Corporate strategic decision making. A comparative analysis of companies in the industrial and non‐industrial sectors
| Pages | 364-378 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14635780510602426 |
| Date | 01 August 2005 |
| Published date | 01 August 2005 |
| Author | Stephen Roulac,Alastair Adair,Stanley McGreal,Jim Berry,Louise Brown,George Heaney |
| Subject Matter | Property management & built environment |
Corporate strategic decision
making
A comparative analysis of companies in the
industrial and non-industrial sectors
Stephen Roulac
Roulac Group and the University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK, and
Alastair Adair, Stanley McGreal, Jim Berry, Louise Brown and
George Heaney
Centre for Research on Property and Planning, School of the Built Environment,
University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, UK
Abstract
Purpose – Seeks to explore recent studies in corporate real estate and to provide a comparative
analysis of industrial corporations in Ireland and those in the non-industrial sector with respect to their
corporate real estate management objectives.
Design/methodology/approach – The empirical investigation reports on a study undertaken in
Ireland and compares results from companies in the industrial sector with companies in the
non-industrial sector. The methodology is based on a behavioural questionnaire targeted at the top 150
companies operating in Ireland and classified on the basis of number of employees.
Findings – The findings indicate that significant differences are apparent between companies in the
industrial sector and companies not in the industrial sector in the use of real estate assets. In particular
companies in the industrial/manufacturing sectors have weakly developed corporate real estate
strategies.
Research limitations/implications – The main limitations derive from a relatively small sample
size, a function of targeting the survey at senior executives. There are implications for companies in
the under-utilisation of real estate assets and the effects of this on corporate balance-sheets requires
further investigation.
Originality/value – Highlights that companies in Ireland, notably those in the industrial sector,
have some significant way to go in utilising their corporate real estate assets more effectively.
Keywords Corporate investments, Real estate, Managementstrategy, Decision making,Ireland
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
At the end of the last decade Manning and Roulac (1999) chronicled the decline in
corporate real estate (CRE) research over the period 1995 to 1998 however since that
time there has been a renaissance of interest in the study of the corporate real estate
discipline. A special issue of the Journal of Real Estate Research edited by Roulac and
Manning (1999a, b) attracted sufficient interest to support not only one collection of
papers but also resulted in a further two issues published two years later (Roulac and
Manning, 2001a, b). In addition, the Journa l of Corporate Real Estate was launched in
1998 “to provide a valuable fund of ideas, techniques, best practice and academic
research which CRE professionals can draw on ... to address the proliferating
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-578X.htm
JPIF
23,4
364
Received May 2004
Accepted December 2004
Journal of Property Investment &
Finance
Vol. 23 No. 4, 2005
pp. 364-378
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1463-578X
DOI 10.1108/14635780510602426
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