process of products, but also helps platforms to improve the user experience and enhance their competitiveness. It provides an effective tool for relevant practitioners to address the challenges posed by the uneven quality of traditional brokerage services, thereby improving overall market efficiency.

Research experience sharing:

My research is dedicated to uncovering the impact mechanisms of emerging information technologies (including immersive technologies and generative artificial intelligence) in the development of the platform economy and the upgrading of traditional industries. This paper is a typical empirical study in information economics. Based on massive real data, the study uses econometric models such as survival analysis and hedonic pricing, and parameter identification methods such as propensity value matching and instrumental variables to analyze the impact of virtual reality on sales efficiency and transaction price. The research results provide a credible basis for companies and academics to understand the impact of virtual reality technology in real e-commerce activities, and reveal the underlying mechanism from the perspectives of “information richness”, “information credibility” and “technology-broker” dichotomy.

Sharing some research experiences and findings: In order to conduct research in the field of information systems, it is necessary to pay more attention to new technologies and phenomena, and to think about the new problems embedded behind them. In addition to appropriate empirical models and methods, novel theoretical frameworks, sound mechanism analysis, and clear logical exposition are needed to make the article stand out. More importantly, it should focus on the close integration of theory and practice so that the results can better serve the country’s major economic development needs and accelerate the building of new quality productive forces.

Faculty Profile

YAN zhenbin

Assistant Researcher in the Department of Management Science and Engineering, Tongji SEM. He graduated from the Joint Education Programme of the City University of Hong Kong and the University of Science and Technology of China with a Ph.D. in Information Systems and Management Science and Engineering from the two universities in 2021, and spent two years as a visiting student at the University of Washington in the United States. He has long been engaged in theoretical and empirical research on immersive technologies, artificial intelligence, information systems economics and e-commerce. He has published many academic papers in important core academic journals, such as Information Systems Research, Scientometrics, etc., and has been granted a national invention patent. He has been sponsored by the Shanghai Pujiang Programme and is a member of the Youth Working Committee of the Systems Engineering Society of China.

Research Interests: Immersive Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Information Systems Economics, E-commerce