Search results

41 – 50 of over 68000
Article
Publication date: 3 May 2016

Anthony Andrew and Michael Pitt

The paper aims to examine how Scottish facility and estate managers have developed estates and facilities management strategies to ensure that the Scottish government civil estate…

405

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to examine how Scottish facility and estate managers have developed estates and facilities management strategies to ensure that the Scottish government civil estate has remained fit for purpose in a period of rapid social, economic and technological change, and political development covering the devolution period.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper examines the development of the policy frameworks within which facility mangers have worked and how they have adapted the asset portfolio to meet the demands of modern working practices and the budgetary disciplines resulting from economic change.

Findings

The period 1989-2015 has shown major changes. It commenced with a highly centralised model driven by the Whitehall Department of the Treasury and run by the Property Services Agency. Just before and during devolution, there was administrative decentralisation of activity to agencies and non-departmental public bodies, and this was reflected in decentralised property management first to departments and then to the agencies and non-departmental public bodies. During this time, profound changes occurred in working practices, e-mail, e-records, mobile telephones and open-plan layouts; remote working changed the ways buildings were used. Public sector property was used to promote distribution of jobs to outer areas. Towards the latter end of the period from 2008 onwards, the economic difficulties have led to acute budget pressures, and from 2011 onwards, there has been a trend both in Whitehall, and the Scottish devolved administration towards greater corporate management of the estate to drive down costs and promote more modern ways of working which may lead to a model similar to the one which prevailed at the start of the period.

Research limitations/implications

The paper explains the development of the management framework and changes on the estate itself to inform the debate between policymakers, academic researchers and FM practitioners interested in the efficient use of central government assets.

Practical implications

The paper will help academics and practitioners understand the historic context within which they are working.

Social implications

The paper indicates how the Scottish Government has adapted its property assets to meet the needs of users.

Originality/value

The paper is an historic exposition of how public sector facility managers have adapted the management of the Scottish Government estate in Scotland to meet the needs of central government staff and the public to whom it provides wider services and considers how this illuminates wider FM issues.

Details

Journal of Facilities Management, vol. 14 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-5967

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 November 2017

Wesam Beitelmal, Keith R. Molenaar, Amy Javernick-Will and Eugenio Pellicer

The increased need for, and maintenance of, infrastructure creates challenges for all agencies that manage infrastructure assets. To assist with these challenges, agencies…

Abstract

Purpose

The increased need for, and maintenance of, infrastructure creates challenges for all agencies that manage infrastructure assets. To assist with these challenges, agencies implement asset management systems. The purpose of this paper is to investigate and compare the importance of barriers faced by agencies establishing transportation asset management systems in the USA and Libya to contrast a case of a developed and developing country.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review identified 28 potential barriers for implementing an asset management system. Practitioners who participate in decision-making processes in each country were asked to rate the importance of each barrier in an online survey questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, Kendall Concordance W., and Mann-Whitney are used to analyze the collected data.

Findings

Through an analysis of 61 completed questionnaires, 14 barriers were identified as important by both the US and Libyan practitioners. A total of 11 additional barriers, primarily in the areas of political and regulatory obstacles, were determined to be important only for Libya. These 11 barriers provide reasonable insights into asset management systems’ barriers for developing countries.

Practical implications

The list of barriers identified from this research will assist decision makers to address and overcome these barriers when implementing asset management systems in their specific organizational and country conditions.

Originality/value

The research identified standard barriers to implementing asset management systems and identified barriers that were specific to the country context, such as political and regulatory barriers in Libya. When viewed with the asset management literature, the results show broad applicability of some asset management barriers and the need to contextualize to country context (e.g. developing countries) for other barriers.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 24 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2014

Muhammad Nateque Mahmood, Subas Prasad Dhakal, Kerry Brown, Robyn Keast and Anna Wiewiora

The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the asset management policies and practices of six Australian states – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia…

1176

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore and compare the asset management policies and practices of six Australian states – New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania – to improve understanding of the policy context to best shape policy focus and guidelines. Australian state-wide asset management policies and guidelines are an emergent policy domain, generating a substantial body of knowledge. However, these documents are spread across the layers of government and are therefore largely fragmented and lack coherency.

Design/methodology/approach

The comparative study is based on the thematic mapping technique using the Leximancer software.

Findings

Asset management policies and guidelines of New South Wales and Victoria have more interconnected themes as compared to other states in Australia. Moreover, based on the findings, New South Wales has covered most of the key concepts in relation to asset management; the remaining five states are yet to develop a comprehensive and integrated approach to asset management policies and guidelines.

Research limitations/implications

This review and its findings have provided a number of directions on which government policies can now be better constructed and assessed. In doing so, the paper contributes to a coherent way forward to satisfy national emergent and ongoing asset management challenges. This paper outlines a rigorous analytical methodology to inform specific policy changes.

Originality/value

This paper provides a basis for further research focused on analyzing the context and processes of asset management guidelines and policies.

Details

Journal of Facilities Management, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1472-5967

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 4 October 2018

Soumya Bhadury and Bhanu Pratap

In the economic literature, a crisis has been thematically defined around bank runs, failure of large financial corporations, and financial distress. Section 1 summarizes our…

Abstract

In the economic literature, a crisis has been thematically defined around bank runs, failure of large financial corporations, and financial distress. Section 1 summarizes our learnings about international banking crisis, in terms of the origin and impact of such crises. This provides us an international benchmark before we delve deeper into India's banking distress, its size and trends. Section 2 focuses on the twin-balance-sheet crisis in India. On one side, corporate firms recklessly overleveraged, resulting in excess capacities and business diversification. On the other side, banks, both private and public, fell prey to excessive and procyclical credit lending and improper monitoring. Overall, too many projects were left too weakly monitored. Separately, we have focused on two subsections, first, how the financial institutions in India have overstretched their credit-disposal limit during market upturns. Second, we found absence of any theoretically grounded approaches to determine the capital-adequacy ratios (CARs) for the banks. In Section 3, we have identified the steps taken so far by the Banking regulator and the Government to resolve the crisis. Further, we critically examine the role of Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) towards a successful non-performing assets (NPAs) resolution in South Korea. Few key takeaways include, (1) establishing a public asset-management company (AMC) focused on maximization of recoveries and resolution of stressed assets, (2) well-defined governance structure for the AMC ensuring it works on market principles, shielded from political interferences, and (3) realistic asset valuation and transfer price that ensures limited downside risks for the public AMC.

Details

Banking and Finance Issues in Emerging Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-453-4

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

Malgorzata Rymarzak and Dariusz Trojanowski

The purpose of the paper is to offer insights into university asset management (AM) and describe the impact that the various determinants have on the process of university AM. The…

1869

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to offer insights into university asset management (AM) and describe the impact that the various determinants have on the process of university AM. The process of university AM is influenced by a range of determinants.

Design/methodology/approach

A literature review and a case study were used to achieve the research objective. The case study involved two data collection techniques – interviews and document analysis.

Findings

Changing conditions of state-run universities, such as decreasing number of students and a tendency to increase the proportion of scientific research activities, require flexible adjustments to the size and structure of the universities’ facility base. Reductions in government grants and increasing maintenance costs of university assets have made it necessary to manage both existing and future assets more effectively to achieve measured improvement of environmental and social performance, to fulfil strategic responsibilities and to create shared value.

Research limitations/implications

The paper was limited to one practice case study. Additional cases could be studied to confirm the findings and increase the usefulness of the methodological framework and improve its application.

Practical implications

Identifying the various factors that influence the process of university AM would be useful for universities and other public building owners and their decisions-makers, such as chancellors and asset managers. The experience of the Polish market also may support the development of university or public building AM in other countries.

Originality/value

The process of optimising of university asset structure proposed in this paper can contribute to the better understanding and management of higher education institutions ' assets and to the greater competitiveness and efficiency of the Polish universities. The work is novel in that it provides insights into university AM and describes various determinants from an external (macro and micro) and internal (connected with the university itself) perspective.

Details

Journal of Corporate Real Estate, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-001X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 February 2017

Francesco Tajani and Pierluigi Morano

The purpose of this paper is to propose a decision-support methodology for public and private subjects involved in the enhancement of public properties. In particular, with…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a decision-support methodology for public and private subjects involved in the enhancement of public properties. In particular, with reference to cases in which the disused public property can be sold and the range of functions that define the highest and best use of the conversion was identified, the developed model allows for the assessment of the financial feasibility of the initiatives, in relation to the corresponding investment risks.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model integrates the mathematical logic of goal programming for the evaluation of the financial conveniences of the parties (public and private) involved in the enhancement of a public property with statistical approaches (value at risk+exponentially weighted moving average) so as to determine the investment risk of the private investor. The application of the model to a real case study highlighted the potentialities of the proposed methodology.

Findings

The model allows to determine: the optimal mix of intended uses to be realized in the public property under analysis; the fair value of the public property for the parties involved in the transaction; and the Pareto-optimal frontier of the expected profits, as a function of the risk appetite of the private investor.

Practical implications

The defined model responds to the growing international interest in the enhancement of public buildings, satisfies the objectives of the substantial reduction of soil sealing and urban sustainability, stimulates the urban regeneration of deprived areas of the cities through the reactivation of large buildings that have been disused or underused for too long.

Originality/value

The present research allows to provide effective evaluation tools capable of outlining the opportunities of redevelopment initiatives and examines the risk factors that often invalidate the initial forecasts of the private entrepreneur and/or stop the activation of investments.

Details

Journal of Property Investment & Finance, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-578X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2002

Christie C. Onwujuba and Thomas D. Lynch

In this paper, we examine the cash management practices in the State of Louisiana and contrasted those practices with the rate of return on investment income due to cash management

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the cash management practices in the State of Louisiana and contrasted those practices with the rate of return on investment income due to cash management practices. Essentially, we framed various model hypotheses from the literature, which tells us that if those practices exist then we should see an increased rate of return due to cash management. In general, our research supported the literature but there were some interesting exceptions that merit attention.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

Article
Publication date: 7 November 2014

Mihaela Grubišić Šeba, Dubravka Jurlina Alibegović and Sunčana Slijepčević

Public-private partnership (PPP) growth is often related to infrastructure development needs and public debt increase. Despite huge infrastructure (re)construction needs, the…

Abstract

Purpose

Public-private partnership (PPP) growth is often related to infrastructure development needs and public debt increase. Despite huge infrastructure (re)construction needs, the number of PPP projects in Croatia has been rather small so far. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the prospects for PPP projects development in Croatia in the near future. It is examined whether the stance of local authorities towards implementing PPP projects depends more on the necessity of developing infrastructure needs of local citizens or on the available funds for capital investments in local budgets, which are, after covering all operational expenditures, scarce.

Design/methodology/approach

The Municipal Assemblies in European Local Governance (MAELG) survey data for Croatia are combined with available secondary data on local budgets’ revenues and expenditures in the period from 2008 to 2010 for the surveyed local government units. The differences between the answers of local representatives were tested for statistical significance by Pearson χ2 test, while ANOVA is used for testing statistical significance of budgetary data comparison. Some descriptive statistics’ results are also used. Apart from the quantitative data, qualitative research on PPPs, especially for fiscally constraint governments is used throughout the paper.

Findings

The main findings of the paper are that most Croatian local units are severely fiscally constraint to implement any capital projects. Their public revenues are often reserved for covering operational expenditures only. Since local representatives are mostly affirmative towards private sector involvement in providing public services, there is a room for PPP projects in Croatia. Due to the fact that every PPP contract requires active participation of the public partner, two possible solutions are proposed: pooled financing with a possible option of project’ bonds issuance to institutional investors and engaging publicly owned assets into infrastructure projects’ development.

Originality/value

The value of this paper is that it showed that there is little room for financing infrastructure development in Croatia if budgetary rules are followed straightforward. The paper aims to show fiscally constraint local governments a possible way for financing capital projects and rendering public services to their citizens. These solutions may also be applied in other indebted countries, especially if they own a significant portion of public assets.

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2005

Anthony Andrew and Michael Pitt

The paper aims to explain the way the Scottish Executive, Scotland's devolved administration, transfers surplus property between its Departments, agencies and non‐departmental…

618

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to explain the way the Scottish Executive, Scotland's devolved administration, transfers surplus property between its Departments, agencies and non‐departmental public bodies, which differs from the approach in England.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on government documents and professional standards to explain the revised administrative mechanism and the reasons for the way in which it is designed.

Findings

The paper explains the benefits the system is designed to bring about and its limitations.

Research implications/limitations

The paper is a professional practice paper designed to help practitioners who may be involved in such transfers of property, and to inform researchers in the field of public sector asset management of a new development designed to improve the efficiency of property transfer in the Scottish Executive's part of the public sector.

Originality/value

The paper will be of interest to practitioners involved in the transfer of public sector assets in Scotland, and those applied researchers with an interest in public sector asset management.

Details

Property Management, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-7472

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 June 2021

Nero Madi, Corina Joseph, Mariam Rahmat, Jennifer Tunga Janang and Normah Haji Omar

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of fraud prevention disclosure on the Malaysian public universities’ websites.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of fraud prevention disclosure on the Malaysian public universities’ websites.

Design/methodology/approach

The level of fraud prevention information disclosure was examined using content analysis of all 20 public universities in Malaysia based on the university fraud prevention disclosure index (UFPDi) previously developed by the authors’ research team.

Findings

The disclosures of eight aspects of fraud prevention policies, responses, initiatives and mechanisms were not satisfactory. Possible reasons could be because of lack of awareness and appreciation on the institutional mechanisms and lack of formal pressure from the relevant authority.

Research limitations/implications

Data collection for analysis was conducted during a period of one month only due to rapid changes of the information on the websites.

Social implications

The low level of disclosure using UFPDi will prompt the Malaysian public universities to take proactive actions in promoting transparent and good governance among the university staff hence assisting the government in addressing the fraud problem that is plaguing the nation.

Originality/value

This paper is an extension to the authors’ previous work on UFPDi. It further explains and highlights the extent of fraud prevention disclosures among academic institutions who are receiving financial resources from the government.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

41 – 50 of over 68000