Real Estate Controlling Of Institutional Real Estate Investors In Germany

The increasing complexity und dynamics of the environment of companies have led to a higher demand on the managerial ability of senior management. To support senior management, a function and also institution called ìControllingî has been introduced in German companies. ìControllingî, a German term borrowed from the English language, functionally refers to several issues beginning from cost accounting to operational and strategic planning as well as management control and also issues of general management. Its characteristics often differ between companies and different states of development have been observed. From an institutional perspective ìControllingî refers to the ìControllingî department responsible for the coordination of the ìControllingî function. In the English language no translation for ìControllingî exists and thus a merely blurred translation of ìControllingî can be given by management accounting and control. During the last years ìControllingî became an important issue in the German real estate sector and often real estate controlling as function and institution has been or is being introduced now. However, so far no empirical scientific research has been conducted upon this field of interest. This paper describes the multi-method research model of a research project which aims to investigate real estate controlling of institutional real estate investors in Germany based on the contingency theory or situational approach of the organization theory. The propositions of the contingency theory say that the context of a company, differentiated in internal context (e.g. size of an organization) and external context (e.g. the complexity of an organizationís environment), influence the structure of an organization. Furthermore, the structure of an organization affects the conduct of its members and the efficiency of the organization. The paper also shows the result of the qualitative analysis performed via expert interviews concerning contextual factors influencing real estate controlling such as size of the company or real estate assets under management. Additionally, the characteristics of the design of real estate controlling will be illustrated by describing the function and the instruments of real estate controlling as well as the organization of the real estate controlling department.