Editorial

Citation

Warren, D.C.M.J. (2013), "Editorial", Property Management, Vol. 31 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/PM-07-2013-0039

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Property Management, Volume 31, Issue 5

As another year of Property Management draws to a close with the publication of our fifth and final volume for 2013, it is interesting to reflect on the wide range of papers that have been published this year and the events which have shaped Property Management over the year. Each year the journal publishes a minimum of 25 papers across the five issues. This year we have received a record number of papers for review which has kept the Editorial Advisory Board very busy undertaking the rigorous review and revision process which ensures that only quality research is published. We have had papers from every continent covering a very wide range of issues from housing tenure to sustainable office management. As the journal readership continues to grow in its reach to all regions of the world so too does the extent of the research which is published. It is rewarding to compare and contrast the issues faced in managing property from the largest developed cities to the developing regions of the world with informal housing problems and limited infrastructure.

This year there has been a focus on the international impact of property journals with the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) and the International Real Estate Society (IRES) both commencing a process of ranking journals according to their international impact. Property Management has made submissions to both these organisations to raise the ranking of the journal based on the increasing levels of citation and on the major published index rankings such as SNIP and SJR. Property Management has achieved increasing index factors over the last few years and it is hoped that when published the international rankings given by ABDC and IRES will reflect this. With increasing rankings comes an even greater level of international impact that will, almost certainly, result in even more high-quality research papers being submitted for inclusion in future issues. It is anticipated that by the next issue of Property Management in early 2014 the outcome of these reviews will be available and I will be able to report a positive outcome.

The papers for this issue

Five research papers contribute to the last issue of Property Management for 2013. The first paper comes from Nicole Johnston and Sacha Reid at the Griffith University in Australia. This paper, “Multi-owned developments: a life cycle review of a developing research area”, provides an analysis of the growing trend towards multi-owned property developments it examines the issues which arise with this form of ownership and provides a comprehensive review on the literature in this area.

Paper 2 also deals with issues relating to land tenure, this time in Ghana. The paper comes from a team at The University of Wolverhampton in the UK led by Kwasi Gyau Baffour-Awuah, the paper entitled, “The cost of land title formalisation in Ghana”, reports on the on-going process to implement a formal land title system in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper highlights the social and economic benefits which flow from establishing a clear title system and the costs associated with establishing and maintaining such a system.

Paper 3 is a paper from Stanislaw Belniak, Michal Gluszak, and Malgorzata Zieba, at Cracow Economic University in Krakow, Poland. The paper, “Demand for sustainable office space in Poland: the results from a conjoint experiment in Krakow”, provides a fascinating insight into the sustainable development initiatives in Poland. It shows that there is a strong demand in the commercial sector for environmentally sustainable office buildings with an estimated 2-3 per cent of offices now having environmental certification. The issues of establishing building certification systems in emerging economies is discussed together with the problems associated with international rating systems such as LEED, Green Star and BREEAM.

Paper 4 by Karin Staffansson Pauli, from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Malmö, Sweden explores the gender divide within the real estate industry in Sweden. The paper, “‘All of my bosses have been men” – on gender structures in the real estate industry”, illustrates how the property profession is changing from one dominated by men with limited tertiary education to one which exhibits a gender balance with a far higher proportion of educated and professionally qualified practitioners.

The final paper is by Paul Chynoweth, at Salford University in the UK. In his paper, “Practice-informed research: an alternative paradigm for scholastic enquiry in the built environment”, Paul puts forward a model for practice-informed research and proposes this as an alternative paradigm of enquiry, capable of satisfying the competing demands for research in the built environment to be both academically rigorous, and also relevant to practice.

Once again the range of papers presented in this issue shows the diversity of research being undertaken in the management of property around the world and the issues that present themselves in different countries. I hope that you enjoy this issue of Property Management and find the research presentations stimulating.

Dr Clive M.J. Warren