Explaining Underlying Causes for the Degradation of Handover Information for Commercial Building Owners

Evaluating possible causes of building handover information degradation is critical to asset owners because the handover information is the foundation for generating a thread of reliable asset information to minimise risks associated with operating commercial buildings. However, very little is known about possible explanations of information degradation, particularly during the operation phase of commercial buildings. This study, therefore, investigates the reasons for the quality of handover information deterioration by conducting semi-structured interviews with asset management professionals. Given that the handover information supports various asset management processes, fragmented and incoherent processes of managing different types of handover information during the operation phase are one of the leading causes of diminishing the quality of information. Moreover, leadership support is crucial to establishing robust information management processes with dedicated resources to sustain information quality. The contributions of this study are twofold. First, on a practical level, the identified causes of information degradation enable asset owners to inform decisions on improving existing information management processes and feasibly leverage emerging technologies like cloud computing to address the information management dilemma. Theoretically, this study contributes to the body of knowledge on information quality by identifying possible rationales for the quality degradation of handover information. Finally, this study yields evidence for seeking possible remedies and future research topics.