大作業(yè)英文格式

2023年12月8日發(fā)(作者：特殊藥品)

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Customer orientation in real-estate companies

The espoud values of customer relations

Peter Palm

Malmo¨ University, Malmo¨ , Sweden

Abstract

Purpo – The purpo of this paper is to analy how the espousing of customer relations has

evolved over time in the real estate ctor. Has a shift occured within the Swedish real estate

ctor from product thinking towards customer thinking?

Design/methodology/approach – The rearch is bad on an analysis of 25 commercial real

estate companies’ annual reports from the last five years. The annual reports are analyd through

text analysis using the theoretical framework of Mintzberg’s five Ps.

Findings – The Swedish real estate ctor has in general made the shift from product orientation

to customer orientation. There was, however, no significant change during the last five years and

most of the companies espoud customer orientation already in 2004. The study implies that it is

not sufficient to categori the companies between product or customer oriented. Instead four

categories are suggested: product, customer, project, and financial orientated. Customer rientation,

as measured here, was higher in listed companies and in larger companies.

Rearch limitations/implications – The rearch in this paper is limited to the Swedish real

estate ctor.

Originality/value – The paper shows the espoud values regarding customer relations of the

commercial real estate companies that can be found in their annual reports. As the annual reports

are a marketing instrument it should reflect the nior management’s core values. By highlighting

how the top management’s core values regarding customer relations are espoud an

understanding for the ctor is built up.

Keywords Customer relations, Real estate, Sweden, Customer orientation

Paper type Rearch paper

1. Introduction

Internationally there is a discussion about incread customer orientation in the real estate ctor.

Is the ctor changing from a traditional focus on “bricks and mortars” to more focus on the

tenant/customer (e for example Rasila et al., 2006; Wilson et al., 2001)? Product focus is here

ud in the n that the focus lies on the premis and not customer rvices, but it should be

noted that this definition differs from the one in ISO 9000 where product includes rvices as well.

Lindholm and Nenonen (2006) state that corporate real estate managers traditionally have tended

to have an operational efficiency perspective looking at maintenance instead of customer

satisfaction or customer relations. This change of approach has in Sweden been discusd since

the mid-1990s (Bengtsson and Polesie, 1998), and to what extent this has initiated changes within

the organisation concerning attitudes and strategies (Palm, 2008).

To be able to make such a change within the real estate ctor, it is important for the top

management to formulate and communicate the organisation’s new strategies (Palm, 2008). As

stated above, the change within the real estate ctor is believed to have started in the mid-1990s

and the ctor is still changing. One should not underestimate the time such a change of an organisation can take. Regarding a change of an organisation’s beliefs Henry states:

Becau of the deeply embedded nature and culture, societal, institutional, or organisational, is

resistant to change (Henry, 1999, p. 563).

When it comes to changes in thinking patterns, it requires what Hofstede and Hofstede (2004)

define as a change of the cond degree. They say:

New symbols without the support of more fundamental changes of the deeper levels of heroes,

rituals and the values of key lears just mean a lot of hoopla, the effects of which wear out

quickly (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2004, p. 313).

As Hofstede and Hofstede argue, it is hard to change an organisation’s thinking pattern and

thereby also the organisation’s strategic thinking. It is therefore interesting to study how the

company communicates its attitudes and policies.

In this article the focus is on how customer focus is displayed in the companies’ annual reports.

Ho¨gberg and Ho¨gberg (2000) state that annual reports are one of the top management tools to

express the norms and values that the company stands for (Ho¨gberg and Ho¨gberg, 2000; e also

Zerfass, 2008; Rutherford, 2005; Smith and Taffler, 2000). When the company’s top management

decides about the structure and form of the annual report, what should be printed and what tone it

should have, it leads to it espousing what the company gives high priority to (Smith and Taffler,

2000). It is through the titles “CEO’s statement”, “missions and goals”, and “corporate

information” that the top managements’ strategies are displayed in the annual report. Investigating

each of the top management’s display of strategies in the annual reports will display that

company’s espoud values regarding customer relations (Martin, 2004).

Two hypothes are the starting point for the study prented below:

H1. The majority of Swedish real estate companies are today customer oriented.

H2. The espoud customer orientation has incread over time.

The hypothes will be tested by analysing 28 real estate companies’ annual reports, using text

analysis bad on theories of strategy.

The structure of this paper is as follows: in ction 2 the theoretical background will be mapped.

In ction 3 the rearch design and methodology will be discusd. In ction 4 the data regarding

the Swedish companies’ espoud values for customer relations today will be described and

analyd, and ction 5 will analy how the espoud values have changed over time. Section 6

analys the results in relation to the structure of the companies’. Section 7 includes a discussion

of the results and how the companies can be classified due to their espoud values of customer

relations. The conclusions are prented in ction 8, where the hypothes will be answered.

6. Conclusion

It is clear that most Swedish real estate companies regard their annual reports as a publication

where they besides reporting standard economic data, also u it for expressing the company’s

values. Regarding the shift from brick thinking to a customer orientated thinking and its display in

the annual reports through the companies espoud strategies, it is concluded that many companies

have made the shift. But at the same time that they are companies left with a more brick orientated

thinking two groups of companies that has not made the shift yet was detected. The first of the

are companies with a strict financial focus. Generally the companies prented a thinking of real

estate management that must be equal to ast management and not real estate management. A cond group, project orientated companies, were detected. They were more diver and many

tended to have a customer approach even if the espoud strategies focud on the premis in the

first place and the customers was treated as something that just came along with the premis.

Two hypothes were initially formulated stating:

(1) The majority of Swedish real estate companies are today customer oriented.

(2) The espoud customer orientation has incread over time.

The conclusion concerning the first hypothesis is that the Swedish real estate ctor has made the

shift from brick orientation to customer orientation and that the majority of Swedish real estate

companies should be considered as espousing a customer orientation today. The conclusion comes

from both counting the companies’ espoud values and analysing the context where their values

are espoud. When analysing the characteristics of the companies there is a clear line between

companies listed on the stock market and tho that are not. The listed companies tend to have a

more extensive espousing of customer relations than the unlisted. The same obrvation can be

made regarding the size of the companies. Larger companies tend to have a more extensive

espousing. However a new “brick oriented” thinking has occurred and it is a financially oriented

thinking. It was expected that the companies either still would be considered as product oriented

or had made the shift towards a customer thinking. But the study has shown that there is another

category of companies with a lack of customer thinking. This category neither has a focus on the

premis nor the customer as they have a strict earning thinking. The are companies that regard

property management as ast management just like capital placement in stocks or grain.

The cond hypothesis for the study was rejected. No real increa of espoud values can be

detected over the five years in the study. Most companies tended to have an extensive espousing

already in 2004 and have afterwards not made any major changes. But when conducting a more

in-depth analysis of the context that the espoud values are written in a maturity within the

companies espousing can be detected. This is the ca when a company not only reports its

customer values but also em to have implemented them within the organisation. But it is here

important to remember that it is the companies that already (in 2004) were considered as having a

more extensive espousing that also show this maturity. Companies with a poor espousing also in

general tend not to mature in this question.

Further rearch：

This study is relatively narrow as only the espoud values in annual reports are considered. On

the other hand it includes many, including all of the listed, of the commercial real estate

companies in Sweden. Further rearch should focus on going into depth regarding how the

espoud strategies are implemented within the companies.

It would also be interesting to evaluate the companies’ results due to their customer relations. Is it

that companies with a customer orientated thinking within the organisation also have a stronger

result?

Finally recommendations could be developed about how to prent the espoud values in a clear

way. An interesting way is shown by company 2, mentioned above where last year’s outcome,

how it was measured and this year’s goal are displayed. One way of refining it would be to add

what steps of actions that were made last year to fulfil that year’s goals and what the company will

do this year to improve even more and to reali this year’s goals.

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