Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto. Julkaisu 914 Tampere University of Technology. Publication 914
Heidi Rasila
Customer Experience in a Landlord-Tenant Relationship
Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to be presented with due permission for public examination and criticism in Rakennustalo Building, Auditorium RG202, at Tampere University of Technology, on the 8th of October, 2010, at 12 noon.
Tampereen teknillinen yliopisto - Tampere University of Technology Tampere 2010
ISBN 978-952-15-2439-4 (printed) ISBN 978-952-15-2548-3 (PDF) ISSN 1459-2045
TIIVISTELMÄSIVU
Tekijä(t) Rasila Heidi
Käsikirjoituksen päivämäärä 13.09.2010 Julkaisun nimi
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN A LANDLORD‐TENANT RELATIONSHIP
Monissa organisaatioissa on viime vuosina kiinnitetty huomiota toimistotiloihin resurssina, joka oikein käytettynä tukee sekä organisaation että sen työntekijöiden toimintaa ja tavoitteita. Vuokramarkkinoilla tämä on korostanut tarvetta ymmärtää vuokralaisasiakasta ja asiakkaan liiketoimintaa entistä paremmin. Vaikka vuokranantajat usein tiedostavat tämän tarpeen, heiltä puuttuu oikeat työkalut tämän ymmärryksen saavuttamiseksi.
Tämän väitöstutkimuksen tavoitteena on auttaa vuokranantajia ymmärtämään vuokralaista paremmin tarkastelemalla sitä, miten vuokralaiset kokevat toimitilat. Tutkimuksen teoreettisessa osassa rakennetaan malli asiakaskokemuksesta (engl. customer experience) laajentamalla palveluiden laatua käsittelevää teoriaa.
Teoreettisen osan pohjalta esitetään, että asiakaskokemusta voidaan hahmottaa kolmesta näkökulmasta.
Nämä ovat tuotenäkökulma, palvelunäkökulma ja asiakassuhdenäkökulma.
Empiirisessä osassa testataan sitä, miten kirjallisuuskatsauksesta löydetyt asiakaskokemuksen ulottuvuudet (10 tuotenäkökulmasta, 15 palvelunäkökulmasta ja 11 asiakassuhdenäkökulmasta) toimivat vuokraliikesuhteessa. Tarkastelun kohteena on vuokralaisasiakkaan kokemus toimitilaympäristöstä. Tätä kokemusta pyritään ymmärtämään sekä organisaation että yksittäisten käyttäjien (työntekijöiden) näkökulmasta.
Empiirinen osa toteutettiin 11 toimitilakohteessa. Yhteistä näille oli se, että ne olivat nk. monitoimijatiloja ja kohteet oli vuokrattu toimitiloiksi. Kussakin kohteessa tutkimukseen osallistui edustajia 1-5 vuokralaisorganisaatiosta. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytettiin yksilö- ja ryhmähaastatteluja. Ryhmähaastattelut toteutettiin kiertohaastatteluina, joissa tutkija ja haastateltavat kiersivät tutkittavassa kohteessa haastattelun aikana. Saatu materiaali analysoitiin laadullisen sisällönanalyysin avulla.
Empirian pohjalta todetaan, että teoreettisessa mallissa esitetyt ulottuvuudet eivät sellaisenaan sovellu vuokra- asiakkaan asiakaskokemuksen hahmottamiseen. Tutkimuksen tulokset eivät siis tue kirjallisuudessa usein esitettyä olettamusta, että nämä ulottuvuudet ovat sovellettavissa yleismaailmallisesti. Teoreettisessa mallissa esitetyistä muuttujista yhdeksän toimi aineistossa sellaisenaan, minkä lisäksi tutkimuksessa löydettiin kuusi täysin uutta ulottuvuutta ja useita ulottuvuuksia yhdisteltiin viideksi yhdistelmäulottuvuudeksi. Empiirisen osan tuloksena muodostettiin validoitu malli niistä ulottuvuuksista, jonka avulla vuokralaisasiakas arvioi asiakaskokemustaan.
Empiirisessä osassa otetaan kantaa myös siihen, miten asiakkaan kokemusta toimitilaympäristössä on parasta tutkia. Yhtäältä kävi ilmi, että esimerkiksi fyysisen työympäristön arvioiminen yksilöhaastatteluilla tuottaa vähän tietoa, kun taas ryhmäpohjainen kiertohaastattelu tuottaa hedelmällisempää tutkimusaineistoa.
Toisaalta asiakassuhteeseen liittyy joitain luottamuksellisia asioita, joita ei välttämättä haluta tuoda esiin ryhmähaastatteluissa. Siksi ryhmähaastatteluita pitääkin täydentää yksilöhaastatteluilla, mikä mahdollistaa kokonaisvaltaisen tiedon siirtymisen. Tutkimuksen pohjalta ehdotetaan kahta uutta tutkimuslähestymistapaa – pitkäaikaistutkimusta sekä validoidun mallin testaamista eri toimijoiden näkökulmasta.
Asiasanat (avainsanat) ja luokat
käyttäjäkokemus, toimitilat, vuokrausliiketoiminta, vuokralainen-vuokranantaja asiakassuhde Paikka
Tampere
Vuosi 2010
Sivumäärä 188
Julkaisun kieli englanti
Tiivistelmän kieli
suomi, englanti ISBN (painettu) 978-952-15-2439-4 ISSN ja osan numero tai raporttitunnus (painettu) ISSN
1459-2045
ABSTRACT
Author(s) Rasila Heidi
Date of manuscript: 13.09.10 Name of the dissertation
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN A LANDLORD‐TENANT RELATIONSHIP
The business premises are ever more often seen as resources that, when utilized in a right way, support the functions and aims of both the organizations and the employees. In the business of renting premises this has increased the need of understanding the customers (tenant) and their strategic organizational needs better than before. Even if the landlords acknowledge this need, they often lack the tools to gain this understanding.
The aim of this dissertation is to help the landlord in understanding their tenants better. This is done by studying how the premises are experienced by the tenants in a landlord-tenant relationship. The theoretical part of this dissertation builds a model of customer experience by extending the customer perceived quality theories. The theoretical part suggests that the customer experience may be understood through three viewpoints. These are the viewpoints of product, service and customer relationship.
In the empirical part three sets of customer experience dimensions (10 service, 15 product and 11 customer relationship related dimension) suggested by the theoretical model are tested in a landlord-tenant relationship.
The focus is on how the tenant experiences the premises. This experience is looked from the viewpoints of both the organization and individual end-users (the employees).
The empirical part was carried out in 11 case sites. Common for all these was that they were multi-user buildings that were leased to be used as primary workplaces. From each site from one to five representatives from tenant organizations participated in the research process. The data was gathered by using both individual and group-based interview methods. The group-based interviews were carried out as audits during which the interviewees and the interviewer walked around in the case premises. The material was then analyzed using a qualitative content analysis.
The empirical part suggests that the dimensions used in the theoretical model do not fit as such in the context of a landlord-tenant relationship. Thus, the assumption of many authors that these dimensions are generic was not supported. From the dimensions of the theoretical model nine worked well in the case sites of this research. Six totally new dimensions were found and several dimensions were combined to be part of five existing dimensions. From the findings of the empirical part a validated model on customer experience dimensions in a landlord-tenant relationship was created.
Furthermore, a tenant-landlord relationship is quite complex and it appeared that the best way to study the customer experience is by combining different methods of investigation. The easiest way to study the physical side of workplace is by using group-based walkthrough methods. Individual interviews do not work as a research method in this respect as the information gained through interviews is limited. On the other hand, as there are some confidential issues related to the business relationship, the relationship element of the customer experience may not be assessed using group-based methods. Combining the group-based walkthrough method with individual interviews seems to offer the best combination to gain holistic information about the customer experience in a tenant-landlord relationship. The conclusions suggest two new methodological approaches. The first is a longitudinal study and the second is testing the validated model from the viewpoints of different actors.
Keywords:
workplace, user experience, landlord-tenant relationship, rental business Place
Tampere
Year 2010
Pages 188
Language English
Language of abstract Finnish, English ISBN (printed) 978-952-15-2439-4
ISBN (electronic)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
”Rohkea rokan syö” sanoi isäni minulle kun käveli kanssani tanskalaiseen ensikouluun ensimmäistä päivää. Tuolla neuvolla selvittiin se päivä ja on selvitty monesta muustakin pelottavasta tilanteesta – kiitos siis siitä. Kolmetoista vuotta myöhemmin muutin Tampereelle aloittamaan akateemista uraani. Niistä vuosista ja monista hyvistä muistoista haluan kiittää erityisesti Heidiä, Maariaa, Susaa, Annea, Miiaa, Maritaa, Hannelea ja Saria. Piditte hyvän huolen siitä että akateeminen vakavuus lipsahti sopivassa määrin myös huolettoman opiskelijaelämän puolelle.
Opinnoissa vierähti viisi vuotta, seuraavat viisi olin tutkijana VTT:llä Hervannassa. Hyviä vuosia kaikki viisi – siitä kiitos koko porukalle! Erityiset kiitokset Katille, joka aloitti työnsä samaan aikaan kanssani ja Tertulle, jolta sain tukea niin hyvinä kuin huonoina päivinä. Antti ja Pekka, kiitos että johdatitte minut uusille urille ja sysäsitte samalla jatko‐opintoni liikkeelle. Tämä liike ei ole ollut pelkästään tasaista eteenpäin menoa, vaan joukkoon mahtuu niin hyviä kuin huonojakin päiviä.
Näistä on selvitty kunnialla, erityisesti kahden ihmisen ansiosta.
Kotirintamalla olet Tommi ollut aivan korvaamaton tuki ja turva, mutta myös työn saralla olen saanut paljon katsoessani vierestä viisauttasi, innostustasi ja ahkeruuttasi. Samat sanat kuvaavat hyvin toista esikuvaani, jota ilman näitä kiitoksia ei olisi. Apusi väitöskirjan teossa on ollut monella tavalla täysin korvaamaton, enkä koskaan pysty maksamaan takaisin uhraamaasi aikaa tai näkemääsi vaivaa. Ei ole tarpeeksi hienoja sanoja tai tarpeeksi kalliita lahjoja osoittamaan arvostustani, joten tyydyn vain sanomaan: kiitos Suvi.
Haluan kiittää kaikkia nykyisiä ja entisiä työtovereitani TKK:lla, jossa jälleen on vierähtänyt se maaginen viisi vuotta. On mukava tehdä töitä kun ympärillä on hienoja ihmisiä. Kaikki viisi vuotta aiemmassa CEMissä ja nykyisessä BESsissä kanssani ovat työskennelleet Suvin lisäksi ainakin Jukka, Juhis, Markku ja Sami. Erityiset terveiset haluaisin lähettää myös Peggielle, Johannalle ja Kaisalle sekä muille nykyisille ja tuleville Tyttötohtoreille.
Virallisemmat kiitokset haluan antaa väitöskirjani ohjaajalle Teuvo Toloselle, ja työni esitarkastajille Eila Järvenpäälle sekä Keith Alexanderille. Kiitokset myös vastaväittäjälleni Göran Lindahlille. Teidän kommenttinne ovat mahdollistaneet sen, että voin tätä kirjaa pitää ylpeänä kädessäni.
Lopuksi haluan lähettää erityiskiitokset koko poikapoppoolle siitä, että täytätte minut positiivisella energialla. Se energia tekee minusta ikuisen optimistin ja on saanut minut uskomaan itseeni. Kiitos Leevi, Valtteri, Eino ja Aleksanteri! Valtterille erityiskiitos siitä, että autoit laittamaan viimeiset pisteet ja pilkut paikalleen – toivottavasti saan joskus lunastaa lupaukseni ja tehdä saman sinulle.
Näitä kiitoksia kirjoittaessani on pahnan pohjimmainen mummon hoivissa. Kiitos äiti siitä, että annat minulle mahdollisuuden kirjoittaa tämän ja kiitos siitä, että olet meidän kaikkien tukena.
Tampereella 22.08.2010
Heidi Rasila
LIST OF PAPERS
Rasila H. (2009) From B-to-B Service Quality to Customer Experience. Journal of Service Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.35-45.
Rasila H. & Gersberg N. (2007) Service Quality in Outsources Facilities Maintenance Services. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 9, Iss. 1, pp.39-49.
Rasila H. (2010) Customer Relationship Quality in Landlord-Tenant Relationship. Property Management 28(2), pp. 80-92.
Rasila H., Rothe P. & Kerosuo H. (2010) Dimensions of Usability Assessment in Built Environments. Journal of Facilities Management, Vol. 8, Iss. 2, 143-153.
Rasila H., Rothe P. & Nenonen S. (2009) Workplace Experience – A Journey Through a Business Park. Facilities Vol. 27, Iss. 13/14, pp. 486-496.
CONTRIBUTION OF THE AUTHOR TO PAPERS
Rasila H. (2009) From B-to-B Service Quality to Customer Experience. Journal of Service Science, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 35-45. The author is fully responsible for writing this article.
Rasila H. & Gersberg N. (2007) Service Quality in Outsources Facilities Maintenance Services. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, Vol. 9, Iss. 1, pp.39-49. The authors is fully responsible for the empirical part. The theoretical part is co-authored with Gersberg N.
Rasila H. (2010) Customer Relationship Quality in Landlord-Tenant Relationship. Property Management 28(2), pp. 80-92. The author is fully responsible for writing this article.
Rasila H, Rothe P. & Kerosuo H. (2010) Dimensions of Usability Assessment in Built Environmnets. Journal of Facilities Management, Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp. 143-153. The author is fully responsible for the empirical part of the study. The theoretical part is co-authored with Rothe and Kerosuo.
Rasila H., Rothe P. & Nenonen S. (2009) Workplace Experience – A Journey Through a Business Park. Facilities Vol. 27, Iss. 13/14., pp. 486-496. The author is mainly
responsible for the article. Rothe and Nenonen were involved in data-gathering and commenting the text.
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
The terms used in this dissertation are presented below. Further discussion about certain terms may be found in the later chapters. In such cases, the page number of the more detailed discussion is mentioned.
Customer. In this dissertation, the customer is the individual/organization who receives the goods or services. In organizational level, the terms tenant organization, tenant and user organization (defined below) are used interchangeably to refer to the organizational customer in a landlord-tenant relationship. In the context of this thesis, individual customers can be divided into two levels – end-users and decision-makers (defined below). The customer does not necessarily have any contractual relationship with the other party in the business relationship but the offering is directed to fulfil the needs of the customer (individual or organizational).
Customer experience. Customer experience is the service encounter and/or service process and/or the customer relationship that creates the customer’s cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses which result in a mental mark, a memory (Edvarsson 2005;
modified; see more on pages 29-31).
Decision maker. In the context of this dissertation, decision-makers are intra-organizational individuals who make the real estate related decisions (e.g. decision making unit (Kotler &
Armstrong 2001).
End-user. In this dissertation, the end-user is a sub-group of customer. The end-users are the individuals that use the workplace environment to carry out their work activities (for more information, see pp. 20-21).
Facility maintenance services. Services that are meant for maintaining facilities. These include service such as cleaning and maintenance works (see Riihimäki & Siekkinen 2003).
Facilities management. Integration of processes within an organization to maintain and develop the agreed services which support and improve the effectiveness of its primary activities (FMpedia 2010).
Post occupancy evaluation. Group of methodologies for evaluating premises during their use (for more information, see for example Barrett 1995).
Quality. A user-centric definition is that quality is what the customer wants it to be.
Satisfaction. Satisfaction is the judgement that a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or are providing) a pleasurable level of consumption related fulfilment, including levels of under- or overfullfilment. (Oliver 1997; according to Rossomme 2003).
Service provider. In this context, the organization that provides facilities related services.
The user organization may also provide some services itself and thus carry out the functions of external service provider.
Tenant organization; tenant An organization that commits contractually to occupy leased space, according to the terms of a lease contract (FMpedia 2010). In the context of this study, tenant organization or tenant equals to terms of user organization and organizational customer.
Landlord or owner or building owner. The owner of property that is leased or rented to others (FMpedia 2010).
Servicescape. In the context of this dissertation, servicescape consists of all the services related to a certain building or building complex (for a more detailed discussion, see pp.
21-22).
Usability. The effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction with which a specified set of users can achieve a specified set of tasks in a particular environment (ISO 9241, 1998).
User organization. In the context of this thesis, user organization equals to tenant organization and organizational customer, defined above.
Workplace. This means the place where work is carried out. In the context of this thesis, the workplace means company premises that are rented so that the company’s employees can carry out their work in the premises in question. This can also be called the primary workplace (see page 21).
Workplace environment. Workplace environment is an entity consisting of the physical space for work, the related servicescape and the network of actors and their activities in the premises (e.g. FMPedia 2010; pages 21-22 of this dissertation).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ... 12
1.1 BACKGROUND ... 12
1.2 SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES ... 15
1.3 THE SUPPLY AND DEMAND STRUCTURE IN A LANDLORD-TENANT RELATIONSHIP ... 15
1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY ... 19
1.5 RESEARCH APPROACH ... 23
1.6 RESEARCH STRATEGY ... 25
1.7 RESEARCH PROCESS ... 29
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 31
2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS ... 32
2.2 LITERATURE REVIEW ABOUT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ... 33
2.3 MODEL OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ... 36
2.4 LITERATURE REVIEW ABOUT THE DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ... 39
2.5 DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ... 49
2.6 SUMMARY OF THE THEORETICAL PART ... 51
3 RESULTS ... 54
3.1 INTRODUCTION ... 54
3.2 CASE STUDY AND DATA SOURCES ... 55
3.3 DATA GATHERING METHODOLOGY ... 59
3.4 ANALYZING THE DATA ... 60
3.5 SERVICE DIMENSIONS... 62
3.6 PRODUCT DIMENSIONS ... 65
3.7 RELATIONSHIP DIMENSIONS ... 68
3.8 METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ... 70
3.9 SUMMARY OF THE RESULTS ... 73
4 CONCLUSIONS ... 75
4.1 SUMMARY OF THE DISSERTATION ... 75
4.2 EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS ... 78
4.3 RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY ... 81
4.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ... 85
REFERENCES ... 87
1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background
Traditionally, different product and service offerings were seen either as services or products. In recent years, it has been better understood that different offerings consist of both physical and service elements and the focus has been shifting from the traditional product orientation towards a modern customer oriented service business. (cf.
Parasuraman 1998.)
For any service-oriented company, the business is based on understanding what utilities customer seeks when choosing between different offerings. The classic example is the train business. Years ago, the business was defined as transporting trains from a to b.
Later, it has been understood that the business is more about getting passengers and freight to desired places and that the train itself is just one means to get this done. (See Curry & Curry 2000.)
The same applies to renting business premises. The importance of the service element of real estate offering has been noted in recent years (Rasila & Nenonen 2007). Today, for many tenant companies and individual end-users, an excellent physical product – in this instance the physical space – is not enough. There are many needs that the facilities may fulfil for the tenants. From the building owner’s perspective, the question arises: in addition to a technically feasible space, what more do the tenants want?
At the same time, managers in the tenant organizations are seeing their premises more as a resource than a mere compulsory cost. They are – among other things - interested in creating working environments that support innovativeness, creativity and employee well being and through them the monetary success of the company (Rasila & al. 2009). Thus, the changing demands of tenants push the landlords to understand these new demands better.
The everyday concerns of landlords and managers in tenant organizations are not identical, as these actors see the same environment from different perspectives. In general business terms the viewpoint of the landlord is the one of a selling organization (supply side), whereas the tenant looks at things from the viewpoint of a buying organization (demand side). The research from the tenant (buying) organization perspective is rich (cf.
McNeill 2007; Becker & Steele 1995) whereas there is less research about the customer
needs from the real estate owner (landlord; selling organization) perspective (see for example Rasila & Nenonen 2007). This research contributes to filling this gap.
From a business research perspective one way to add understanding of customer needs from the facility owner perspective is to study what real estate related product and service elements the tenants appreciate. Furthermore, the landlord can assess the quality of the offering by assessing how the customer perceives the quality of these product and service elements. However, the recent business literature has shifted the focus from the product and service elements towards the experimental elements of consumption processes (see, for example, Mascarenhas & al. 2006; LaSalle & Britton 2003; Pine & Gilmore 1999).
Customer experiences have received a great deal of interest in the business research literature in the last decade and it has been suggested that we are entering a so called experience era (see, for example, Mascarenhas & al. 2006; LaSalle & Britton 2003; Pine &
Gilmore 1999). This dissertation attempts to widen the customer perceived quality approach so that the entire customer experience will be covered. This is in line with Edvardsson (2005) who has suggested that customer experience may be linked to customer perceived quality, but adds affective and behavioural elements to cognitive quality assessments.
This dissertation will utilise an existing theoretical paradigm – the relationship marketing paradigm – to study customer experiences in a landlord-tenant relationship. One central theme in relationship marketing literature has been customer perceived quality and this approach to quality is also taken as the starting point in this study. To suit the branch specific needs and to go beyond services and products in the direction of customer experiences, the theoretical tradition will be modified. This means that in addition to cognitive quality assessments, the behavioural and emotional aspects of the customer experience are included.
The theoretical background of this research is in general business theory. In addition to business research, the topic of this dissertation is close to facilities management research.
A literature review on the facilities management research reveals that there exist no coherent and holistic theories on customer experience. This is not a big problem as the aim of the research is more business related even if the object of the study is a matter that also interests facilities management. For these reasons the main theoretical background is in business literature.
Even though it was suggested that research on the customer experience in the fields of facilities management is limited, there is one stream of research that is closely related to one aspect of the customer experience – this is the discussion about the usability of built environments (see for example Alexander 2006; Alexader & al. 2005; Jensø & al. 2004;
2005; Hansen & al. 2005) This approach is not holistic enough to cover the entire customer experience, but the approach will be utilized in this dissertation to understand the customer experience of the real estate product.
The aim is to contribute both to the theories of relationship marketing and facilities management and to the practical side of the latter. The theoretical and empirical literature in the fields of relationship marketing and customer perceived quality is vast. This dissertation aims at adding understanding to this body of knowledge by uniting different aspects of customer perceived quality into one model that could add understanding of total quality perception but especially of the customer experience.
Bringing relationship marketing themes into the theoretical discussion in the facilities management field has some cross-disciplinary advantages. First, this makes it possible to test generic relationship marketing theory in a branch where it has not been applied much (there are some applications by McLennan 2004; Cambell & Finch 2004; Bandy 2002;
Shaw & Haynes 2004). Second, a cross-disciplinary approach may strengthen the theoretical base of facilities management and discover new viewpoints to the problems of facilities management – both in theory and practise.
For facilities management theoreticians and practitioners, this dissertation offers understanding of how the customer experience – as one entity – is formed and provides a tool to assess this multi-dimensional and complex construct. For those practitioners that may still see the premises as mere physical entities, this dissertation offers a way to widen their understanding and to become more customer focused. Understanding the customer experience helps in designing new workplace environments and in improving the existing ones, not just in designing the technical entity, but also supporting the other less tangible elements of the working environment.
1.2 Scope and objectives
The aim of this dissertation is to describe the dimensional nature of the customer experience in a landlord-tenant relationship. This understanding allows the landlords of the rented environments to answer the question raised in the introduction: In addition to a technically feasible space, what more do the tenants want? In order to meet the aim, five research questions were defined. These are:
1) What kind of theoretical framework could be used to describe the customer experience in a landlord-tenant relationship?
2) According to the theory, what are the main elements of the customer experience?
3) According to the theory, what dimensions do customers use when they assess these elements?
4) How is it possible to study the customer experience empirically in the context of a landlord-tenant relationship?
5) How do the theoretical dimensions outlined meet the empirical evidence?
The next section outlines the supply and demand structure of landlord-tenant relationships.
This is done in order to outline the boundaries of this research. At the same time the section provides some central limitations of this thesis.
1.3 The supply and demand structure in a landlord-tenant relationship
In general business terms the landlord-tenant relationship is a business relationship between a selling organization (landlord) and a buying organization (tenant). Thus it is a business-to-business affair that has some important differences with traditional business- to-consumer markets. One difference is that it is not always easy to say who or what the customer is and who in the buying organization gains the benefits from the business deal.
In many business relationships the formal customer is the organization buying services/products. In real life organizations do nothing, humans do. Thus, it is possible to identify the individual(s) in the organization who are responsible for the business deal (c.f.
the decision making unit; Kotler & Armstrong 2001). On the other hand these persons are not necessarily the ones that consume the products or services that are purchased. Those consuming the offering may be called “users” in the terminology of Kotler and Armstrong (2001).
In the context of business premises the matter is most simple if the tenant (customer) organization is small in size and occupies only one site. There are a limited number of
decision-makers who influence the real estate related decisions and every employee uses the premises in one way or another. Thus, it is easy to define who are the users and the decision-makers.
The matter becomes more complicated when the company in question has more than one site. In this case the individual sites may be independent actors making their own real estate related decisions. In many cases the picture is more complicated – the actors outside the site influence the real estate related decisions. A big company, for example, may have a corporate real estate department, which is an important influencer and decision maker in matters related to the facilities.
On the other hand in big organizations it is also difficult to define who the users are. In built environments heading “user” may include many different groups of people. Many workplace environments are occupied – among others – by the employees, the facilities management related service provider personnel and the customers. The employees from other sites of a certain company may also utilize the premises. Thus, even if they are formally employed in another site, they may also be considered as users of the premises.
From facilities management perspective, it is possible to make a division to client, customer, and the end-user (CEN/TC 348). In the terminology of this research, the end- user is the individual using the premises. In the terminology of business-to-business markets the “user” (see above; Kotler & Armstrong 2001) equals to “end-user” of this research. Customer is the organizational unit occupying the premises under study and the client then is the possible corporate level actor.
The case organizations for this research have been selected so that they represent the customer level. All case organizations make their real estate related decisions themselves and thus the client level is limited out of this study. On the other hand the empirical part of this study is limited to those end-users that use the premises as their primary workplace (see below in this section). Thus, in order to carry out the empirical part, it is necessary to define the decision-makers in the case organizations and the end-users. This issue is dealt with in more detail in the empirical part of this dissertation.
The other partner in this customer relationship is the landlord that leases the premises to be used by the tenant. On some instances the landlord may outsource the taking care of the tenants to an external company. These kinds of arrangements are excluded from this research. The landlord-tenant relationships that are studied in this research are all managed by the landlords themselves. Additionally, this research focuses on the
institutional owners of business premises. This means that the landlords are organizations that rent office premises in a professional manner.
As suggested above, in a landlord-tenant relationship the customer is the tenant and the landlord is the supplier. The offering, then, is the physical premises or from the customer perspective the workplace environment that is supplied by the landlord to the tenant. The core of the environment is the physical surroundings that have been rented to the tenant organization so that the employees of the tenant organization (the end-users) may carry out their work in the premises.
All work in not necessarily carried out in these premises, as work is conducted in many spaces and the workplace is just one place for work. During a day it is possible – for example – to work at home, on a train or bus, in a coffee shop, in a flight terminal, in customer’s premises or many other places (Vartiainen 2006). Most companies still have their own premises in which the employees work at least occasionally. This dissertation is limited to such company premises and they may be called the primary premises.
These environments are never mere physical constructs as the service element is always, at least to some degree, present. At the minimum, the building must be maintained.
Without these activities, the building may not function in a long run. This service element brings a third actor group into the business relationship. In addition to landlord and tenant there are typically different service providers active in the workplace environment. These services and the services they provide influence to a great extent the customer experience, even if the contractual relationship was not between the service provider and the tenant.
Figure 1: Actors in landlord-tenant relationship
The service element of the workplace may be divided into four parts: services related to owning the building, facilities maintenance services, end-user services and repairing and renovating services (Riihimäki & Siekkinen 2003). The business relations related to these services may take place between all the actor groups named above – the tenant organizations, the owner, and the service provider(s) (the grey arrow in Figure 1).Thus the servicescape in the workplace environment may be really complex and there is a lot of interesting research on this aspect of workplaces (cf.Tuomela 2006; Lehtonen 2008;
Lehtonen & Puhto 2004).
As a summary, it can be concluded that the workplace environment, in the context of this study, consist of
• the physical space that the tenant has rented so that its employees may work in the premises and the equipment to carry out the work (cf. the definition of work environment by FMPedia 2010).
• the servicescape including the services provided to maintain the environment and to support the activities of tenant companies and end-users.
• the network of actors and their activities in the premises.
1.4 Structure of the Study
This dissertation consists of five articles and this summary. The introductory chapter of this summary continues with a section about the research approach. The research approach outlines the ontological, epistemological, teleological and logical foundations (Hirsijärvi &
al. 1998) of this dissertation. After this the research strategy is outlined. The research strategy tells how the research questions are answered. Thereafter, there is a section about the research process of this study.
Chapter two describes the theoretical framework of this study. A model of customer experience is outlined. This model stems from the relationship quality paradigm and modifies it to suit the customer experience context. This model includes the theoretical dimensions that are later utilised in the empirical part. Even though this dissertation is mainly interested in the dimensionality of the customer experience, the model is also described, as the constructs of customer perceived quality and customer satisfaction and their relationships need to be understood before it is possible to understand the dimensional elements of the customer experience.
The empirical part of this dissertation introduces the case study findings by utilizing the model and dimensions created in the theoretical part. In the beginning of the chapter the case study setting and cases are introduced. Further, the methodologies of gathering and analysing the data are presented. After that there are the case study findings before going into the concluding chapter. The conclusions summarize the findings, make critical considerations of the findings and finally propose some directions for further research.
The structure of this research report is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The structure of the study
The articles are included as attachments 1,2,3,4 and 5. The theoretical model is introduced in article 1:
Article 1: Rasila H. (2009) From B-to-B Service Quality to Customer Experience.
This article was published in the Journal of Service Sciences (Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.
35-45). This is later referred to as article 1.
This article introduces a theoretical model for customer perceived service quality and satisfaction in long term business-to-business relationships. Seeing service quality and customer satisfaction just as a result of one individual service process offers too narrow understanding. The model suggested in thias article adds service outcome quality and relationship quality aspects to traditional quality models. This allows us to understand the total customer experience instead of just concentrating on individual aspects of the constructs.
The empirical findings from the cases are then presented in three individual sections. Each section has a corresponding article. These are articles 2-4:
Article 2: Rasila H. & Gersberg N. (2007) Service Quality in Outsources Facilities Maintenance Services. This article was published in the Journal of Corporate Real Estate (Vol. 9, Iss. 1, pp.39-49). This is later referred to as article 2.
The purpose of this article is to assess service quality of outsourced facility maintenance services (FMS) from end-user perspective. For this purpose, a two-dimensional model for service quality in a FMS context is presented. This paper is based on interviews in case study organizations. The findings suggest that FMS quality may be divided into two industry-specific dimensions – service recovery (response to a service failure) and observed maintenance quality (technical outcome). It seems that the main quality problems are linked to service recovery quality. These problems are caused by personalities of service personnel and lack of communication between end-users and the service provider.
Article 3: Rasila H. (2010) Customer Relationship in Tenant-Landlord Relationship. This paper was published in Property Management (28(2), pp.80- 92). This is later referred to as article 3.
In long-term business relationships the customer experience is affected by how the customer perceives the quality of the customer relationship. The purpose of this article is to understand the customer relationship quality construct in landlord-tenant relationships in a business-to-business environment. The theoretical framework is adapted from relationship marketing literature and this framework is then applied in case study settings to five customer companies in a tenant-landlord relationship. The article introduces a framework of 13 relationship quality attributes and applies these to the case companies. The results suggest that some of the suggested relationship quality attributes have an importance in a tenant-landlord relationship while some suggested attributes have less value.
Article 4: Rasila H.; Rothe P. & Kerosuo H. (2010) Usability Dimensions as Quality Attributes in Working Environments. This paper was published in Journal of Facilities Management (Vol. 8, Iss. 2, pp. 143-153). This is later referred to as article 4.
This article studies the usability dimensions that end-users utilize when they assess the usability of built environments. The study is carried out by utilizing directed content analysis. A directed content analysis starts by creating (theoretical) pre-understanding of possible categories and then goes on to test this pre-understanding with empirical evidence. The findings suggest that the users use 12 different dimensions when they assess the usability of built environments.
Methodological considerations are introduced in article 5:
Article 5: Rasila H., Rothe P. & Nenonen S. (2009) Workplace Experience – A Journey through a Business Park. This was published in Facilities (Vol. 27, Iss.
13/14., pp. 486-496; this is later referred to as article 5)
This article presents a methodology for assessing end-user experiences of workplace environments and proposes an
“experience sheet” as a way to illustrate the findings. In the theoretical part, the article combines understanding from post occupancy evaluations in the facilities management field with service process audits in the hospitability sector. This methodology is then tested in a case environment. The findings suggest that the methodology and the experience sheet provide a usable and interesting way of assessing user experience in the workplace environment.
A summarizing overview of the articles is presented in Table 1. The table introduces the methods applied in each paper, the units of investigation, case study materials and the nature of the results.
Table 1: Summary of the articles.
Article 1 2 3 4 5
Method Literature
review
Interviews Interviews Usability walkthrough
Usability walkthrough Unit of investigation Elements of
user experience
Product element of workplace offering
Service element of workplace offering
Relationship element of workplace offering
Methodological concern Case study (section
1.6)
- Case
studies 1-5
Case studies 1-5
Case studies 6-11
Case studies 6- 11
Nature of results Framework Empiric Empiric Empiric Methodological
The structure of this study and the links between the summarizing part and the articles are presented in figure 2 above. The introduction and conclusions are independent of the articles, whereas the content of chapters 2. Theoretical framework and 3. Findings may also be found from the articles.
1.5 Research approach
This section outlines the philosophical basic assumptions of this study from four different viewpoints as suggested by Hirsijärvi, Remes and Sajavaara (1998). These viewpoints and the questions they arouse are presented in Table 2. This section provides answers to these questions from the point of view of this dissertation.
Table 2: The philosophical basic assumptions of scientific research (Hirsijärvi & al. 1998)
THE PHILOSOPHICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY The area of philosophy and their relation to
research
Questions Ontology: asks questions about the nature of
reality.
What is the nature of the phenomena under study?
What’s real? What constitutes eligible evidence?
Epistemology: is interested in the origins of knowledge and its nature, as well as how knowledge is formed.
What is the relationship between the researcher and his object of study? What is the meaning of values in research?
Logic: is interested in the principles of proofs. Are there possible causal connections between different parts of knowledge?
Teleology: asks questions about meanings. Why is the research being conducted? How does it add understanding of the field of research?
In ontology, there are basically two main ways of understanding the reality around us. The realist would say that reality exists independent of us human beings. The subjectivist would, instead, argue that reality is dependent on our perceptions of it and thus has no
independent existence. This same basic disagreement exists also in the philosophy of science. The realist in this context is a positivist and the subjectivist is a post-positivist, constructivist or naturalist (see, for example, Guba 1993).
Since the time of Auguste Comte (1798-1857), positivism has been the most prominent philosophy of science. For a positivist, there is a single reality that may be ascertained through our five senses and, as Erlandson and his co-authors (1993) put it, “their extensions” such as microscopes or sonograms. The aim of a researcher is to discover this single and true reality (Guba 1990). If we have an observation that is not in line with our knowledge of reality, then there is either something wrong with the observation or our existing understanding of reality is incorrect and needs to be corrected. (see, for example:
Erlandson & al. 1993; Papineau 1978; Dundon & Jainer 1999.)
A step away from positivism is to claim that there is a single reality, but that reality can never be fully apprehended. This view includes the idea that objectivity is a goal that may never be fully achieved. To be objective, it is necessary to be as neutral as possible, to come clean about predispositions, to rely on the critical tradition and to subject every inquiry to the criticism from the critical community. (Guba 1990.) Methodologically, this means critical multiplism (Cook 1985) through elaborated triangulation (Denzin 1975).
Guba (1990) names this approach as post-positivist and this is the ideology behind many recent studies in the facility services research area (see, for example, Lehtonen 2006;
Ventovuori 2007).
Yet another step away from positivism is to state that there exists no single reality, but many realities that are in essence mental constructs that change with time and person (see, for example, Berger & Luckman 1971). This approach may be named as constructivism. The research process is hermeneutic and dialectic and there is intensive interaction between the researcher and the object of the research. Some researchers go as far as to state that as values are always part of the research process, they should be incorporated into the research. Such approaches include, for example, feminist or neo- Marxian research approaches. (Guba 1990.)
Generalizing, it could be argued that the positivist approach is more easily adaptable to natural sciences and the post-positivist, constructive and critical approaches to human sciences (Overman 1988). For the purposes of this study, the constructivist approach has merit in understanding individual experiences as socially constructed realities that exist in the heads of individual people in a certain environment and at a certain point of time. This
has, of course, implications for the generalizability of the empirical research findings. This issue of generalizability is dealt with in more detail later in this chapter.
Still, the prevailing ideology behind this study is more post-positivist (in the sense of Cuba 1990). Even though individuals in a way construct their own realities, it is still believed that the individuals live in one reality that is, at least to some degree, independent of the individuals living in it. As already mentioned, post-positivism assumes that a) the researcher may not be totally objective and b) it is impossible to know exactly if the truth has been unveiled (Cuba 1990). The following steps have been taken in this research process to avoid these problems:
1) Neutrality – part of the research process was financed by external organizations.
The research findings or the research setting were not affected by these organizations in any way.
2) Predispositions –the research process is presented in section 1.4
3) Critical tradition – being true to the existing scholarly tradition (Cuba 1990). The theoretical part of this study is based on a vast and solid literature review of the scholarly tradition in the fields of relationship marketing and facilities management.
4) Critical community – peer criticism (Cuba 1990). This dissertation consists of 5 articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals.
5) Critical multiplism / triangulation – this theme is dealt with in more detail below in chapters 1.6 and 1.7.
1.6 Research strategy
A research strategy tells how to get an answer to a research question (Robson 1993). The aim of this research and the detailed questions of this research were introduced above.
These were:
1) What kind of theoretical framework could be used to describe the customer experience in a landlord-tenant relationship?
2) According to the theory, what are the main elements of the customer experience?
3) According to the theory, what dimensions do customers use when they assess these elements?
4) How is it possible to study the customer experience empirically in the context of a landlord-tenant relationship?
5) How do the theoretical dimensions outlined meet the empirical evidence?
These research questions are studied in descriptive terms. This means that the aim is to describe the phenomenon in question as it is, without trying to find correlations between
different variables. A descriptive research requires extensive previous knowledge of the phenomenon in question. (Robson 1993.) In order to gain the necessary knowledge, a thorough literature review was carried out prior to designing and implementing the empirical part of this study.
It is typical for a descriptive research approach that the study is non-experimental. This means that it is conducted in natural environments, not in artificial environments such as laboratories or other strictly controlled situations (Denscombe 1998). This is quite a typical situation in the human sciences, as it is difficult and sometimes unethical to study human behaviour in laboratory or otherwise controlled settings. (Robson 1993.) The non- experimental nature of descriptive research has some implications for the methodological choices of this study.
To get descriptive information about the research question, the conclusions are made inductively. Inductive reasoning begins with specific observations and measures from which patterns and regularities are detected. From these patterns it is finally possible to try to draw some general conclusions and/or theories. (Patton 2002.) This directs the methodological choices to some degree, as quantitative research is more often associated with a deductive approach, while qualitative research is more often inductive in nature. It is still important to remember that this is not an unbreakable “law” - quantitative research may also be based on induction and qualitative research on deduction (David & Sutton 2004).
The intention is to find an answer to the research question through qualitative research methods. Qualitative research is an umbrella term that covers a variety of styles of social research (Denscombe 1998). Hirsijärvi and her co-authors (1993) introduce seven features that are typical for qualitative research:
1) The data is gathered in natural and real situations. This was also typical for the descriptive research (Denscombe 1998).
2) Humans are used as instruments of data collection. The data of this study is also collected by individuals and from individuals.
3) Inductive reasoning. This logic is applied in this research.
4) Gathering the data with methods such as observations, group interviews and thematic interviews. This study uses both thematic interviews and group interviews.
5) The target group is selected for the purpose, not by using a random sample. The target group in this study is selected so that the limitations are kept in mind. On the other hand there were also other case specific factors that affected the case selection. These factors are explained in the articles.
6) The research plan goes through iteration during the research process. In this study this means, among other things, that the research questions were reformulated after the literature review. This iterative nature of the research becomes clear in the section about the research process (see 1.7).
7) The cases are seen as unique and the data is interpreted accordingly. This study uses cases that are unique and individual, and the case-specific features affect the findings.
The main reason for choosing qualitative methodology is that qualitative research methods offer more depth and detail than quantitative methods (Patton 2002). As research on the topic so far is scarce, there is a need to understand the phenomenon in a detailed and wide manner. Still, there are some problems associated with qualitative research. For example, Suonperä (2002) lists five problems; 1) it is possible to study only a limited number of cases; 2) generalizability is an issue; 3) it is difficult to collect and compare data; 4) the researcher influences the research process and the findings and; 5) the research process may affect the object of the study.
The first problem of qualitative research that Suonperä (2002) mentioned was that it is (1) possible to study only a limited number of cases. In quantitative research, it is possible to study thousands or tens of thousands or even more cases. In qualitative research, the number of cases varies from 1 to dozens, but qualitative studies with 100 or more cases are rare. In previous decades, at least in the Finnish context, it was typical to have 30-50 cases in qualitative studies, but the “invention” of saturation by grounded theorists decreased the number of cases. (Koskinen & al. 2005.) This study follows this trend as there are 11 cases in this research.
The main reason to see the small number of cases as a problem is that this raises the (2) question of generalizability. In quantitative research, the lack of generalizability is a major concern. For many, research without generalizable results is no research at all. For example, Spencer and Dale (1979; see also Cummings & al. 1985) argue that research based on a small number of cases does not allow for generalizations, and thus makes only minimal contributions to the body of scientific knowledge. On the other hand, it could be argued that this logic is based on a realist view of reality – stating that there is an objective truth behind everything.
The ontological and epistemological basic assumptions of this study make the issue of generalizability more complex. If reality is socially constructed, and changing with space and time, the possibility of vast generalizations may be questioned (Cuba 1990). The aim of this study is to build theory and test it qualitatively in case study settings. The empirical findings are interpretative in nature. This means that the results are representative of the interpretations of those experiencing the phenomenon under study. (Corley 2002.) It is not the goal to make any vast generalizations from the empirical data but to describe the customer experiences, as they were perceived in our case companies and to test the theoretical construct.
The problem of comparison is also linked to the question of generalizability. Comparing the findings of qualitative data to findings of other studies is often hard to do, and even comparing cases of the same research may prove to be problematic. It has been suggested that replication could help in this respect – replicating the research gives generalizability and allows for easier comparisons. (Yin 1984; 1994; 2003.) The replication may be done with similar cases, but on the other hand, it has been claimed that using totally different cases in replication adds theoretical strength (Kennedy 1979; Koskinen &
al. 2005).
However, this is easier said than done as the situations, instances or even the population in a qualitative study may affect the results. (Dul & Hak 2008.) The traditional response to this is sampling, but even that is not flawless (Firestone 1985). Lincoln and Guba (1985) suggest that the researcher should give the necessary contextual information so that the reader may contextualise the findings and make comparisons with this crucial knowledge (see also Firestone 1985).
The next problem of qualitative study mentioned by Suonperä (2002) was that data (3) collection and comparison of data are difficult. The difficulties in qualitative data collection are well described by, for example, Koskinen and his co-authors (2005). According to
them, in some qualitative research an extra case may mean 3 months of work, whereas in a quantitative survey one more case may mean that one needs to add one new e-mail address to a mailing list. This is closely linked to the problem of the low number of cases in qualitative research and generalizability. To get enough cases to have statistically generisable results would require an immense amount of time and money.
The fourth (4) and fifth (5) problems mentioned by Suonperä (2002) were related to the fact that both the researcher and the research process influence the study and the object of the study. Koskinen and his co-authors (2005) speak of reactivity when the researcher and the research process influence the object of the study. According to them, reactivity may be reduced by getting good prior knowledge about the object, having thorough ethical discussions with the object of the study, being entirely honest to the object and by thinking of what kind of picture the researcher gives of himself as a researcher. A constructivist would say that the research builds up as an interaction between the researcher and his research object (Guba 1990). Guba’s solution to this problem, again, is to report the contextual information about the research and the researcher so that the reader may make his own conclusions about how the researcher has influenced the research and its findings.
1.7 Research process
This research was carried out as a theoretical literature review and the empirical part consisted of both individual and group interviews in 11 case sites. The group interviews were carried out as walkthrough audits. The details of the data gathering and analyzing methods and cases are presented in more detail in the beginning of chapters 2 (theory) and 3 (empirical findings). Before introducing the theoretical background the research process is introduced here.
The research process started in 2005 with a thorough literature review of both facilities management literature and relationship marketing literature. From this literature review, it was possible to construct the initial theoretical framework. The model was then used as the basis for the first six cases and the interviews carried out at the case sites. After carrying out these case studies and analysing the data in 2006, the theoretical framework was modified to some degree. At the same time, it became apparent that the interview method alone is not suitable for studying the end-user experience from the owner perspective.
Five additional case studies were carried out during 2007 and 2008. These are referred to as cases 7-11 later in the text. These case studies made it possible to get a holistic understanding of the customer experience and after them it was possible to draw the methodological conclusions. Some insights were added to the theoretical base, as it appeared that the theory as suggested in 2005 did not entirely fit the empirical data.
The articles presenting the findings were published in the time span from 2007 to 2010.
This summary was written during 2009 and some modifications were made in 2010 to finish this dissertation. This research process is depicted in Figure 3:
Figure 3: The research process
2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This chapter describes the theoretical framework for this thesis. First, a model of customer experience is introduced. This model is based on relationship marketing literature and on the theories concerning customer perceived quality and customer satisfaction. It is assumed, in line with Edvarsson (2005), that the customer experience may be understood by using the terminology of customer perceived quality and satisfaction. Second, this chapter introduces the theoretical dimensions for assessing the customer experience.
These dimensions are then utilized in the following empirical chapter.
The model proposed in this chapter is generic and it contributes to the theory of relationship marketing. This chapter also suggests three sets of dimension to be used in assessing customer experiences. Two sets of dimensions are – again – based on generic relationship marketing literature, as suitable theoretical discussion in facilities management literature does not exist. For the third set of dimensions, it was possible to find theoretical discussion both from relationship marketing literature and from facilities management literature. Thus in this instance both theoretical backgrounds are utilized.
This chapter answers research questions 1, 2 and 3, and the remaining questions 4 and 5 are the focus of the next chapter. The questions 1, 2 and 3 are:
1) What kind of theoretical framework could be used to describe the customer experience in a landlord-tenant relationship?
2) According to the theory, what are the main elements of the customer experience?
3) According to the theory, what dimensions do customers use when they assess these elements?
This chapter outlines the generic theoretical understanding needed to study the customer experience. After introducing the theoretical background of this research in this chapter, the next chapter uses this theory in empirical settings and tests the usability of the suggested dimensions in assessing the end-user experience in rental business premises.
The aim is to help the building owner (landlord) to understand their customers better.
2.1 Literature review and analysis
The research process started with a thorough literature review. First, the interest was on customer experience. This literature review about existing models of customer experience and relevant research findings was carried out in as cross-disciplinary manner as possible in order to find the most suitable way to look at the customer experience in a landlord- tenant relationship. Key words such as experience, customer experience and user experience were used in the search from electronic databases. The conclusion of this literature review was that relationship marketing paradigm and customer perceived quality approaches could add the understanding of the customer experience.
The main reason for choosing relationship marketing paradigm and customer perceived quality approaches was that it has the most solid theoretical background and the theories have been tested also empirically in many studies. After choosing the theoretical approach the empirical and theoretical literature review concentrated on the relationship marketing literature and on the customer perceived quality. The starting point was to find the early work on the issue, so that it is possible to comprehend the later contributions to the theme.
After creating a solid understanding of the early theories, the later theoretical and empirical work was sought as widely as possible.
In this phase of literature review the following keywords – among others - were used:
quality, customer perceived quality, satisfaction, customer perceived satisfaction, service quality, product quality, relationship quality, usability. The amount of literature found by using these keywords is vast. The references of this literature were used to verify that relevant literature was included in the material. Finally the point was reached where the references of new literature did not add any new significant contributions. At this point it was concluded that all significant material had been located for the literature review.
In the last phase of the literature review the facilities management related literature was searched for. The search was again carried out in electronic databases. As it does not exist much facilities management related literature that would be found by using the keywords mentioned above, the facilities management scientific journals were gone through one by one in order to find the relevant research findings.
The material for the literature review was searched from different databases available in Tampere University of Technology, the University of Tampere, and Helsinki University of Technology (Aalto University since January 2010).
