ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors examine the factors that cause digitalisation to lag in some industries. The discussion is primarily focuses on the commercial real estate sector, which includes firms that own, develop, maintain and lease commercial property. The commercial real estate industry is financially strong but historically, was conservative with respect to adopting new technologies and systems to support operations and is a good case to explore and clarify the phenomenon of digitalisation inertia. The authors discuss the features of the real estate industry that are observable in other less digitalised industries and discuss their impact on technology adoption. The chapter offers some suggestions for future research to better understand the phenomenon of industry-wide delayed digitalisation.
