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The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into facility management in Portugal as well as in Europe and what a facility management study programme must entail in Portugal in order to implement this.

The paper describes the mixed-methods approach. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used based on extensive literature research of the subject. Semi-structured interviews were held with ten professionals from the FM field. The quantitative method was in the shape of a questionnaire sent to 40 professionals in Europe.

The results show that Portugal is not on the same level as the rest of Europe when it comes to FM. Also, FM is rather of a technical nature and lacks service orientation and managerial elements. Moreover, Portugal should first focus on creating awareness about the field of FM and provide FM study programmes accordingly. Research shows that this could be a lengthy process.

Currently there is no facility management study programme offered in Portugal. However, by gaining insight into this field and how facility management is of great added value to the market, a step closer to implementing a study programme is taken.

The development of sustainable facilities management (FM) practices requires active and integrated engagement of the FM organization. Building on a three-year research project (2015-2018) within Nordic Built that aims to strengthen FM competencies in the Scandinavian countries, this paper aims to list and document the challenges and barriers of implementing sustainability as identified by the Scandinavian FM practitioners who took part in this research.

The paper builds on the understanding gained from using an interpretive sociological approach and uses qualitative mixed methods to collect data from four workshops, group sessions and expert group discussions with a mix of representatives including owners, property managers, facilities managers, consultants, teachers and academics. Four case studies were completed of refurbishment projects implementing sustainable solutions; these encompassed in-depth interviews with the stakeholders, site visits, observations of meetings and gathering project documentation. The data were complemented by a systematic literature review on a selection of topics focusing on articles referring directly to FM, the sustainability of FM, ends-user and stakeholder involvement, energy performance and sustainability. The challenges and barriers identified in practice were compared to those found in the literature.

The concept of sustainability, and its different dimensions and implications, seems to be well understood now by the practitioners who participated in this study, who claimed they were able to provide the required solutions. What seems to be lacking, though, is the possibility of convincing the end-users, who are expected to operate and maintain the facilities, to act according to the standards that these solutions require. It appears to be easier to focus on the technical aspects than on the end-users’ behaviors. The practitioners reported a shortage of social competencies and tools to deal with the situation, and despite an increasing awareness of smart technology, they lacked solutions to engage the end-users in optimizing the facilities. Besides, not all FM companies were well equipped to face the challenges imposed by the sustainable agenda; the small and medium enterprises in particular seemed to be struggling to implement the different dimensions of sustainability.

The limitation of this research rests in the chosen research approach as it focuses on the FM practitioners. The contribution of the end-users’ perspective is not strongly represented or systematically explored, but is identified as a new topic that needs to be investigated further to provide further insight. This study focuses on refurbishment and/or retrofit of existing buildings and the operation of facilities. The authors do not embrace the design phase or the construction phase of new buildings.

The paper underlines the need for frameworks and concrete tools to help FM practitioners to integrate the social and cultural aspects of sustainability. It identifies end-users, both in housing and in offices, as creating a bottleneck to the implementation of sustainable FM. To gain insight into this bottleneck, the authors suggest implementing a sociologically inspired method using an integrative approach. Highlighting such issues will mean that future research will be able to define further solutions for managing and maintaining existing and future built assets and fulfilling sustainability requirements by engaging end-users. This study also emphasizes the need to introduce these topics as part of the curriculum for FM education.

This paper provides an update on the level of the development of sustainable FM in the three Scandinavian countries. This is highly relevant for Scandinavian practitioners, but the authors consider this relevant for international practitioners, researchers, academics and teachers and developers as well. Practitioners and researchers are invited to join in these efforts to explore how to find practical frameworks, tools, policies and instruments and new services that will improve sustainable FM practices.

Advancements in digital technologies have provided significant opportunities to improve the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Owner-operated (AECO) sector’s performance through superior data management, streamlined processes and cooperative working practices. However, whilst academic literature widely espouses these benefits during the design and construction phases of development, research suggests that the operational phase of a building’s lifecycle has yet to fully realise performance improvements available through the application of digital modelling technology. The purpose of this paper is to synthesise extant digital modelling, asset management and emergent digital asset management literature, to report upon the beneficial implications of digitalised asset management and identify obstacles hampering its adoption in industry.

A componential synthesis of future work reported upon in extant literature is organised into thematic categories that indicate potential research avenues and a trajectory for digital asset management research and practice.

Themes identified include: imprecise Building Information Modelling definitions; isolated software development; data interoperability; intellectual property and virtual property rights; and skills and training requirements. Notably, increased environmental performance also arose as a theme requiring further research but received considerably less academic coverage than the other obstacles identified.

The work presents a comprehensive review of digital technologies utilised within the AECO sector and as such provides utility to researchers, policy makers and practitioners to enhance their knowledge capabilities.

The facility management (FM) sector, which is developing rapidly, is making slower progress in Turkey compared to Europe and the USA. This paper aims to research the underlying issues leading to FM practices and offer insights into the implications of FM-related policies, especially for large urban transformation projects.

The study used a mixed-methods research design and collected qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with building/site managers and quantitative data through structured surveys with residents. Forty-nine building/site managers and 660 residents participated in the interview and survey from Turkey’s North Ankara and Dikmen Valley urban transformation projects.

The FM by residents, performed by the managers selected among homeowners, was preferred to the professional FM in Turkey. Education level, age, homeownership and duration of living in the region were associated with selecting FM practices. Cost also had an important place among the selection criteria, and the standard view from the residents was that professional FM would cause a cost increase. However, interviews with building/site managers in North Ankara and Dikmen Valley Urban Transformation areas revealed that a significant part of the problem resulted from insufficient knowledge and experience in FM.

Within the scope of the research, two urban transformation projects in Ankara Province were selected, and the survey was limited to the North Ankara Entrance Urban Transformation Project and Dikmen Valley Urban Transformation Project areas. Although there is a need to improve the understanding of FM in all facilities, built environments and collective buildings, collective buildings in urban transformation areas due to several constraints, those other identified areas are postponed for future study. In addition, collective buildings located in transformation areas differ from others in discussing the social dimension and the impact of management.

Within the scope of the research, two urban transformation projects in Ankara Province were selected, and the survey was limited to the North Ankara Entrance Urban Transformation Project and Dikmen Valley Urban Transformation Project areas. Although there is a need to improve the understanding of FM in all facilities, due to several constraints built environments and collective buildings in urban transformation areas, are postponed for future study. In addition, collective buildings located in transformation areas differ from others in discussing the social dimension and the impact of management.

This study evaluates two different FM approaches: FM by residents and professional FM, implemented in Turkey and identifies the criteria for choosing the FM practice. In addition, both building/site managers and residents evaluate different perspectives on FM. This study is unique because it compares different FM practices in Turkey and the criteria for residents to prefer different FM practices.

There is limited empirical research that investigates issues related to strategy and its execution in facility management (FM) business especially in Thailand. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing the execution of the strategy of FM companies located in Thailand from employees’ perspective.

This study used a qualitative research approach. Five FM companies, both foreign and Thai firms, were selected as case studies in this research because of information accessibility and their leading position and reputation in the FM industry in Thailand. The interviews were conducted with the companies’ Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), directors, managers, officers, engineers, technicians and administrators.

The findings indicate that communication, training and development, as well as reward and recognition, are the three main and critical factors in executing the company’s strategy from the employees’ perspective in the FM business.

This study suggests that strategy execution should be built upon a long-term relationship with employees, and company management should recognize the employees’ contribution to the company. Management should also raise employees’ knowledge and understanding of the execution of the company strategy.

This paper provides an enhanced understanding of employees’ perspective toward strategy execution in the FM business. It offers a basis for further study of human resources practices in the context of the FM business.

The aim of this study is to investigate the outcomes of a leading Swedish truck maker (referred to as “TruckCo” for confidentiality reasons) providing lean training to its strategic suppliers.

A single in-depth case study is conducted, using on-site semi-structured interviews with representatives from TruckCo and its suppliers for data collection.

The lean training program resulted in four main outcomes. First, financially unstable suppliers were less receptive to the lean training program than financially stable suppliers. Second, the suppliers became easier to collaborate with over time, through improving their internal ways of working and thus creating more trust in terms of reliability. Third, the suppliers improved their ability to identify possible problems that could jeopardize deliveries. Fourth and finally, the suppliers improved their delivery precision.

One limitation of this study is that its findings are based on a single in-depth case study. Another limitation is that all the involved companies originate from Sweden. These limitations should be considered in attempts to replicate or further test the reported findings.

This study provides insights into how a manufacturer can teach lean management to suppliers, and how suppliers can be involved in a manufacturer's journey towards a leaner supply chain. Furthermore, the study reflects more generally on the potential outcomes of a manufacturer providing lean training to suppliers.

This study highlights both TruckCo's and the suppliers' view of the outcomes of the lean training program and discusses how different suppliers adopt the taught lean practices. Avenues for future research are proposed as well.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from a user perspective.

The research was conducted in two successive steps. First, a literature review was conducted to derive CSFs for ERP system implementation. Second, a survey was conducted to evaluate the importance of these CSFs from a user perspective. Data were collected through a questionnaire that was distributed within a German manufacturer and was developed based on the CSFs found in the literature. Gray relational analysis (GRA) was used to rank the CSFs in order of importance from a user perspective.

The findings reveal that users regard 11 of the 13 CSFs found in the literature as important for ERP system implementation. Seven of the CFSs were classified as the most important from a user perspective, namely, project team, technical possibilities, strategic decision-making, training and education, minimum customization, software testing and performance measurement. Users regarded 2 of the 13 CSFs as not important when implementing an ERP system, including organizational change management and top management involvement.

One limitation of this study is that the respondents originate from one organization, industry and country. The findings may differ in other contexts, and thus, future research should be expanded to include more organizations, industries and countries. Another limitation is that this study only evaluates existing CSFs from a user perspective rather than identifying new ones and/or the underlying reasons using more qualitative research.

A better understanding of the user perspective toward CSFs for ERP system implementation promises to contribute to the design of more effective ERP systems, a more successful implementation and a more effective operation. When trying to successfully implement an ERP system, the project team may use the insights from the user perspective.

Even though researchers highlight the important role users play during ERP system implementation, their perspective toward the widely discussed CSFs for ERP system implementation has not been investigated comprehensively. This study aims to fill this gap by evaluating CSFs derived from the literature from a user perspective.

Although it is commonly agreed that prescriptive analytics can benefit organizations by enabling better decision-making, the deployment of prescriptive analytics tools can be challenging. Previous studies have primarily focused on methodological issues rather than the organizational deployment of analytics. However, successful deployment is key to achieving the intended benefits of prescriptive analytics tools. Therefore, this study aims to identify the enablers of successful deployment of prescriptive analytics.

The authors examine the enablers for the successful deployment of prescriptive analytics through five organizational case studies. To provide a comprehensive view of the deployment process, each case includes interviews with users, managers and top management.

The findings suggest the key enablers for successful analytics deployment are strong leadership and management support, sufficient resources, user participation in development and a common dialogue between users, managers and top management. However, contrary to the existing literature, the authors found little evidence of external pressures to develop and deploy analytics. Importantly, the success of deployment in each case was related to the similarity with which different actors within the organization viewed the deployment process. Furthermore, end users tended to highlight user participation, skills and training, whereas managers and top management placed greater emphasis on the importance of organizational changes.

The results will help practitioners ensure that key enablers are in place to increase the likelihood of the successful deployment of prescriptive analytics.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of extrinsic factors, namely, age, education, gender, marital status and income on customers’ intention to support Islamic social enterprises via donation. The paper also assesses the influence of religiosity on support intention (SI). The impact of customers’ perceptual reaction to the credibility of social enterprises’ advertising is also measured to assess its influence on SI.

A total of 214 completed questionnaires from online and offline surveys were analysed using several statistical analyses, including structural equation modelling, to assess the effects of the independent variables on SI.

The study found that customers’ socioeconomic status and religiosity have no significant influence on their intention to channel their donations via Islamic social enterprises. It is the social enterprises’ advertising which significantly influences their SI.

The study focuses on an Islamic research context of social entrepreneurship. Thus, the results cannot be generalised directly to the non-Islamic social entrepreneurship context.

Findings of the study suggest that organisations should develop effective communication strategies through advertising to highlight organisational credibility as it plays an important role in shaping customers’ attitudes and intentions.

The study investigates the effects of marketing on customers’ SI. It also considers credibility, advertising, and the concept of branding in a context of social entrepreneurship, a concept that is still largely unexplored in the literature.