JRER  Vol. 22  Nos. 1/2 – 2001 Lessons from the Past and Future Directions for Corporate Real Estate Research Authors Chris Manning and Stephen E. Roulac Abstract This study seeks to answer several questions about corporate real estate research. The first, Where should corporate real estate research be focused in the future? is addressed by a proposed alternative corporate real estate research framework that differs from what has been followed in the past. A second question that follows from the first is then addressed: Given such an alternative research framework, what types of corporate real estate issues merit research consideration? Finally, a third closely related question is then examined: Which research methodologies, databases and statistical tools are likely to prove useful to academic researchers seeking promotion and tenure, as well as corporate executives and others interested in better understanding the impacts of corporate real estate decisions? Introduction Academic real estate researchers have an implied responsibility to provide thought leadership for their subject area in order to further the state of knowledge in their field. Given the nature and level of academic corporate real estate research from 1989 to 1999 (Manning and Roulac, 1999), there appears to be a need for corporate real estate researchers within the academy to reassess their priorities. More specifically, these researchers may wish to consider providing more prescriptive thought leadership as part of their future research plans. Diaz (1993) labels the creation of real estate knowledge as science, contrasted with the prescriptive, useful, application of knowledge as engineering. He further indicates that both are necessary aspects of an applied discipline such as real estate. He states that ‘‘in the long run, the needs of the served constituency shape an applied discipline, such as real estate, and no applied discipline can long ignore its constituents and survive. The engineering dimension to the real estate discipline is thus crucial,’’ Diaz (1993:192). The evolution of marketing as a discipline offers additional guidance for the direction of future corporate real estate research. Hunt (1991:13) acknowledges