Interaction in a building owner centred network – case study

Abstract

PurposeA case study at Senate Properties, a Finnish building owner organisation, for theory building was conducted to provide significant insights into strategic planning in partnership networks with a view to developing interaction in a triadic alliance. The purpose of this paper is to describe how a Finnish building owner organisation, Senate Properties, the focal firm of the studied network, manages multi‐level interaction in the alliance network of the case study.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the building owner's role is studied by using two network analysis studies. The emergent phase of a “triadic alliance” of service providers, building owners as contract managers, and the end‐users of services is analysed by using two separate qualitative network analysis studies.FindingsThe case study indicates that the networks of building users, owners, facilities management parties and service providers can improve their interaction and cooperation by multilevel interaction building, mutual orientation building in groups and formation of boundary‐spanning roles. We therefore present a model or a framework for interaction building in triadic networks that is derived from a knowledge base that can better explain the requirements of core businesses, key real estate and facilities services attributes and options evaluation to meet dynamic changes.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper suggests that organisations involved in facilities management that enter into an alliance have to communicate and proactively exchange information to strengthen the interaction and cooperation between network members. For success, each network member should share information and each must learn from the others.Originality/valueThe interaction approach of network analysis takes place in a new building owner centred environment. The paper argues on a general level that to understand the complicated roles within the workplace environment, it is necessary to study the interaction needs of different functions.