An Expert Review on Corporate Real Estate Strategies for Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Corporate Real Estate (CRE) is the fifth corporate resource after the capital, people, technology, and information. As per the views of the industry experts CRE is identified as the second most expensive cost after labor in many occurrences. The contribution of CRE for overall business activities cannot be restricted to one specific business function where inter-functional use is evident in the overall business setting. To this end, CRE is identified as a diversified resource. The academic discussion on CRE began with scholarly works of Zeckhauser and Silverman (1983) and later CRE developed as a strategic business discipline with the pioneering erudite work on strategic CRE of Nourse and Roulac (1993), De Jonge, (1996) and Lindholm and Levainen (2006). However, all these CRE strategies were tested and reviewed in the European context ignoring the diversity of Asian business practices, nature of the industry and the level of CRE holding. Thus, adopted CRE strategies are required for contemporary management applications in the Asian region. In this context, the aim of this study is to review expert opinion on CRE strategies for hotel industry in Sri Lanka. The expert opinion used to evaluate possible CRE strategies and its dimensions for Sri Lankan hotel industry. The expert panel includes senior and middle-level managers of hotels, senior academics specializing in the hotel industry, representatives of Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority and retired veterans of the hotel industry. The Analytic Hierarchical Model (AHP) was used as the main analytical tool to identify criteria weights of identified CRE strategies for hotel industry in Sri Lanka. The finding contributes CRE literature of hotel industry in Sri Lanka and makes empirical validation of CRE strategies for hotels in real world scenario.