Corporate real estate and green building: prevalence, transparency and drivers

Purpose Green building is a megatrend in corporate real estate management. This paper aims to document the prevalence of green building reporting in public firms, assess how well firms apply good practices of green building and show which firms, countries and industry sectors are particularly advanced in the application of green building technologies. Design/methodology/approach The study uses data on green building reporting, green building scores and firm characteristics of 1,281 publicly traded firms from different industries in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over a 5-year period. Regression analysis is used to relate the adoption of green building reporting and excellence in green building to firm characteristics. Findings The results indicate that there is a huge variation in green building activities and reporting in corporate real estate management across countries and industries. The study finds that firms in the financial and health-care sectors are leading in green building reporting. Environmental, social and corporate governance-oriented, profitable and large firms receive the highest green building scores. Research limitations/implications The results in this paper rely on the reported but not inevitably monitored green building activities. There may also be companies that use green building technologies but do not report on them. The conclusions are largely based on correlations and do not allow for causal statements (endogenous variables). Practical implications The results in this paper are crucial for practitioners in corporate real estate to benchmark their green building activities and reporting. Additionally, the paper sheds light on how information on green building is propagated in the financial market. Originality/value The paper looks at the drivers and barriers of green building for 25 countries and across all industry sectors (1,281 firms). In contrast to that most of the existing literature focuses on single countries and limits the analysis to companies in the real estate and construction industry. Additionally, the paper has a joint focus on publicly available green building reporting and green building scores.

Assessment of Real Estate Outsourcing Practice of Banks and Telecommunication Companies in Lagos, Nigeria

The purpose of this paper is to examine real estate services that are outsourced in the banking and telecommunication sectors and the procedures adopted in outsourcing in Nigeria with a view to providing information that could help in enhancing corporate real estate practice. Primary data were collected with the aid of questionnaires from the 27 banks and 6 telecommunication operators (totalling 33) who were assessed through their corporate real estate officers. Total enumeration of the 33 selected business organisations was purposively adopted and the data were analysed using frequency and percentage. The study found that 96.3% and 83.3% of banks and Telecommunication companies respectively insourced real estate strategic planning services A total of (69.7%) in-sourced client relationship management. Also, the most frequently outsourced services by banking and telecommunication companies were property valuation (72.7%), space planning (54.5%), facility management (54.5%), feasibility studies (33.3%), site selection and property leases (55.5%) among others. The result also showed that two (6.05%) categories of organizations adopted the World Bank procedures for selecting outsourced real estate consultants. Professional Estate Surveyors must be up and doing when services are outsourced to them so as prevent usurpation of responsibility and functions from professionals in the built environment and others competing for works in the estate surveying valuation business domain

Challenges of strategic corporate real estate management in Ghana

PurposeResearch shows that strategic corporate real estate management (SCREM) practice contributes to organizational performance. However, globally, SCREM practice is hindered by numerous challenges especially in developing countries such as Ghana. This study examines the challenges of SCREM practice in Ghana from business and corporate real estate managers’ perspectives.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-method design was adopted for the study. The largely quantitative study was supported with qualitative data. The multi-stage sampling technique was used to select respondents from 35 institutions in five sectors. The relative importance index, consensus/agreement framework and Mann–Whitney U test were used for analysis.FindingsAnalysis revealed that there is latent resistance to the provision of CRE policy, adequate authority and resources as well as resistance to change in organizational culture for the adoption of SCREM practice. The CRE management function is thus not well integrated into corporate activities. It is seen as a non-core organizational function merely providing physical space and support services.Practical implicationsThe research has identified the challenges of SCREM and how these could be addressed to ensure that CRE is managed strategically to contribute effectively to organizational performance.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to identify the challenges of SCREM practice from business and CRE managers’ perspective in five sectors in Ghana, thus contributing to the limited literature on the subject globally.

Corporate real estate management and bank profitability

Acquiring property for any business is capital intensive and for that matter, strategically managing such assets is considered equally important. This paper provides an analysis of the value-adding attributes of corporate real estate management (CREM) and bank performance in Ghana. The multiple regression method was applied to a cross-section of both primary and secondary data sourced from 25 commercial banks in Ghana. The study shows that the banks identify with the value-adding attributes of corporate real estate asset management even though there are variations in the level of importance to individual banks. These variations are attributable to the unique mandates of the banks. Further analysis shows that CREM has significantly positive impacts on bank profitability by strategies that help to increase innovations, increase productivity, and promote marketing and sales. The finding suggests that optimizing these CREM strategies could help increase bank profits.

The pricing of corporate real estate holdings on the UK capital market

Purpose The purpose of this study is to find out if corporate real estate ownership is priced into the capital market performance of non-property companies in the UK. This is of particular interest because ownership still represents a significant weight on the balance sheets and is predominantly considered unfavourable due to its bulkiness and difficult revisability in the event of changes in space demand. This draws attention to the UK as one of the most important European economies that have been exposed to strong uncertainties and dynamics, for example, due to the withdrawal voting of the United Kingdom from the European Union (BREXIT). Design/methodology/approach A first look at the real estate assets reported in balance sheets provides insight into possible changes in ownership strategy. This serves as a basis for subdividing companies based on their real estate assets using a portfolio-based approach and that are then analysed using the Fama and French multi-factor model with regard to their influence on capital market returns. Findings In general, the share of real estate assets has fallen over the past 10 years, although coinciding with BREXIT voting, some industries such as manufacturing show a turnaround. At the same time, ownership is priced in as a factor on the capital market, which applies to a sample across industries, as well as to separately considered sectors in the manufacturing and service industries. The pricing also shows a counter-cyclical pattern. Practical implications Corporate real estate management should be aware of the negative influence of ownership, especially against the background of economic fluctuations. The reduction of ownership can reduce the associated cost of capital and increase company success. Originality/value Previous UK-related studies mostly refer to a period before the global economic crisis in 2008, and therefore, are too old to reflect a changed view on corporate real estate ownership because of new corporate environmental conditions, based on inaccurate proxies or mainly refer to the retail segment. This research gap is closed.

Effects of activity-based workspaces on employee belongingness

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the activity-based workspace (ABW) on employee belonging. Place attachment theory (PAT) is used as a proxy to understand and measure the belongingness of employees to their physical workplaces. Design/methodology/approach A case study of a bank’s newly retrofitted ABW office is conducted, providing fresh perspectives on the effect of ABW on employee belonging. A questionnaire survey was used to understand employee belongingness. Surveys are conducted with employees of the bank (n = 100) who experienced the transition from the conventional open-plan office with designated seats to an ABW, to understand and compare the change in employee belonging after the transition, by studying the level of belonging achieved in the space before and after. Findings The results showed that there was a positive sense of belongingness amongst employees working in the ABW space, as per the PAT framework and an increased sense of belongingness compared with the previous conventional open-plan office. However, ABWs were found to also have a negative effect on employees’ sense of control and security. Originality/value Maslow’s hierarchy of needs indicates that a feeling of belonging is fundamental to humans. The need for belonging is also applicable in the workplaces of today’s progressive corporate organisations, where there is increased pressure and incentive to appeal to and retain talent. This research was conducted in response to the huge growth in interest in activity-based working across the corporate real estate community. As there has been no prior research done in the area of the emotional need for belongingness in ABW.

THE CROSSFIRE OF CORPORATE REAL ESTATE SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT WITH CORPORATE SUSTAINABLE OBJECTIVES IN MALAYSIA

The emergence of corporations dabbling in sustainable development has caused a shift from the conventional way of managing office building to a more systematic approach involving high technology. Various discussions espouse the positive impact of sustainable office buildings on business. However, previous studies only discussed the elements involved, but most of these discussions did not specify which element that significantly contributed to business objectives. Thus, this research attempts to discover the relationship between corporate real estate sustainable management (CRESM) and corporate sustainability (CS) objectives to determine the most significant element of CRESM influencing overall CS objectives. A questionnaire survey was carried out involving 117 combinations of corporate real estate managers who are directly involved in managing sustainable offices in Malaysia. Data was then analyzed using IBM SPSS Smart PLS. Results indicate six elements of CRESM significantly affect CS objectives that hope to assist corporate real estate managers to well manage their sustainable office buildings as well as contributing to achieve their business objectives.