Editorial

Citation

Warren, C.M.J. (2014), "Editorial", Property Management, Vol. 32 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/PM-05-2014-0024

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Property Management, Volume 32, Issue 4

This issue of Property Management once again includes a range of interesting research papers drawn from academics in Africa, USA, Finland, Australia and the UK. The papers cover aspects of professional practice as well as both commercial and residential property management.

The first paper in this issue comes from Africa and is a good example of collaborative research between the Federal University of Technology in Akura, Nigeria and the Lagos State Polytechnic, in Lagos, Nigeria. The paper examines the management of urban commercial property in Akura and the attitudes to the services provided by professional property managers. The paper finds that there is a significant gap between occupier's expectations and the level of satisfaction with the actual services delivered.

The second paper is part two of the paper from Michael McCord, David McIlhatton and Martin Haran from the University of Ulster, together with Terry Grissom from the Ely Research Institute, Atlanta, USA. This is the second part of this two-part paper, part one was published in Vol. 32 Issue No. 3. The paper: “The use of strong and weak form sustainability to assist in rate development for the valuation of exhaustible resources”, builds upon the established research on environmental economics and sustainability theory developed by Ramsey (1928), Weitzmann (2007) and Gollier (2010). The Ramsey-Weitzmann- Gollier model focuses on discount rate development for environmental and long-term assets, linking discounted utility analysis embedded in the CCAPM model of Lucas (1978) to the policy concerns associated with the valuation of public and sustainable resources.

Paper three in this issue is a paper focused on the delivery of sustainable building services. It is authored by Eeva Määttänen, and her associates from the Aalto University in Finland. The paper adopts a Kano model of structured interviews to evaluate the attitudes of building occupiers to the provision of green services. The paper reports that tenants have begun to recognise and value some of the green services provided by property managers.

The fourth paper is written by Joanna Poon and Michael Brownlow from the Deakin University in Australia. This paper seeks to identify the levels of commercial awareness in students studying property-related degree courses. The paper identifies the importance of commercial awareness, which it defines as the ability to understand the economics of business. It goes on to discuss students’ ability to critically analyse business and real estate economic problems. This paper provides a very worthwhile insight into the attitudes of property students in the UK and will help those responsible for the design and development of course content.

The final paper presents a review of the UK planning processes and the issues faced in the rapidly developing fracking industry. The paper is written by Peter Jones, David Hillier and Daphne Comfort from the Business School at the University of Glamorgan, UK. The rapid expansion of the shale gas industry, using fracking techniques to release gas deposits, is a major issue in many countries around the world including the UK, USA and Australia among others. This paper examines the difficulties faced in the UK in terms of planning regulation of the industry and the environmental concerns that many hold for this new technology.

I hope that you find the range of research papers presented in this issue of Property Management interesting and informative. It is pleasing to receive a diverse range of papers from around the world covering a wide range of topics of interest to those researching and practicing property management, and I would encourage you to present your research for inclusion in the journal.

Clive M.J. Warren

References

Gollier, C. (2010), “Expected net present value, expected net future value, and the Ramsey rule”, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Vol. 59 No. 1, pp. 142-148

Lucas, R. (1978), “Asset prices in and exchange economy”, Econometrica, Vol. 46 No. 6, pp. 1429-1445

Ramsey, F.P. (1928), “A mathematical theory of saving”, Economic Journal, Vol. 38 No. 152, pp. 543-559

Weitzman, M. (2007), “Subjective expectations and asset-return puzzle”, American Economic Review, Vol. 97 No. 4, pp. 1102-1130