Identifying Barriers to the Digitalization of China’s Real Estate Enterprises in Operations Management with an Integrated FTA–DEMATEL–ISM Approach

This paper aims to identify indicators of the obstacles that affect the digitalization of real estate enterprises in their operations management, and analyze the influence, hierarchy and relationships of these indicators. The indicators of obstacles that affect the digitalization of real estate enterprise operations management were explored by searching the literature and using the Delphi method and a word cloud diagram. The obstacle indicator system was built according to the upstream, middle and downstream levels of the value chain. The FTA obstacle model was used to analyze the influence of obstacle index, and the DEMATEL–ISM model was used to analyze the hierarchical structure and correlations between indicators. The results are as follows. The biggest barriers in real estate digitalization are in the upstream level, such as the difficulty in adopting new technologies, lack of information technology talent and the high cost of digital software. According to analysis from the DEMATEL–ISM, the difficulty of enterprises to use new technologies has a deep-rooted influence on the digitalization of real estate enterprises. Lack of information technology talent and the high cost of digital software in the upstream level as well as barriers related to a company’s development strategy and investment willingness constitute barriers in the midstream level. These barriers not only affect the external and internal links, but also influence each other. The lack of overall regulation and supervision can explain the reason for these barriers.