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AbstractThe purpose of this exploratory case study is to analyze the role of relational motivation for high-performing real estate brokers in Sweden. The concept of relational motivation, or relatedness, is explored through both affective and calculative commitment. The data in this study come from in-depth interviews with real estate brokers. The results show that the brokers are committed to their clients, in an affective and a calculative way. All of the participants expressed signs of being emotionally involved in their customer relations, often in terms of genuine interest in, and caring for, their clients. The existence of relatedness toward customers in a brokerage context contributes to the discussion on what motivates high-performing real estate brokers. By viewing relatedness as a trigger to engage in more customer relationships, the intrinsic motivation can be seen as a strong antecedent to individual performance.

The purpose of the paper is to describe and analyse efforts to integrate research into teaching in a postgraduate degree program in real estate management. The long term goals of the changes were to increase graduation rates as well as the quality of dissertations. In order to validate our findings, the data for this paper emanate from a three main sources, namely; students' course evaluations, students' grades and a qualitative assessment of the students' thesis proposals made by senior lecturers. The results show that the first cohort of students found it stressful when individual research writing was introduced towards the end of their studies. With a more gradual and earlier introduction of writing in a series of courses in the program, coupled with changes in assessment tasks, the second cohort found individual research writing less stressful and more beneficial. Performance in the second cohort improved in appreciable ways.

Business angels are very important for the growth and development of start–ups as they contribute much needed capital and competence to these firms. During the past decades the formation and growth of Business Angel Networks (BANs) has become an increasingly common phenomenon and an important issue for policy–makers in most Western economies. In this paper, we follow the inception and development of three local BANs. The data in this paper come from in–depth interviews with the founders of the networks as well as bankers, civil servants, entrepreneurs and local politicians. The results indicate that capital alone will not guarantee success in a BAN rather it is a combination of the financial capital, human capital and social capital among the founding partners of the network.

An important measure for climate change mitigation is reduction of energy use in buildings worldwide.

AbstractRaising the level of investment readiness in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is seen as one of the most important strategies in public policy for promoting entrepreneurship and SME growth in Europe. This paper analyzes the impact of investment readiness on investor commitment and market accessibility in Swedish SMEs. The empirical base for the paper is a survey answered by 459 SME owners. We have analyzed the data using the lineaz structural relations (LISREL) method, a structural equation modeling technique. The analysis indicates that an increased level of investment readiness in SMEs results in closer working relationships with financiers and a higher level of commitment by the investors, which in turn leads to greater mazket accessibility for SMEs. This study supports public policy focused on programs that alleviate the problems associated with the lack of investment readiness in SMEs.