FM market research review: do we really have the “intelligence”?

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to give a broad review of existing facilities management (FM) market research. It aims to identify the differences and commonalities of the various market research reports, especially the different market definitions used and different methodologies to calculate the size of the market.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses the author's collection of UK FM market publications and years of research in this field.FindingsSurprisingly, none of the current reports use a robust market research methodology and thus this casts doubt on the estimated size of the market and other findings.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper only reviews the reports that the author has collected. Therefore, these may not be the latest versions of the publications.Practical implicationsThe paper calls for all FM market research agencies to collaborate, to work out a robust market research methodology that can stand up to scrutiny. It also proposes to conduct FM market research from the demand side of the market – to use completely different market segmentations.Originality/valueThis paper tries to warn general FM professionals on quoting market size – all estimates should be treated with discretion.