In Conversation with Professor Andrew Baum, 10 February 2022 
Bridging the business and academic worlds 
 
Having enjoyed a stellar property research career in both business and academia, Andrew gave a highly authoritative view on the differences and synergies between the two worlds. 

Interviewed by SPR Chair Hamish Smith in the latest ‘In Conversation’ webinar, Andrew suggested that the differences between the disciplines of the academic and business spheres can be exaggerated – the main difference being the reward structures in place.  Success in academia very much depends on creating a body of published work, which may give the impression of a rather inward-looking approach, while business success mainly depends on achieving impact in the marketplace.  

But he stressed that for real estate research there are synergies running from the academic approach to business, particular in terms of the rigour that it encourages.  This includes basing the research on strong empirical information, applying an appropriate methodology and presenting the results in a clear and logical way. Conversely, business experience can lend a lecturer far greater credibility among students than a they could hope for from a purely academic background. 

Asked by Hamish what makes a successful researcher today and how this may have changed over the course of his career, Andrew said that in recent times, outstanding researchers have been willing to ‘blow the whistle’ on the parts of traditional theory that don’t work in the real world – for example, the idea of using regionally based diversification as a way of reducing portfolio risk. 

Andrew also noted that there is now much more respect for research on occupational markets than there was in the late 1980s when he led the newly formed property research team at the Prudential.  At that time it was seen as very much the poor relation of capital markets research in the team’s quest to bring analysis methods from stocks and bonds into property. 

Andrew explained that his ground-breaking role at the Pru followed ten years as a real estate academic at Reading University, a career path that he resumed soon after with a professorship at the same institution.  However, he then missed the excitement of business, which led him to start a private portfolio strategy business with his fellow academic Brian Macgregor.  This was at a time when the UK market had been booming and it proved to be hard work bringing unfavourable predictions to their new institutional clients, even if they were eventually proved right. 

Looking to the future, Andrew believes this is a time of fantastic opportunities for real estate research, with technology revolutionising occupier-owner relationships, particularly via the use of apps, while environmental and social impact investing look set to transform the landscape.  The needs of environment-related impact reporting could spawn a new IPD, he suggested.  But he also thinks that the potential effect of data science and AI on the information available to the researcher can be overplayed.  Understanding the fundamentals of geography and land economics is far more important when addressing current topics like the future of cities, where the theory of agglomeration and knowledge sharing still holds good.  

Tim Horsey