Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of the management of office relocations in Finnish organisations with a focus on the use of, and need for, external advisory services. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a sequential mixed method approach. First, the use of relocation-related services, and organisations’ perception of the need for them, was assessed through a questionnaire sent to all organisations with more than 50 employees in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA). The data includes 83 responses. Subsequently, service experiences, perceived service needs, and the challenges that organisations face in relocation are studied through thematic interviews with 15 organisations that have recently relocated. Findings – The findings show that, despite facing many challenges when relocating, many organisations do not consider using external service providers. Most organisations do not acknowledge the complexity of the process until afterwards, and they also lack knowledge of the availability of relocation-related services. Research limitations/implications – The main limitation is the population size of the questionnaire. A larger population would have allowed for more generalisations, but the results do provide insight into the organisations’ issues in managing their relocations. Practical implications – In order to facilitate the better organisational relocation experiences, and to develop the market for relocation-related services, service providers need to begin educating organisations of the challenges and opportunities of relocation, and successively increase the awareness of the availability of services. Originality/value – Relocation, when it is considered in the literature, is most often construed as being about location, or site selection. This study approaches the phenomenon from the organisations’ perspective and considers relocation a process that needs to be managed.

This paper deepens the understanding of Corporate Real Estate (CRE) alignment through a meta-study of twenty existing alignment models. A qualitative hermeneutic method interpreted the models and their articles. This holistic analysis found alignment to be more complex and pluralistic than the individual models assumed. Four dimensions operating simultaneously were evident-a multi-valent relationship, multiple alignment forms, multiple cognitive objects to align and alignment in multiple directions. Alignment theorisation had positive and negative aspects. Positive is that good science was evident and had improved over time. Negative is that model theorisation had occurred mostly in isolation and was constrained by simplifications required to make modelling tractable. The research makes a meta-theoretical contribution through a more complete theorisation of CRE alignment as a phenomenon. This addresses a disordered sense to prior theory thereby representing a major conceptual improvement. A new alignment model is not proposed; rather through developed understanding a basis is provided to examine alignment in both theorisation and practice.

Purpose -This purpose of this paper is to propose a model for the relationship between corporate real estate management (CREM) practices and an organisation's sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate real estate (CRE) plays an important but poorly recognised role in organisational competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach -The model was developed from the strategic management, organisational competitiveness, and CRE literatures. A total of 162 CREM practices from the literature were connected, where possible, with cost, innovation and differentiation sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Clustering similar practices allowed the summarising of competitive effects in those clusters and each of the sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Technical CREM practices were the focus of analysis as they constitute the traditional core of CREM. Findings -Many gaps were identified in the theoretical connections between practices and sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Overall, cost dominated as the mode of competition most affected by the practices. Cost, innovation and differentiation made roughly equivalent positive contributions, but cost was most negatively affected by CREM practices.Research limitations/implications -The model is conceptual and provides a framework for aligning CREM practices with an organisation's competitive strategies, to build CRE-based strategic capabilities for competitiveness, and to optimise practices' competitive effects. The holistic model directly links core CRE techniques with business outcomes and establishes a framework for further exploration of this important relationship.

Leading organisations expect that all business processes, including facilities management (FM), achieve world‐class standards. This paper presents the results of an international, collaborative investigation, on behalf of a UK‐based blue chip company and a member of the Facilities Management Foundation, to identify organisations that are recognised as exemplars of world‐class FM (WCFM) and to understand the processes that underpin world‐class performance. Much FM practice remains cost focused, rooted in operations and concerned primarily with maintaining the steady‐state position of an organisation. In contrast, most authors propose that facilities should be strategically planned, aligned to business needs and demonstrate contribution to achieving explicit business objectives. They argue for a common language and for conditions that ensure that facilities add value to the business. Very little is known about how these conditions are created in different organisational contexts. The paper describes a heuristic study of three cases, selected as exemplars of WCFM, focusing on the underlying processes. Project partners in Australia, Norway and the UK conducted the case studies to a common brief. The paper presents the framework that was created to enable comparison of FM processes in the case studies and a matrix of business drivers and FM outputs that was adapted for the project. The investigation identifies three FM roles ‐ as translator, processor and demonstrator. Facilities management identifies business needs and translates strategy into workplaces, owns the processes of providing those workplaces and demonstrates their impact on organisational outcomes. The paper develops a WCFM framework to provide a management tool for considering and relating FM projects at different levels in an organisation. The study highlights the importance of reframing FM projects as business projects, and concludes that participation at senior management, business unit and individual levels in the organisation is an important factor in obtaining value. The study also highlights the need for effective change management processes continually to adapt the workplace to changing business needs, and shows how FM provides value through sustaining the organisation through business cycles.