Business management and organisational studies have largely ignored corporate real estate practices and their impact on performance. Where CRE and facilities management practices are examined, the focus is more on the nature of the physical assets, not how corporate real estate management practices might impact the performance of the company. Previous studies have focused on:

The capability and capacity of the real estate assets
The workplace as an organisational ‘enabler’
The (negative) impact the workplace can have on job satisfaction through poor working conditions
The changing nature of the portfolio of assets

Alignment of real estate decision-making processes with competitive strategy, as a visual representation of the organisation’s culture and image The goal of this research is to document the range of corporate real estate management practices currently in place at large companies, and to identify which of those practices correlate to key financial performance measures. A survey questionnaire was used to collect information about current CRE practices. Forty valid data sets were submitted.

In overall terms, the sample comprises:

A total supported organisational head count of slightly more than 3.6 million people
A total operational portfolio size of 221 million gross square metres (2.38 billion gross square feet)
A total operating budget under management of US$ 72.6 billion

The organisations are spread across a large number of industry sectors, but are predominantly headquartered in the USA and the UK. Their financial performance information was obtained from publicly available sources. The research discovered significant correlations between six of the CRE practices and enterprise performance measures, as illustrated in the table below. All of the correlations were positive except for those relating to capital release strategies. No significant correlations were found between the fourteen other CRE practices examined in the survey and the economic performance measures applied.