Identification of changed paradigms in CRE research – a systematic literature review 2005-2015

As corporations change their way of working, the importance of corporate real estate (CRE) management has increased. Hence, there is a need to structure the existing knowledge and to identify the latest developments in CRE research. This paper aims to identify the major developments and changed paradigms in CRE research in 2005-2015.

A systematic literature review is conducted, including papers from seven journals. In three sequential scans, papers were identified for the final analysis, keeping 99 of 1,667 papers.

Based on nine identified developments, two paradigm shifts were found. The shift from cost minimisation to value delivery was identified. Besides solving current problems, value delivery aims to capture the future value and prevent future problems. The second paradigm shift is from buildings to people. Before the shift, buildings refer to value delivery as a transaction, while the shift to people highlights the aim to provide value-in-use.

This paper focusses on corporate offices, excluding retail, health care, education, publicly owned facilities, etc. This research is limited to CRE research. Therefore, the results are applicable to CRE research but do not cover the developments in practice.

For practitioners, this paper offers a possibility to develop their RE strategies by reflecting their current practices with the identified developments and paradigms in the CRE literature. This paper suggests to conduct a similar research in practice to compare the underlying paradigms.

This paper is based on a systematic literature study, and summarises developments in CRE research over the past 10 years.