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Facilities management (FM), which is crucial for the operation and sustainability of buildings and infrastructure across the world, covers a wide range of competencies that may vary across regions. Focusing on Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, this study aims to reveal and compare the importance and current competency levels of FM competencies in these regions, based on which appropriate education and training can be formulated to enhance the growth of their FM sectors.

After an extensive literature review, 12 FM competency attributes (CAs) were identified. A questionnaire survey in Sri Lanka and Hong Kong solicited the industry practitioners’ perceived importance and current levels of the CAs. The survey responses, 126 from Sri Lanka and 148 from Hong Kong, were analysed by a modified Importance-Competency Analysis matrix, followed using the Mann−Whitney U test to identify any differences in the responses between the two regions.

Between Sri Lanka and Hong Kong, significant differences were found to exist in the importance and current competency levels of over half of the CAs. Among the CAs requiring priority attention, “operation and maintenance” and “leadership” are the top two in Sri Lanka while the top two in Hong Kong are “technology” and “leadership”.

This study yielded insightful results on the importance of FM competencies and the current competency levels in a developing region and a developed region, which are useful for the development of FM education and research.

This paper reports on the application of the sequential method, presented in a previous paper by Lai et al. in 2001, to determine optimal strategies of when to carry out a preventive maintenance action for an engine and when to replace an engine in use. The sequential method was run with real data provided by the Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited in Hong Kong. First, both the maximum‐likelihood density estimation procedure and the nearest‐neighbour density estimation procedure were applied to assess the model parameters, and the goodnesses of fit of the distribution was assessed. Second, some values were assigned to the corrective maintenance indicator and the preventive maintenance indicator. Third, the other input values for the method were assessed. Finally, the optimal preventive maintenance and replacement strategies based on minimising loss were determined. This case study shows that the sequential method can be used to solve a maintenance and replacement problem efficiently, and also shows that the method has advantages over the non‐homogeneous Poisson process model in comparison with the results obtained by the latter.

The purpose of this paper (Part 1 of 2) is to classify and map, in a systematic manner and from a facilities management (FM) perspective, the performance indicators that are applicable to evaluating facilities operation and maintenance (O&M) in commercial buildings.

Forming part of a multi-stage research project, the applicable performance indicators that had been identified from an extensive literature review were consolidated and defined. Based on a phase-hierarchy (P-H) model – a fundamental classification framework comprising three phases of facilities services delivery and three hierarchical FM levels – the indicators were systematically classified, and a map showing their distribution along the phase and hierarchy dimensions was obtained.

The P-H model enabled systematic classification of the 71 applicable indicators. Mapping the indicators with the model showed that more indicators concern the input or output phase of facilities services delivery. Indicators at the strategic level, which have a wide span of control, are small in quantity, compared to the large number of indicators at the operational level.

The P-H model, which proves useful for classifying performance indicators for facilities in commercial buildings, may be applied to similar research on other types of buildings or infrastructures.

The method of classifying the performance indicators and the mapping result of the indicators are useful reference for different levels of FM practitioners.

This paper illustrates a novel attempt that made use of the P-H model to classify O&M performance indicators.

The purpose of paper is to investigate the institutional features of the leasehold system of Hong Kong, which is predicated on the freedom of contract as an institutional arrangement for land management and planning that promotes sustainable development.

The approach is analytical, using concepts of property rights informed by Coasian neo‐institutional economics and the ideas of Yu et al. on the Schumpeterian process in innovation.

It was demonstrated that the post‐contractual imposition of statutory planning control on the leasehold land management system in Hong Kong has adversely affected and adaptability of the leasehold system in achieving sustainability.

This paper encourages a reinterpretation of statutory zoning in areas with a leasehold system and the reception of the land lease as a basis for innovations that help promote sustainable development.

This paper warns against legislative activism in planning controls as that can destroy or erode the basis for innovations that help promote sustainable development.

Using the idea of innovations of Yu et al. and Lai and Lorne, this paper further develops Lai theory of “planning by contract” as an alternative to “planning by edict”.

The purpose of this study is to examine the development of service quality research in hospitality and tourism from 1984 to 2014, to identify research gaps and to suggest directions for future research.

This review comprised three steps with the first being the generation of a structural map by using the online pathfinder network (PFNET) to identify potential research themes. The second research step involved an online literature search covering 2,211 academic journal articles to obtain basic information for planning an additional content investigation concerning the research themes. The final step was to investigate the content of the articles published in top-tier journals or frequently cited ones in three different stages (1984-1993, 1994-2003 and 2004-2014) to explore potential research topics.

The study identifies 17 research themes that comprise two main research themes, seven sub-stems, six outer-leaves and two little-leaves. The developments of service quality research in each theme are explored. The role of each theme in service quality study is revealed. Finally, this study identifies research opportunities for service quality research within each theme.

This study demonstrates how to use PFNET to effectively perform a systematic literature review. By referring to previous publications reviewed in this study, researchers can contribute by extending existing theories in their further research on the seventeen themes.

This study contributes a systematic literature review method by applying an online PFNET approach, provides a well-researched list of references for researchers conducting service quality research and highlights research gaps for researchers who plan to pursue service quality research.

The purpose of this study is to identify key performance indicators (KPIs) for badminton halls and, through a case study, illustrate how the facilities performance of a university badminton hall can be evaluated from the user perspective.

After a desktop literature review, the findings were discussed by a focus group, and the discussion result formed the basis for establishing an analytic hierarchy of facilities performance for the badminton hall. Then, interviews were made with 169 badminton hall users to solicit their perceived facilities’ importance and performance levels of the hall. Using MATLAB, a computer program incorporated with an Analytic Hierarchy Process was devised to compute the importance weights of the performance attributes under assessment. The outcomes were interpreted using an importance-performance evaluation matrix.

A facilities performance hierarchy, comprising nine KPIs, was established for the badminton hall. The factors influencing the users’ perceptions, the importance and performance levels of the KPIs and the areas of the hall requiring improvements were identified.

Future studies can take a similar approach of this study to develop KPIs and facilities performance hierarchies for other types of sports venues.

The method used to identify the improvements required for the badminton hall can be applied to investigations on other sports facilities.

The methodology of this research was first applied to study a badminton hall – as reported in this paper.