The RICS Cutting Edge has developed as one of the principal conference fora in the UK for disseminating property research findings. While the target audience is composed primarily of academic researchers the conference has continued to attract a broad range of property researchers, practitioners, policy makers and other professionals with an interest in real estate. The development of property research in the UK can therefore be analysed in terms of the scholarly papers presented to the conference.
As not all papers presented are subsequently published the analysis outlined in this paper focuses on a broader range of topics, authors, information and organisations than would be encountered in an equivalent analysis of articles or citations of articles published about real estate in the UK. It is therefore contended that an analysis of the conference presentations provides an overview of the most important areas of activity within UK property research in the later half of the 1990s.
The principal aim of the paper is to identify and discuss the major research trends which have emerged over the past seven years of RICS Cutting Edge conferences. A secondary aim is to highlight potential impacts of the conference output, if any, on the profession ie. on both academia and practice, however it is recognised that further work will be required to provide more rigorous analysis. In addition the paper seeks to chart the likely way forward and potential changes, if any, for the Cutting Edge conference relative to the emerging role of the RICS Research Foundation.
The methodology utilises data from RICS Cutting Edge conferences and involves a frequency count and content analysis of papers presented over the past seven similar to that employed in studies in the Journal of Real Estate Research (Johnson et al, 1996) and the Journal of Real Estate Literature. The paper also employs citation impact studies, where possible, comparable to those used widely in economics for example, in the Economic Journal and Journal of Agricultural Economics.
The latter method is used to complement the content analysis by tracking the impact of different types of paper. In addition the paper makes a tentative comparison with articles presented at both the European Real Estate Society (ERES) and the American Real Estate Society (ARES) conferences.The paper is taken forward under the PEFRN banner.
It is perceived that there is a gap in the UK real estate literature which suggests the need for a reflective survey of research terrain. It is contended that a discussion of research undertaken over the past seven RICS Cutting Edge conferences should underpin an attempt to define a forward looking and proactive research agenda.
