A study of the impact of management practices on customers' satisfaction in shopping centers : a comparison between shopping centers owned by HA and Link REIT

Abstract

In 2005, Housing Authority finished its privatization project. The Link Real Estate Investment Trust (Link REIT) took over most of the shopping center under Housing Authority and listed on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. Privatization of shopping center was always a controversial topic. Before and after the privatization, there were lots of discussions and opinions on the issue. Some critics on privatization even suggested that Housing Authority should buy back the Link REIT. After the privatization, new shopping centers built by Housing Authority are owned by Housing Authority. There was no further privatization project under discussion.

The way Link REIT run shopping centers was obviously differ from Housing Authority. As all those shopping centers under privatization are near or inside public housing estates, any changes did affect the life of grass root citizens in Hong Kong. Throughout these years, there are lots of discussions on the aftermath of the privatization. Most of it involved comparison before and after the privatization while less cross sectional research was made. There is reason for this. In the privatization ten years ago, most of the shopping centers under Housing Authority was sold to Link REIT. Those left under Housing Authority were relatively old and invaluable shopping centers. It was not that meaningful to compare those shopping centers. However, throughout these years, Housing Authority built some new shopping centers new estates. And these news shopping centers had run under the ownership of Housing Authority for a few years. In the mean times, Link REIT renovated many of its shopping centers. Now, the hardware of the shopping centers under Housing Authority and Link REIT are comparable. I think this is a good time to have a comparison on the management on shopping centers of the two organizations.

By a cross sectional comparison, I hope this research could make a clearer picture on how privatization affect the quality of service in terms of customers‟ satisfaction. And my discussion could provide a ground for further discussion on the topic of privatization. Result of my research shows that the different management practice of HKHA and the Link REIT did perform differently in terms of customers‟ satisfaction. Despite the critics argue that emerge of the Link REIT make the community suffers, the customers‟ satisfaction level of the shopping center owned by the Link REIT is higher than the shopping center owned by HKHA. In this regards, the privatization of the government is succeeded.