Practice vs theory: short-term financials trumps long-term value creation

Development of a new standard for evaluation of sustainable refurbishment

Purpose

Increasing focus on sustainability, in general, climate change impact, circular economy and a substantial need for CO2 footprint reduction within the construction industry, requires new knowledge and processes regarding the existing buildings. To satisfy new laws and regulations for new buildings is an easier challenge in comparison with possibilities in existing building stock which has the biggest contribution to sustainability within the construction industry. The purpose of the study is to develop and present a standardized process for sustainable refurbishment which, in addition to technical aspects, has a goal to create “well-being” for stakeholders, people organizations in private and public businesses and society itself.

Design/methodology/approach

The latest state of the art in the mentioned field has been assessed, and the developments along with potential future research focus have been identified. The process is presented in this paper, from the starting point of establishing the Norwegian standards in 1995 (NS 3454) until now, the development of the new CEN standard (prEN 17860:2022). The basic methodology designed for NS 3454 was improved through Nordic tools for indicator requirements SURE 1 (2011) and SURE 2 (2015). Further development of the tool was adopted by CEN TC 350 Sustainable Construction in 2017 with the aim to extend the good Nordic practices to the European level. In the paper, the design of the new standard prEN 17860:2022 is presented, from the process and content perspective, following the Nordic approach of standardized methodology and enhancing it with new dimensions and evaluation tools. Throughout the years, the standardized methodology, based on NS 3424, has been implemented in practical use for facility management in the Norwegian public sector. Positive experiences and feedback from this practical implementation have been taken into consideration in prEN 17680:2022.

Findings

The authors present the guidance, developed as a process, leading facility managers and other stakeholders through sustainable refurbishment standards and rules to make a clear decision about their concrete investment. The tool enables decisions about all three sustainability pillars and better decisions for health, well-being and quality of life. All the characteristics of the standardized methodology from the Nordic approach were supplemented (technical aspects; adaptability; usability; social aspects; energy, water and operational impacts and quality of indoor environment including health aspects) and some new were added (economic, feasibility, climate resilience and embodied environmental impacts). The tool also presents a building performance profile for further service life.

Social implications

Sustainable cities have been a focus for many years now from various perspectives such as SURE 1 or 2 and CEN TC 350. What these studies neglect is a clear and helpful guideline, supporting the FM, users and investors while deciding the operating and maintaining infrastructure in an urban environment. Better standardized forms give the possibility to make better climate-neutral choices and keep the well-being focus by choosing buildings with a potential for a long lifetime.

Originality/value

The new focus of addressing all stakeholders, including people, promoting sustainable refurbishment by informing, engaging and empowering them to take the decisions.

A bibliometric analysis of the first 20 years of the Journal of Corporate Real Estate

Purpose

Journal of Corporate Real Estate (JCRE) is an international journal of repute. JCRE is an interdisciplinary journal focusing on corporate real estate management and caters to the needs of real estate owners and end-users. The journal's scope includes private and public sector corporate real estate owned and used by businesses to run their operations. This paper aims to analyze the journal's impact using bibliometric analysis from 1998 to 2017 on 380 publications.

Design/methodology/approach

The network analysis is performed using VOSviewer software and Biblioshiny R studio. The mapping presents citation structures, coauthorship patterns, bibliographic coupling and other network analyses.

Findings

The results show that the journal is growing in terms of citations and impact. The findings document various mapping criteria and their summaries. Seven major clusters are identified to delineate the underlying themes of publications in JCRE.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper offers the original and first bibliometric analysis of the journal’s impact over the first two decades. The findings are relevant for researchers and real estate stakeholders.

Facilitating Building Projects’ Short-Term and Long-Term Value Creation

Real estate and buildings are some of facility managers’ most costly resources. Thus, knowledge about how to get the most out of building or renovation projects both in the short term and in the long term are of great importance for facility managers. This paper investigates which factors are most important for building and renovation projects’ output or short-term value creation, and outcome or long-term value creation, i.e., the completed building’s effect for owners and users. Thus, the focus is not primarily financial and the buildings’ asset value. The study is based on a national questionnaire survey in Norway (550 respondents). Multivariate statistics (Principal Component Analysis and Linear Multiple Regressions validated with bootstrapping) were used to test the hypotheses. Short-term project management priorities, such as early involvement of technical contractors and FM providers, contract strategy and involvement of owners and users largely decide the qualities of the building, and thus the potential for long-term value creation. The most important factors for long-term value creation, i.e., buildings that facilitate the demand organisation’s value creation are the qualities of the completed building, project governance and involvement of owners and users during early phase planning.

FM and clinical employees' involvement in the design of eight Norwegian hospital projects

Purpose

This paper aims to gain insight in how the involvement of facilities management (FM) and clinical employees are practiced in new Norwegian hospital projects and to study the benefits and lessons learned from the involvement.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is conducted by cross-sectional case studies of eight hospital projects by using a literature review, interviews and document studies of FM and clinical employees and project leaders (PLs) among Sykehusbygg.

Findings

The service design approach with a structured interaction between the PL’s of Sykehusbygg, and the different disciplines of clinical employees and FM specialist was rewarding and efficient. The facilitator role of Sykehusbygg is essential to manage such a broad and complex involvement process using a wide range of various techniques at the different stages of the projects (dialogue meetings, review meetings, workshops, post-it notes, 2-D drawings, mock-up and 3-D models, as well as virtual reality (VR) and Building Information Modeling technology). The clinical employees’ framework is stronger and much more structured than the involvement of FM competences through the different stages of the projects. The property management competences were involved at the early concept phase and design phase, whereas the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) competences were getting involved through the construction and commissioning phase. The value of FM involvement in all stages of the project is seen beneficial, particularly when the FM specialist become a part of the design team and located physically at the same place. The main reported benefits of early FM involvement are cost-effective technical solutions and installations, less design flaws and improved functionality, as well as a stronger ownership and mutual respect between the clinical and FM disciplines. However, not all hospital organizations see the benefits of the FM involvement of all stages, as they are driven by reducing capital cost. In one of the new projects, other ways of involving the FM competences were tested. Additionally, particularly for the O&M competences, a dialogue meeting with a clear focus of sharing experiences with different technical solution was found rewarding in terms of cost benefits.

Research limitations/implications

This study does not consider the social impact of the choices made in the design phase. The findings also indicated a certain development of the FM involvement. This is not studied in two of the newest projects where they are still in the design phase and the FM role was not interviewed.

Practical implications

The PL role is important as a facilitator role of the involvement process.

Social implications

A dialogue meeting with a group of O&M people was found rewarding and valuable for knowledge sharing. This methodology can be further developed and tested, as this group of stakeholders is not always available for giving input in the project.

Originality/value

The value of this study is the description of the interaction between the PLs and the hospital organization in the eight projects and lessons learned by the involvement of FM competences and clinical employees.

Urban facility management

Purpose

This paper aims to illustrate where facility management (FM) is having an impact on the urban environment and what other work needs to be done to easier facilitate achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). This is important for practices as it highlights opportunities where the FM discipline can develop and to research to illustrate where the discipline is going. The societal benefit is that we see Urban FM as an intermediator between citizens, public and private practices providing the platform of how they can work together for mutual benefit.

Design/methodology/approach

The method used is a literature review, looking latest state-of-art in the mentioned field has been assessed and the developments along with potential future research focuses, have been identified. The current scope to expand FM role were also taken into consideration from a recent workshop at the EuroFM conferences 2019 and 2020, several presentations at the CIB World Congress Hong Kong 2019, CIRRE 2018 and 2019, and special Facilities’ issue, illustrating how FM works within Urban environments and the potential contribution the discipline makes on neighbourhoods, communities and broader city-scale.

Findings

The authors present how FM fits in with a Smart and Sustainable City context by positioning communities as core for meeting SDGs, but they often fall out of needs perspective for hard and soft services. Since 2018, the authors have intensely worked on this topic developing conference papers at both a European and international level. The topic of Urban FM is growing in importance based on out interactions at these conferences and interactions with FM network groups. In addition, the authors have been identifying gaps, with communities that are currently not being met by current urban practice perspectives but could be met through an Urban FM practice perspective. They have engaged an educational perspective of Urban FM by developing workshops, summer schools with students from around Europe and new courses. With a specific focus on this concept, it is important to branch out ideas and disseminate of what a more structured urban FM is.

Research limitations/implications

Smart and Sustainable Cities has been a focus for many years now from various perspectives such as urban planning and technology providing solutions and frameworks on how to manage increasing populations in cities. What these studies neglect is a service-oriented perspective supporting the livability requirements and social values of future and current communities living in cities which goes beyond operating and maintaining infrastructure of cities. This neglect which highlights the need to develop an understanding where FM expands its role in the urban environment.

Originality/value

The aim is to highlight solidify research that is happening in this area where FM links to the urban environment and the benefit it has in terms of sustainability. It illustrates to practice and teaching that the concept of FM is relevant within an urban environment, creates stronger connections within and between citizens and cities and illustrate how Urban FM is necessary in facilitating community facilities.

Concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure and quality of life

Purpose

There is a lack of theoretical and empirical studies regarding concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure. The idea of understanding this paper is that quality social infrastructure leads to the general quality of people’s life in the built environment and that is rounded up to social sustainability. This paper aims to integrate these concepts into the network, hereinafter referred to as a social sustainability model.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology used in this paper is desk research. The authors follow methodological steps in the building of conceptual network: setting up a research problem; choice of databases; reviewing the literature and categorizing the selected data; identifying and default conceptual definition; integrating the concepts; synthesis and making it all make sense; and assembly and validating the concept. Through that, a large volume of bibliographic materials was scanned, and a limited number of documents have been reviewed and critiqued. The documents have been selected from varied disciplines, including social infrastructure, quality of life, social sustainability, urban sociology, housing policy as among the articles.

Findings

The result is the model which represents the links between social infrastructure (utility equipment, public infrastructure, vital objects and fundamentals) and further between factors inside quality of life structure (users, quality of life, reflections). The result is the model which representing the links between social infrastructure (utility equipment, public infrastructure, vital objects and fundamentals) and further between factors inside well-being structure (users, quality of life, reflections).

Research limitations/implications

There is a potential risk of errors arising from the use of assumptions, limited desk reviews and data from secondary resources.

Originality/value

The authors portray the development of social sustainability model. Within this model, the authors can critically observe all levels within the existing built environment: user responses to the built environment, their satisfaction, social inclusion, health, etc. Within this model, they can observe the links between existing research, their frequency, capture, direction and not least to determine which areas have not been explored and where the lacks of research are. The conclusion outlines the framework and its main concepts of social sustainability based on social infrastructure and well-being, including their theoretical premises and components.

Culture effect on knowledge management adoption in Nigerian hospitality industry

Purpose

The effect of culture on various aspects of life, business and disciplines such as knowledge management (KM) has been much studied. Hospitality has also received much attention because it, among others, can produce and redistribute wealth whether in developed or developing economies, who often find it as an invaluable means of generating foreign income. Nonetheless, there is no combination of the three areas in a single study done in a developing economy. The paper aims to fill this gap by investigating the impact of culture on the adoption of KM in the hospitality industry of Nigeria.

Design/methodology/approach

Hofstede’s culture model and technology acceptance model were used as underpinning theories to develop a research model which was operationalised into a 45-item questionnaire. A five-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree to strongly agree was used. The questions were closed-ended for the variables of the model, but there were also open-ended questions. Two Nigerian cities were purposely sampled and they generated 195 responses from the 400 questionnaires that were distributed. Correlation analysis was first done to establish relationships before regression analysis was performed after checking for multicollinearity. Findings and conclusions were drawn from significant hypotheses.

Findings

The findings showed significant collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, femininity and short- and long-term orientations as factors that would affect adoption of KM in the hospitality industry of Nigeria. Power distance and individualism as factors, on the other hand, were not significant.

Research limitations/implications

The research has produced a model that can form the basis for future research. The study apparently is the first and therefore needs replication in other industries and other developing economies. A comparative study can be done too between developing countries or between a developing and a developed country. Many replicated studies could perhaps produce a generic model that would apply beyond Nigeria. Moreover, as this study is on a moving target both in terms of culture and the extent of KM adoption, subsequent studies could update the findings of this study.

Practical implications

Hospitality managers have to develop and maintain a conducive culture if adoption of KM is to be achieved. Managers should be sensitive to and take good advantage of cultural differences displayed in the personality traits of employees. For example, uncertainty avoidance (preference for precision) could be an asset to make knowledge explicit in computer systems, making it easier to share such knowledge in the organisation. Collectivism and nurturing orientation would encourage knowledge sharing and collaborative work, which is often nowadays done virtually. Managers should encourage knowledge workers to seek and acquire both short- and long-term views of their work.

Originality/value

There apparently is no systematic empirical study that combines KM, hospitality and culture in developing economies’ context. Thus, this study examines the effects of culture on KM adoption in the Nigerian hospitality industry. The findings have practical implications on how the Nigerian hospitality industry can benefit from the application of KM.