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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the real estate owner (decision maker) insures being able to make informed decisions and how they differ according to organisational form.

This research is based on an interview study of nineteen firm representatives, six decision makers and thirteen management representatives, all from Swedish commercial real estate sector.

The study concludes that, regardless of organisational setting, the industry has a plan regarding handling information. The decision makers have all secured themselves access to the required/desired information. How this is done and what kind of information it is however differ, if the real estate management is in-house or outsourced. Furthermore, a clear focus on financial and contractual information is evident in both organisational settings.

The research in this paper is limited to Swedish commercial real estate sector.

The insight the paper provides regarding required information can shed light on how information systems are built and how to improve your information sharing.

It provides an insight regarding how the industry, depending on organisation setting, prioritises different information and how the decision maker secures access to it.

The study aims to assess the sourcing approaches used in providing facilities management (FM) services in hotels. It further explores the factors that influence hotels' choice of sourcing approach and the challenges.

The study used a case study design. Simple random, census and purposive sampling techniques were used to select the hotels and respondents. Data were collected using interviews and analysed thematically. The data were presented in narration and direct quotes from the respondents. The critical factors influencing outsourcing decisions were ranked using the relative importance index. This study is based on a single case. Therefore, further research should be conducted to expand the scope of study nationwide as a step toward making the results more robust.

Both in-house and outsourcing sourcing approaches were used to provide FM services. In-house FM services mainly focused on cleaning, security and aspects of maintenance. Internet and information technology related services and other maintenance activities were also outsourced. Outsourcing decisions in the various hotel categories were mostly guided by the cost of outsourcing, core business, lack of in-house skills and hotel size.

FM strategy can be developed to guide the management of FM activities in hotels. An approach that adds value and enhances the activities of hotels and provides convenience to customers must be adopted by hotels. Further studies should be conducted on the cost implications of the two main sourcing approaches, as well as the impact of sourcing approaches on customer satisfaction. An additional study should focus on the driving factors influencing the cost and quality of outsourced FM services in hotels. This will help provide comprehensive information on effective FM sourcing approaches and the operations of hotels.

The study focused on the sourcing approaches used by hotels to provide FM services. It also explored the influencing factors and challenges of FM practices in hotels.

The purpose of this paper is to explore sourcing strategies for facilities management services using core-competency theory of outsourcing. The aim is to develop a screening framework for deciding the suitability of outsourcing versus in-house delivery for these services based on three levels of managerial functions prevalent in a typical commercial organization.

A questionnaire survey was administered for facilities managers in Sri Lanka to investigate the relative importance of these managerial functions for facilities management services and obtain their opinions on the best delivery mode. The managerial functions were derived from a literature review and verified using three semi-structured interviews prior to the questionnaire survey design.

The findings showed that facilities management services that are aligned to strategic functions are suitable for in-house delivery, while those that are aligned to tactical and operational functions for outsourcing.

Further studies should be conducted and extended to other types of organizations beyond commercial ones. Secondly, the quantitative study employed a smaller sample (n = 40), and the survey items were based on the review of literature which was verified using a very small number of interviews (n = 3).

The proposed framework can be utilized when choosing the best facilities management approach for commercial organizations in developing countries such as Sri Lanka.

This study contributes to the body of knowledge on the subject of facilities management by exploring the context in Sri Lankan which has not previously been done.

Prior literature provides little insight on how management control systems have responded to the growth of collaborative new product development (NPD). The purpose of this paper is to contrast the use of budgets to manage collaborative and in-house NPD and to consider the implications for enabling flexibility.

The paper reports on the findings of a case study company in the medical devices industry that uses two different business models for its NPD activities. While the company engages in in-house NPD for its own products, it also engages in collaborative NPD services with a range of customers.

The study illuminates how two types of budgets (annual and project) can have very different impacts on flexibility under different business models. The annual financial budgets imposed rigid constraints on in-house NPD and resulted in reduced flexibility, whereas in collaborative NPD, they had little impact on flexibility. Project budgets created hard operational constraints in collaborative NPD which generated a highly pressurised yet highly creative environment, whereas project budgets had little impact on flexibility in in-house NPD.

The study contributes detailed empirical insights into the control systems used to manage collaborative NPD from the supplier perspective, where creativity is largely responsive and contrasts these with the management of in-house NPD where creativity is largely expected. The authors also contribute an analysis of the key control systems and other factors that sustain flexibility in this highly pressurised open innovation environment.

The aim of this paper is to examine how the real estate owner (decision maker) can ensure that the preferred tasks are prioritised. In particular, the incentives to ensure motivation to perform to accomplish the strategic goals of the decision maker are investigated.

This research is based on an interview study of 19 firm representatives, 6 decision makers and 13 management representatives, all from the Swedish commercial real estate sector.

The study concludes that the real estate management organisation in the outsourced management setting is governed by the contract, in detail constituting work tasks, and in the in-house management setting, there is freedom with responsibilities instead of regulations.

The research in this paper is limited to Swedish commercial real estate sector.

The insight in the paper regarding how decision makers create incentives for the real estate management organisation in the different organisational settings can provide inspiration to design incentives for effort.

It provides an insight regarding how the industry, depending on organisation setting, prioritise different work tasks and how incentives are created to enable effort.

The transfer to partnership in public sector management has created significantly new modes of service delivery, and is suggested to be the best means of ensuring that disadvantaged groups are socially included. The purpose of this paper is to examine New Leisure Trust (NLT) structures in public leisure provision relative to direct, in‐house managed facilities and privately run Leisure Management Contractor (LMC) facilities. In particular, NLTs receive significant government funds and subsidies through tax breaks that are not forthcoming to rivals, which raises questions as to whether NLTs deserve such aid for delivering upon the social inclusion agenda of the government.

The research involved a national survey questionnaire to 1,060 public leisure service providers in England. Empirical testing through multiple analysis of variance and regression analysis was applied to the dataset.

The authors find that NLTs do not follow social orientation strategies to any significantly greater degree than rivals, nor seem to create social inclusion to any greater degree. Further, NLTs have the least to gain in terms of business performance from creating social inclusion, whilst in‐house (in particular) and LMC facilities stand to gain the most.

Though each approach to provision examined places a considerable strategic emphasis on being socially oriented, they are not effective at increasing the social inclusion of recreationally disadvantaged groups.

This paper calls for the current public leisure management playing field to be levelled in a rebalance of opportunity and investment through the removal of anti‐competitive measures.

Focussing on the UK’s institutional real estate universe, this paper analyses variations in the operational management of real estate investment portfolios. For the main categories of institutional investors, the key tasks in real estate operational management, and the ways in which these tasks are typically bundled and categorised by investment managers are reviewed. Three broad operational management models are outlined. Case studies of real estate operational management models in practice are discussed.

The research approach is primarily descriptive, drawing upon illustrative investor case studies.

A range of operating models are identified for managing real estate investment portfolios. Specialists real estate investors tend to have highly vertically integrated operating models viewing most operational management functions as core operational capabilities. Multi-asset owners tend to have a vertically disintegrated operating model outsourcing fund, asset, property and facilities management. Investing institutions such as fund houses and specialist real estate investment advisors seem to have converged upon a common hybrid operating model with high margin, analytical functions such as fund and asset management being insourced and low margin, routine functions such as property and facilities management being outsourced.

Despite the size of the global, institutional real estate investment universe (estimated by DTZ to be worth more than USD 13.6 trillion in 2015), the topic of how (and how effectively) these assets are managed by institutional investors has attracted very little attention from the real estate research community. This paper provides some initial analysis and insights into operational management models for real estate investment portfolios in the contemporary real estate investment management landscape.

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors on the property management level for analysing incentives for an effective property management with a focus on organising it in-house.

This research is based on an interview study of 11 firm representatives from the Swedish commercial real estate sector with in-house property management.

The study concludes that the property management organisation in the in-house setting is governed in an informal way, with a large portion of “freedom with responsibilities” setup instead of regulations.

The research in this paper is limited to the Swedish commercial real estate sector.

The insights into the paper regarding how decision makers create incentives for the property management organisation can provide inspiration to design incentives for effort.

It provides an insight regarding how the commercial real estate industry prioritises different work tasks and how incentives are created to enable effort.

This paper aims to identify typical sourcing strategies and business models in facilities management (FM) and map archetypes of value chains with complementary sourcing strategies and value chains.

The paper is based on literature and case studies from previous research. Theoretically, the paper takes a generic value chain as a starting point together with the recent ISO standard on sourcing process and a business model framework. A conceptual framework is developed and typical sourcing strategies and business models for FM are investigated. Archetypical value chains are established by a combination of sourcing strategies and business models.

The paper identifies eight archetypes of FM value chains divided in three groups according to whether the core business organisation occupies rented facilities and owned facilities or has facilities operation as a core business like serviced office providers, etc.

The results can be used on a general level by everybody who need to get an overview and understanding of the complex structure of the FM sector. Furthermore, the results can help all parties involved in the FM value chain to get a clearer understanding of their position in the chain and help them develop their sourcing strategies and/or business model, depending on their type of organisation.

While there is a huge amount of literature on sourcing in FM, there has only been limited research on business models and value chains in FM. The paper is original in combining an investigation of sourcing strategies, business models and value chains in FM.

This paper aims to investigate how the students perceive the cleaning of the university, from an in-house and outsourced perspective.

This research is based on a survey conducted in the different university buildings with a total of 240 students. The survey was then analysed through an ordinal regression.

The ordinal regression indicates a statistically significant result were student are more satisfied with the cleaning performed by the outsourced service provider.

The research in this paper is limited to one Swedish university. But, the overall strategies for how to organise the cleaning service at the university do address all universities. However, the research is limited and more research has to be performed.

The insight the paper provides regarding how the students perceive the cleaning service at the university gives direct implications to university in relation to how to consider the cleaning service as an important factor.

It provides the first study from a student perspective on the question of cleaning of the university, when previous studies have indicated cleaning as an important function not least to student’s performance and academic results.