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Since corporate real estate management (CREM) emerged in the 1990s, it has been modelled in many ways. The Delft model views the corporate real estate management function as a coordinator of four distinct accommodation perspectives. Although the model has been used in education and practice for years, there is no consensus on its interpretation and application, and various versions circulate. This paper aims to first reconstruct the history of the conceptualisation of the Delft CREM model and then seeks to develop an understanding of its nature that provides clearer interpretations of the model.

Because the developers of the Delft CREM model did not maintain archives, the reconstruction of the model’s genesis is based on the developers’ publications from 1985 to 2015 and eight semi-structured interviews conducted with these developers in 2017 and 2018. The collected information, which was by its very nature incomplete and imperfect, was triangulated, contextualised and assembled chronologically. This served as the basis for an analysis of the model’s nature, which in turn generated a list of practical implications for its future application.

The historical reconstruction revealed two parallel but distinct lines of reasoning, whose resulting models appear similar but are distinct. One line of reasoning models CRE viewpoints, while the other models CRE management activities, i.e. the first line of reasoning models CREM across the organisation, while the second models CREM within the function. These two lines of thought have converged in the research-through-design approach of the developers, which evolved against the backdrop of a growing interest in the contribution of organisational resources to organisational objectives and the emergence of the demand-supply model in management practices in general and in the built environment in particular.

The research is limited to reconstructing the genesis and analysing the nature of the Delft CREM model. It is not intended to provide a conclusive narrative, update the model or compare it to other CREM models. As is typical in oral history, it is based on imperfect documentary evidence and imperfect recollections. The reconstruction and analysis are stepping stones towards a more precise interpretation and application of the model in both research and practice, and may eventually contribute to its evolution. When using the model, it is recommended to (1) be clear about whether the model applies to the CREM department, the entire organisation or the organisation’s environment; (2) be clear about what is being modelled (activities, viewpoints or something else); and (3) use labels that reflect the selections made in (1) and (2).

The value of this paper lies in the historical reconstruction of the intentions of the developers of the four-view scheme, including the detailed analysis of its consecutive graphical representations and the investigation of its relationship with the seminal strategic alignment model.

This paper aims to explore similarities and dissimilarities between facilities management (FM) and corporate real estate management (CREM) regarding its history and key issues, and whether the similarities may result in a further integration of FM and CREM.

The paper is based on a review of FM and CREM literature, seven interviews with experienced academics and consultants and the long experience of the author as a researcher and teacher in accommodating people and activities.

Both FM and CREM aim to support primary business processes by aligning the physical resources of organisations to the organisational strategies in order to contribute to organisational performance and to add value to the organisation. Efficiently and effectively supporting the primary activities and business purposes are key issues. Dissimilarities consider the focus on facilities and services (FM) versus that on buildings and real-estate portfolios (CREM), as well as a shorter time frame and high flexibility of facilities (FM) versus a long life cycle and rather static buildings (CREM). In spite of the differences, it is expected that both disciplines will be more integrated in the future.

The selection of key topics and key publications may be biased by the personal knowledge and European perspective of the author and the input from seven expert interviews.

The common body of knowledge of FM and CREM may be used to improve both professions and disciplines and may result in a more integrated approach of facilities and real estate management (FREM).

This paper combines insights from two related disciplines with different histories and focus points, and explores what they have in common and can learn from each other.

The purpose of this study is to explain the contribution of Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) to corporate success and to substantiate it empirically. However, no empirically tested holistic concept classifies and explains the different success contributions of CREM in their mechanisms of action and organisational levels.

This study develops a holistic two-dimensional model from existing literature to explain the relationship between CREM decisions and business success, and then tests it empirically using multidimensional data scaling from a telephone company survey (CATI) of 59 CREM managers sampled from the 200 largest German companies.

The created theoretical model holistically explains CREM success and existence as part of a non-property company, with specific performance drivers on specific organisational levels. The empirical data confirm that both dimensions of the model and, thus the measurement concept for modelling the CREM contribution to business success is robust across sectors and company/portfolio size in Germany.

The empirical confirmation of the conceptual model of CREM success provides novel support for the institutionalisation of the CREM function in companies and the holistic classification of different CREM research directions.

Sustainability in corporate real estate management (CREM) has been lately recognized as an integral part of almost every business. However, its perception might extremely differ in various industries. Sustainable CREM practices have been extensively analyzed in recent studies, yet real estate is an ambiguous field and the practices still lack holistic understanding. This research aimed to summarize and systematize the present sustainable CREM practices and propose a generic sustainability maturity model for CREM.

The research process was implemented in accordance with the grounded theory approach. Research data were collected in semi-structured interviews with major Finnish companies, recognized for their environmental work. The scope of the research was nine interviews.

The result of this research is the generic sustainability maturity model for CREM. It consists of 18 most typical sustainable CREM practices at the companies interviewed. The model demonstrates the value of implementing sustainable CREM.

Sustainability maturity model for CREM is an indicative tool for sustainability maturity assessment in CREM. The model demonstrates how CREM contributes to company's sustainability and provides a holistic approach towards the existing sustainable CREM practices. Additional practical implications of the model include sustainable CREM benchmarking and communication with stakeholders.

Total outsourcing is now a common strategy for delivery of building maintenance and facilities services. Standing on the cross roads of “vanish or reinvent oneself” the Maintenance and Control Division of the corporate real estate management (CREM) Service of the Eindhoven University of Technology puts new focus on the operational aspect of CREM and gives less weight to the outside market. Based on engineering management viewpoints on CREM rather than pure economic management viewpoints, the purpose of this paper is to investigate under what conditions a mutual cooperation between in‐house staff and external contractors is successful in implementing new solutions, in effective as well as efficient ways.

A single case methodology in the format of a real business case. Based on theoretical and pragmatic engineering management principles, a business case was developed with the help of a well‐known Business Consultancy. The business case had an interim evaluation and will have a final evaluation.

From the interim evaluation, it can be concluded that the CREM entrepreneurial cooperation is on the right track towards promising results in reaching its efficiency and effectiveness goals. Real cooperation in joint cross‐functional expert teams is felt as experimental and thus time consuming. So CREM entrepreneurial cooperation is only suitable for complex CREM situations where there is a real need for innovative solutions. In spite of this, a sufficient number of large and some international external contractors in diverse aspects of building and building services were willing to participate in CREM entrepreneurial cooperation. In line with the English saying “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, the official tendering of the next round will prove if the external contractors will be as satisfied as the university with the business case results.

The paper offers a non‐conformist view on mainstream outsourcing trends based on engineering management viewpoints on CREM, rather than pure economic management viewpoints. Also, the business case format of the case study is original.

The purpose of this study is to team broadly accepted general management frameworks with the specific situation of corporate real estate and suggest a holistic configurations framework for CREM that takes into account the highly diverse context parameters.

Based on general management frameworks and research on CREM issues, a CRE management framework – the “CREM map” – is suggested that guides a study on which parameters drive CREM and how they are integrated. A qualitative approach is used that collects data from large European corporates. The analyses are performed through computer-assisted qualitative data analysis.

Multiple parameters form heterogeneous context constellations that make it necessary to individually configure a CREM system. While some “general principles” regarding CREM targets, strategy, organization, and controlling systems and their relationships can be identified as “best practices”, the key finding is that a holistic concept for CREM needs to be guided by “best fit” considerations, resulting in at least several, context-specific designs of CREM.

The CREM-map and CREM principles provide orientation in the process of design, implementation, and running of the CRE management system and its alignment to corporates' context and business needs. Connected line diagrams illustrate how “best fit” CREMs can look like.

First study takes a holistic view on the organization of the CREM function regarding its alignment with the business strategy and including why different designs are chosen. This can assist to improve the performance of CREM and sets the stage for further research on CREM configurations.

The purpose of this study is to find answers to the question whether a fully-integrated real estate (RE) solution within an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) landscape delivers a visible and measurable contribution to organizational efficiency in corporate real estate management (CREM), a field still dominated by specialized, but stand-alone software packages.

The authors set up a model of CREM with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems being the hinge between the RE strategies and organizational efficiency. The model was tested by a written questionnaire to respond on the benefit expectations on ERP benefits.

In many cases, the results show a negative gap between expectations and realized benefits. The authors identified benefit stars and dogs within the sample. Stars realizing high benefit ratios on average have more often chosen the form of a shared service center for their CREM department, have reengineered the business processes more intensively, had more often a legacy system as a predecessor of the SAP ERP, trained employees more intensively and showed a higher degree of customization of the RE module than the benefit dogs of the sample.

Newly formed CREM departments looking for optimal IT solutions find decision support regarding the best fit for their IT landscape. Already institutionalized CREM units running an ERP system will find concrete evidence for improvement.

This is the first study of benefits and critical success factors of ERP implementation and operation for modern CREM. It is the attempt to bridge the gap between business and IT, showing the enabler role of ERP systems for efficient business processes, satisfied corporate users and motivated employees.

This purpose of this paper is to propose a model for the relationship between corporate real estate management (CREM) practices and an organisation's sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate real estate (CRE) plays an important but poorly recognised role in organisational competitiveness.

The model was developed from the strategic management, organisational competitiveness, and CRE literatures. A total of 162 CREM practices from the literature were connected, where possible, with cost, innovation and differentiation sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Clustering similar practices allowed the summarising of competitive effects in those clusters and each of the sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Technical CREM practices were the focus of analysis as they constitute the traditional core of CREM.

Many gaps were identified in the theoretical connections between practices and sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Overall, cost dominated as the mode of competition most affected by the practices. Cost, innovation and differentiation made roughly equivalent positive contributions, but cost was most negatively affected by CREM practices.

The model is conceptual and provides a framework for aligning CREM practices with an organisation's competitive strategies, to build CRE‐based strategic capabilities for competitiveness, and to optimise practices' competitive effects. The holistic model directly links core CRE techniques with business outcomes and establishes a framework for further exploration of this important relationship.

Organisational competitiveness, CRE, and CREM are seldom studied. This paper provides a useful connecting framework for CRE researchers and practitioners to research and advance efforts to realise CRE value for organisations.

This paper aims to explore how branding theory can be used to understand corporate real estate management's (CREM's) relationships with its customers. Specifically, the perspectives of CREM executives and customers are used to develop a statement of a CREM brand.

A multiple case study approach from four industry sections that consist of telecommunications, logistic, retail, and education from an emerging real estate market (Malaysia) and a mature real estate market (Australia). CREM executives and CREM customers from each case were interviewed to obtain information on CREM within organisations.

The findings indicate that CREM supports the business by managing organisations' strategic real estate resources as its brand. CREM executives focus more on the technicality of real estate functions, while CREM customers expect corporate real estate (CRE) to support their business functions.

A CREM brand is important to CREM relationship building with the targeted customers. Successful brand development is able to increase CREM visibility to customers and at the same time gain appreciation of its contributions to the organisations.

This is the first study that investigates CREM from a branding perspective. The mechanism for communicating CREM contributions using branding helps to increase acceptance from the customers.

The paper aims to establish empirical connections between corporate real estate management (CREM) practices and organisations' sources of sustainable competitive advantage (SSCA). The alignment of CREM practices with modes of achieving competitiveness provides greater competitive advantage from CREM.

The model for sustainable competitive advantage for corporate real estate (CRE) theorising the connections between CREM practices and SSCAs was implemented in a survey of Australian CRE managers. Practices' competitive benefits are reported at the aggregated level of practice categories and illustrated with a selected category of individual practices.

The model was supported by the study's results by providing connections suggested in the model but not previously corroborated in the literature. The cost source of sustainable competitive advantage was a dominant empirical competitive mode for CREM, as it was in the model. Categories of technical CREM practices providing competitive advantage were shown to be practices for “location/site selection”, “workplace styles” and “corporate finance for CRE”.

The research's relatively small sample of organisations meant that not all practices were evident. However, the study does establish the model's usefulness for evaluating CREM's alignment with organisations' modes of competition.

For CRE and its management to fully support a competitive organisation it is essential that CREM practices align with that organisation's competitive positioning. This research evaluated a framework for CRE managers to do this.

CRE, its management, and their connections to competitiveness have seldom been studied but are important as CRE is an organisations' second largest resource. This paper's model is a significant advance in frameworks linking CREM practices to organisational competitiveness for both practitioners and also further theoretical work in the area.