Aims to highlights the changes ongoing in the distribution and logistics property sector across Europe and to show that wide differences remain between the sophisticated warehouse…
Abstract
Purpose
Aims to highlights the changes ongoing in the distribution and logistics property sector across Europe and to show that wide differences remain between the sophisticated warehouse properties available in mature property markets and those available in traditional parochial markets found prevalently across the continent and especially in central and eastern Europe.
Design/methodology/approach
The briefing is based on empirical and commercial research in all the national industrial property markets within the EU. It addresses changes in the drivers affecting logistics property and the industry responses to them. The changes include outsourcing; a desire for more flexible, responsive supply chains; globalisation of manufacturing; legislative change; and growing IT capability. Industry responses include the development of complex, highly specified warehousing; increased demand for sophisticated telecommunications; and optimization of location.
Findings
Sub‐optimal locations and poor specification have a direct impact on the cost of the operations using them. As a consequence logistics providers gravitate to newer, more highly specified buildings in locations optimised for their use. In an environment where, traditionally, distribution has a national focus, optimising locations for pan‐European distribution will inevitably render some locations sub‐optimal.
Originality/value
As Europe moves towards a genuine single market, traditional, nationally‐based distribution chains become ever less efficient in the delivery of goods. Concurrently, the complexity and configuration of the warehouse product are changing to accommodate more efficient identification, storage and retrieval technologies along with the need to service new types of market.
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Sotiris Tsolacos, Tony McGough and Bob Thompson
The aim of the present study is to assess the significance of cash flow and profitability survey data in the modelling and forecasting of industrial rents. These data, taken from…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the present study is to assess the significance of cash flow and profitability survey data in the modelling and forecasting of industrial rents. These data, taken from the British Chambers of Commerce regional surveys of the manufacturing sector, are used as a partial proxy for the affordability of industrial space occupiers. In the absence of direct profitability measures existing studies approximate this information indirectly through output and to some extent employment variables.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross‐section time‐series framework is deployed to model regional industrial rents using a set of output and employment variables. The empirical model is subsequently augmented with the inclusion of the cash flow and profitability measures.
Findings
Consistent with the findings of existing studies, changes in output are a significant influence on the variation of real industrial rents. Supportive evidence for turnover and profitability is found in four regions. In these regions cash flow variables contain additional information and improve the forecast performance of the base model. The empirical findings also extend to obtaining estimates after the BCC survey data are normalised with respect to the overall growth and the input costs manufacturers face in each of the regions.
Originality/value
The present study extends existing work on industrial rents by introducing more direct turnover and profitability series. Greater use of such series in property performance forecasting over short‐term horizons has the potential of resulting in smaller errors.
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Ping Wang and E. Burton Swanson
The paper aims to raise the question: how can a new information technology's (IT's) early momentum toward widespread adoption and eventual institutionalization be sustained? The…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to raise the question: how can a new information technology's (IT's) early momentum toward widespread adoption and eventual institutionalization be sustained? The purpose of the paper is to examine sustaining technological momentum as a form of institutional work and entrepreneurship not widely recognized as such.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reports a case study of Business Week's special advertising section used in 2000‐2004 to both exploit and help sustain the momentum of customer relationship management (CRM).
Findings
The study finds that the advertisement section's producers employed it over several years to recurrently produce and disseminate credible discourse advancing CRM, incorporating models for action, and providing fresh meanings to the organizing vision for this technology so as to accentuate its progress and keep it worthy of continued attention. Most significantly, acquired momentum, while problematic to sustain, can nevertheless serve as its own resource, to be continuously reinvested in the form of public discourse which must itself be kept “lively” so that momentum may be extended.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the institutional explanation of IT diffusion by theorizing the process of sustaining technological momentum as an important institution‐building task. In particular, it illuminates the contribution of entrepreneurially produced and disseminated discourse to this process and provides an illustration and analysis of specific forms of institutional work, strategies, and tactics employed in the process. Additionally, the paper suggests that institutional work for sustaining technological momentum differs in certain respects from that needed to launch a technology so as to acquire momentum in the first place.
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Catherine Jackson and Michael White
The industrial property market has traditionally been under‐researched but, in recent years, studies have ranged from examining rental change at the national level to examining…
Abstract
Purpose
The industrial property market has traditionally been under‐researched but, in recent years, studies have ranged from examining rental change at the national level to examining supply factors at the local level. These studies are valuable to the real estate community, but there still remain significant gaps. This paper aims to focus on two of these inter‐related gaps. The interaction between inflation and rental change has been largely overlooked at all levels of data aggregation. Further, the relative importance of national factors, and regional and local factors, in rental determination has also been ignored.
Design/methodology/approach
National and regional long‐run time series models are estimated accounting for the impact of inflation on real rents, using approaches adopted in macro‐economic consumption function analyses. The statistical validity of these models is confirmed from co‐integration tests. Local level spatio‐temporal rental changes are then examined using the hierarchical method of cluster analysis.
Findings
This paper finds that, at national and regional levels, inflation reduces real industrial rents. National regional and local factors are all found to be important in governing rental change in local markets. This implies that factors operating on all spatial scales must be considered in rental studies.
Originality/value
This paper combines two methodological approaches to examine the interaction between inflation and rental change, and the relative importance of national, regional and local factors in rental determination. The results suggest that factors operating on all spatial scales should be considered in rental studies.
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An estimated 65% of customer relationship marketing applications fail. Here's how to increase the chances of success.
The purpose of the paper is test whether what property companies say they do with respect to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general and the environment in particular has…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is test whether what property companies say they do with respect to corporate social responsibility (CSR) in general and the environment in particular has an impact on corporate value as expressed by their return on assets (ROA).
Design/methodology/approach
The annual report for any UK‐listed company is a statutory document with its contents prescribed by legislation. This paper is concerned with a comparison of how real estate companies present themselves in their annual reports with their actual performance. To extract that information systematically, word frequency analysis (WFA) was undertaken on the contents of the annual reports of the top 20 UK‐listed property companies by value using a CSR vocabulary of words and phrases. The frequency of each of these was established in each annual report between 2001 and 2010. Two indices were created: a general CSR index based on the occurrence of a CSR vocabulary; and a green index based on the environmental vocabulary. These indices were then modelled against the ROA for each company.
Findings
As expected, ROA is positively related with both indices and is statistically significant in the GREEN equation, suggesting the firms with good performance are likely to invest more in sustainability. The size of firms is positively associated with both indices, indicating larger firms have better defined CSR. Return has a significantly positive coefficient with both indices, suggesting that the “greener” companies outperform others in the stock market.
Originality/value
The research uses new content analysis techniques to identify the relative commitment of property companies to CSR and the environment. The documents analysed are statutory and therefore less likely to be used to present aspiration rather than action. Overall the paper addresses only one aspect of corporate activity and will be best viewed in coordination with other approaches.
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The purpose of this is to paper discuss the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) upon the industrial property sector through the identification of observable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this is to paper discuss the impact of information and communications technology (ICT) upon the industrial property sector through the identification of observable trends now and in the near future. The paper looks at the current ICT influences on industrial property, highlighting the nature of the impact and its implications for the sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws upon the authors own experience of the industrial and IT sectors to isolate key technologies and resulting changes in the drivers of industrial property.
Research limitations/implications
The focus of this paper is on demand side factors that affect the supply of an industrial product. The impact of ICT upon the efficiency and operation of industrial facilities themselves is excluded.
Practical implications
Through the facilitation of changes in occupational demand, ICT has had a dramatic effect upon the industrial property sector over the last 30 years, changing the paradigms of location, structure and configuration beyond recognition.
Originality/value
The industrial property sector does often feature in discussions of the impact of ICT upon property generally. Yet of all the types of property, arguably industrial has seen the biggest quantum change over time facilitated by ICT. This article adds value to that debate through highlighting this fact.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine innovation in the context of property and asset management (PAM) and define a clear interpretation of the term that can be applied…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine innovation in the context of property and asset management (PAM) and define a clear interpretation of the term that can be applied generally. Second to propose an organisational framework in which stakeholders in PAM can behave more innovatively.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes the form of a literature review and application of third party research.
Findings
There is a clear need for stakeholders to behave innovatively. Innovation is primarily cultural and is disruptive by design which is uncomfortable for a mature industry like PAM.
Research limitations/implications
This is an examination of existing literature and research. It sets up a need for empirical research on the behaviour of PAM stakeholders.
Practical implications
PAM stakeholders need to change their culture to enable innovation to flourish.
Originality/value
There is little published research on PAM.