This study was motivated from a clear understanding that Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System should be facilitated with one view to improving current quality issues of real estate brokerage services resulting from functional limitations of Open L...
This study was motivated from a clear understanding that Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System should be facilitated with one view to improving current quality issues of real estate brokerage services resulting from functional limitations of Open Listing Contract that currently prevails as a dominant practice in the real estate brokerage industry of Korea, and with the other view to proactively coping with paradigm shifts in the real estate brokerage market under the influence of current open-door policies for the real estate market of Korea. Academically motivated, this study sought to examine potential associations of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System with the quality of real estate brokerage services.
This study categorized attributes of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System broadly into three factors such as efficiency, reliability and relationship orientation. And the attributes of the parties concerned, real estate brokers and customers, were broadly divided into specialized knowledge and opportunistic behavior. Additionally, this study adopted the attributes of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System and the ones of the parties concerned as causal factors, and also adopted as parameters the relationship commitment between customers and real estate brokers and the quality of information on real estate dealing. And, it set up customer satisfaction as an outcome variable to form hypotheses and tested the hypotheses through an analysis on Structural Equation Modeling(SEM).
In order to verify hypotheses, this study used a questionnaire form to survey real estate brokers in Daegu metropolitan city as well as citizens who had ever relied on real estate brokerage services. Out of all 563 respondents, total 359 sheets of valid and complete questionnaire (258 real estate brokers who were informed of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract, plus 101 customers) were employed for SEM analysis.
Based on the empirical analyses, this study could come to the following findings:
Firstly, SEM analysis targeting both real estate brokers and customers showed that the higher the levels of three attributes of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System are, which are efficiency, reliability and relationship orientation, the higher the level of relationship commitment between real estate brokers and customers is under the Exclusive Agency Listing Contract. This finding implies that both real estate brokers and customers who perceive Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System positively tend to perceive that they will form any favorable relationships with each other in relationships of real estate dealing under Exclusive Agency Listing Contract.
Secondly, a hypothesis about the potential effects of the attributes of the parties concerned on the relationship commitment was rejected in SEM on both real estate brokers and customers. This finding indicates that opportunistic actions taken by the parties concerned in real estate dealing have no effect on the relationship commitment between real estate brokers and customers.
Thirdly, a hypothesis regarding potential effects of efficiency, reliability and relationship orientation - as three attributes of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System - on the quality of information about real estate dealing was adopted in SEM on real estate brokers, but was rejected in SEM on customers. However, SEM analysis on customers also showed that the attributes of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System mediated in the relationship commitment of the parties concerned and ended up with significant secondhand effects upon the quality of information on real estate dealing. As a result, it was found that attributes of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System worked as major variables in enhancing the quality of information on real estate dealing for both customers and real estate brokers.
Fourthly, a hypothesis regarding potential effects of the attributes of the parties concerned on the quality of information on real estate dealing was rejected in SEM on both real estate brokers and customers, and there were not any significant secondhand effects upon the quality of information on real estate dealing by way of relationship commitment. This finding means that opportunistic behaviors of the parties concerned in dealing of real estate didn't work as any critical variable.
Fifthly, a hypothesis regarding potential effects of the relationship commitment of the parties concerned on the quality of information about real estate dealing was adopted in SEM on both real estate brokers and customers. This finding suggests that if the interaction and the relationship commitment between customers and real estate brokers are improved when both real estate brokers and customers enter into agreement to assure exclusive agency listing during the period of Exclusive Agency Listing Contract according to the conclusion of a written agreement on Exclusive Agency Listing Contract, it is expected that there will be decreasing amount of fraudulent offering information due to overheated competition among real estate brokers under Open Listing System, whereas the quality of information on real estate dealing will be enhanced in parallel with lower expenses in monitoring to prevent unwanted exposure of information.
Sixthly, a hypothesis regarding potential effects of relationship commitment between real estate brokers and customers under the Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System upon customer satisfaction was adopted in SEM on real estate brokers, but was rejected in SEM on customers. However, the SEM analysis on customers showed that relationship commitment of the parties concerned mediated in the quality of information on real estate dealing and had significant secondhand effects upon customer satisfaction. That is to say that relationship commitment is effective in enhancing customer satisfaction.
Finally, a hypothesis about potential effects of the quality of information on real estate dealing upon customer satisfaction was adopted in SEM on both real estate brokers and customers. Accordingly, it can be said that the quality of information on real estate dealing is effective in enhancing customer satisfaction. This finding implies that extended openness and higher reliability of information on real estate dealing owing to Exclusive Agency Listing Contract will lead to better customer satisfaction and facilitate customers to keep relying on the Exclusive Agency Listing Contract System on a permanent basis even in the future.