Background and introduction

Purpose: To explain the purpose and background of this book and introduce the three basic perspectives behind the research presented as well as the structure and editing process of the book.
Methodology: The editors shared and discussed individual contributions to this chapter, based on their own expertise, the involvement in the process leading to this the book including a number of workshops, and a literature review of the development of their disciplinary fields: Facilities Management (FM), Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) and Business to Business (B2B) Marketing.
Findings: The difference in scope between FM and CREM is that CREM has its focus on real estate as physical and economical assets utilized by an organisation, while FM has a wider service focus. The difference in scope between FM and CREM on one side and B2B marketing on the other is that FM and CREM are related to organisations’ use of built facilities and the input side of business processes, while B2B marketing can concern the sale of any product or service and is related to the output side of business processes. The fields of FM, CREM and B2B marketing can all contribute to a better understanding of the added value of FM by their particular theories and conceptual analyses, data, tools, and best practices, with a focus on respectively costs and benefits of facilities and services, alignment of corporate and public real estate to organizational objectives and organisational performance, and relationship management in market transactions.
Practical implications: The findings are used to explore interesting themes, to build up a wellstructured list of contents, and as a starting point for theoretical reflections on the added value of FM, lessons learned so far, and input to the future research agenda. The chapter provides important background information to understand the following chapters in this book.
Research limitations: The chapter is mainly based on the experience and knowledge of the editors. It does not include original research but provides an introductory overview of the book.
Originality/value: This chapter takes a look behind the scenes of the making of this book and connects contributions from three different fields - FM, CREM, and B2B marketing - to shed more light on the concept of added value of FM. It serves as an introduction to the research presented in the other chapters in this book.