Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 poäng / 30 hp
Problem definition: Digital innovation affects the world's economies and markets, where business-independent industry changes its way of working. The commercial real estate industry faces a change, where the two concepts of smart home and mobility change the appearance of the future market. On the market, there is an exponential increase in the number of companies utilizing the two concepts, companies collectively called PropTech companies, which act as catalysts for the transformation. Another trend is co-working, a new flexible office solution that utilizes the mobility change and disrupts the current value chain. These trends affect existing property managers, who should review their business model in view of the new technology to remain competitive. A major challenge with PropTech is the lack of understanding of the benefits it brings and what customer value it actually creates, making it difficult to create value offers that actually meet customer needs. The different types of PropTech and co-working provide a potential for new types of services that benefit the tenants in their business and can provide an easier work life balance.
Purpose of the study: The purpose of this master thesis is to identify the impact PropTech and co-working has on commercial real estate tenants in Stockholm.
Methodology: The study is of an exploratory character and aimed to explore what contributes to customer value for commercial tenants in Stockholm today and the impact PropTech and co-working has on it. The performance of the study was a combination of a cross-sectional approach, a qualitative, deductive and partly an inductive approach. A total of 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted, consisting of 11 property managers with internal management and five tenants working in the consulting industry. By interviewing tenants simultaneously with the property manager, it was established that the property managers' insight into the tenants' needs were in line with reality. The collected empirical data was analyzed on the basis of the applied reference framework and its factors that drive the customer value of tenants in office premises in Stockholm.
Conclusions: The impact of digitization is of a complex nature and ranges from negative to positive aspects and everything in-between. The study identified four PropTech-services that can benefit company tenants in various ways and their impacts on customer value: property management, quantification & efficiency, office services and search platforms for working places. Co-working was also included as a service that affects customer value in office spaces.Identified factors creating customer value for company tenants were quality, adaptability, cost reduction and price. Each factor was further dissected to describe more accurately how it impacts tenants, these under factors consisted of tangibles, reliability, assurance, customer focus, co-creation, mass customization, flexibility, monetary costs, non-monetary costs, low cost and premium price.The study found that the most important aspect of property management, in order to have a positive impact on the tenants, is assurance. There also exists a potential positive impact for the service via non-monetary cost reductions. Furthermore, property management has a negative impact on customer focus and assurance.
The most important aspects of quantification & efficiency, in order to have a positive impact on the tenants, are tangibles, non-monetary cost reductions and flexibility. There also exists both a potential positive impact as well as a negligible impact for the service via monetary cost reductions.The most important aspect of office services, in order to have a positive impact on the tenants, is low price. There also exists a negligible impact for the service via non-monetary cost reductions.The most important aspects of search platforms for working places, in order to have a positive impact on the tenants, are flexibility and monetary cost reductions.The most important aspects of co-working, in order to have a positive impact on the tenants, are mass customization, flexibility and monetary cost reductions. There also exists a negative impact for the service via tangibles.The authors of this study encourage for further quantitative research regarding the subject.
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