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Up to the 1980s the corporate competitive advantage was primarily focused on adapting the corporation to the (changing) environment. In the last decades corporations have become more aware of their resources and capabilities, and of the benefits of managerial attention towards managing the corporate assets. The transition from a passive, reactive attitude towards a proactive service oriented organisation proves to be a difficult task. This paper analyses the transition and describes an effort to identify products and services contributing to the added value of corporate real estate management to the bottom line of the corporation.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of institutional logics on the intended resource coordination and integration in extended enterprises (EEs).

The qualitative multiple case study approach collected data from three EEs and their hierarchical organizational context in the restructured and privatized railway sector of the Netherlands by observing 40 meetings, conducting 31 semi-structured interviews and 9 feedback meetings and perusing organizational documents.

Performance and professional logics characterized the EEs and their hierarchical organizational context. Aligning these logics failed to support the resource coordination and integration in the EEs because of the logics’ resource-centric nature. The co-creation logic in one of the EEs mitigated this resource centrism by addressing the resource personifications and representations of the professional and performance logics. Business unit representatives having hierarchically overlapping organizational positions supported this change process by offering protection from resource-centric logics.

The chosen research design limits the generalization of the findings but reveals new scientific and practical insights on the role of institutional logics for sustaining EEs.

The various EE business-units, but especially their contract and concession authorities, need to realize the crippling effect of resource-centric logics on sustaining an EE. Becoming aware of the resource personifications and representations of these logics can assist in addressing their negative effects.

No previous studies have empirically investigated the effect of institutional logics on the intended resource coordination and integration in EEs.

Many corporate and public real estate managers are challenged to prove their added value to both the organisation and the individual business units or departments. Value can be added by product and by process. This paper elaborates on ways to improve the corporate real estate portfolio management process in order to align the real estate portfolio to the different needs of the organisation and thus add value to the organisation by delivering a better product. To manage the real estate portfolio as a group instead of individual properties, the long‐term portfolio strategy should be translated into short‐term guidelines and clear performance measures in order to analyse alternatives and the performance of the individual properties. These measures should be related to what the stakeholders consider to be the added value of corporate real estate. The examples in this paper will show how a corporate real estate manager can create a clear framework for making real estate decisions on a day‐to‐day basis.

Office workers are hardly ever involved in the design of their buildings. Buildings, therefore, do not match the needs of the users. Today, more and more designers and managers are involving users in the design process. This paper describes different approaches to user involvement and the way ICT can be useful for each level of involvement. ICT can be used as a tool to inform users, to facilitate the participation of users and to create commitment. The paper ends with a discussion on when and how user participation and ICT should be used.

Today’s corporate real estate (CRE) managers are operating in an ever‐changing world. These dynamics cause many uncertainties about tensions inside and outside the company that influence the performance of the real estate portfolio. Defining a clear CRE strategy in the midst of these uncertainties is hard to do and one way to cope with the uncertainties is scenario planning. This paper explains why scenarios are a useful tool for making strategic real estate decisions in the midst of uncertainty. The authors use their experiences with the DGBA as an example to illustrate the process of scenario planning.

Managing corporate real estate is confronted with more problems than just the changing characteristics of real estate. While operating companies strive for more autonomy, corporate headquarters are increasingly struggling for a synergetic approach to corporate resources and capabilities. The authors argue that the impact of the corporate setting on the role and position of corporate real estate management is underestimated. This paper describes the effects of transisions in corporate structure and strategies and provides insight in a new perspective on managing corporate real estate.

This paper aims to explore the management strategies of facility managers and corporate real estate managers to align corporate real estate (CRE) with the needs of their organization and the end users in a changing context.

The paper first outlines the theoretical issues of CRE alignment processes and the management of accommodation needs. It then presents the findings from a multiple case study in 14 Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) from the perspective of the CRE/facility management (FM) manager. The empirical study is based on interviews and a questionnaire.

The theory shows three key process activities in managing the alignment of CRE with the needs of end users and the organization as a whole: coordination, communication and decision-making. The way organizations manage these process activities can be represented by eight opposite perspectives. These eight perspectives refer to two management strategies for CREM departments: an involvement-oriented strategy and a control-oriented strategy.

The distinguished eight management perspectives and two management strategies can be used by CRE/FM managers to reconsider their current approach for aligning CRE with the needs and requirements of the client, customers and end users. This is to improve the match between demand and supply to find future-proof accommodation solutions.

CREM issues and the effect of CRE on students and staff and vice versa is an underexposed topic in research in the field of higher education. There is still limited understanding of how to optimally align school buildings with education. The current study combines insights from other disciplines such as management and organization and information technology-alignment with insights from CREM theory.

The objective of this paper is to provide insights about the potential of real option thinking for corporate real estate management (CREM) from the owner-user perspective. A promising approach to classifying and evaluating flexibility in real estate is the real options approach. Most literature on real options look from an investor perspective.

First, a review on real option thinking in the real estate and large engineering projects literature is provided using Flyvbjerg’s (2001) typology of knowledge systems. Next, the effects of exercising real options for various stakeholders in CREM is analysed in two case studies.

The literature review shows that little research has been done on conditions and values needed to make real options applicable in the CREM practice of the owner-user of real estate. The case studies show that real options are more valuable to one stakeholder than to another.

Based on the knowledge on conditions for and the consequences of exercising real options for various stakeholders, insight can be gained into the applicability of real options to the owner-user of real estate and how real options reasoning fits within this practice. A phronetic type of knowledge is needed that incorporates stakeholders’ interests.

Creating phronetic knowledge would allow understanding why and how real options are used, or could be used in the future, and heuristics could be developed. In this way, real estate management should become more resilient to changes.

Uncertainties affecting health organizations inevitably influence real estate decisions since real estate is required to facilitate the primary health process. The purpose of this study is to develop a decision support tool that supports health organisations in defining what flexibility they need in order to develop a flexible real estate strategy and to adapt to future uncertainties.

The research is being conducted from a design science perspective. By addressing the needs of real estate managers in health, research relevance is reached. By applying scientific knowledge when developing the tool, rigor is achieved.

Major elements of the decision support tool developed are real options to describe flexibility and its consequences for corporate real estate management, and the backcasting scenario planning method.

The application of the tool by health organisations can increase the professionalization of real estate management and improve the match between current and future demand and supply of real estate, adding to the effectiveness and efficiency in healthcare in general.

This is the first tool developed using the real options approach that provides real estate managers in health a systematic insight into the various types of flexibility needed for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate real estate (CRE) managers of higher education institutions formulate their CRE strategies and CRE operating decisions to align CRE with the corporate strategies of these institutions.

An analytical alignment framework has been developed, which was used to study the possible and actual connections between CRE management and corporate management at 13 large Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences. The data collection included a content analysis of the strategic plans of these universities and interviews with the CRE managers.

The research findings show several layers of how CRE managers aim to align CRE with corporate goals to add value to the organization. It appears that the CRE strategies in-use are more clearly aligned with the corporate strategies than with the espoused CRE strategies.

The paper emphasizes the relevance of involving CRE management in corporate decision-making to contribute to the attainment of the organizational objectives with an efficient and effective accommodation.

Substantial changes in learning and teaching practices in higher education lead to evolving corporate strategies, which result in the need for aligned CRE strategies and CRE operating decisions. This paper makes practitioners and researchers aware of the differences between alignment-based espoused CRE strategies and alignment that results from CRE strategies in-use in the field of higher education. The findings and insights might be applicable in other sectors as well.