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Using a sample of 900 apartments from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, containing selling transactions for the second semester of 2019, and data for 33 locational, physical and neighbourhood-related attributes (socio-cultural, environmental, and urbanism related), our research objective is to test the performance in price prediction, and hence the utility, of the Artificial Neural Networking (ANN), as artificial intelligence model versus the Generalized Linear Model (GLM), as a regression model. By contributing to an ongoing debate, our empirical findings confirm the results of a predominant group of earlier studies, namely the superiority of ANN. Precisely, we found that ANN can better predict selling prices and provides stability of results. Additionally, we addressed the critiques related to the transparency of results, showing that ANN also has the ability to illustrate the significance of the different attributes of real estate, if appropriate statistical indicators are used. These findings can serve the different real estate valuation purposes, including that of the review of valuation reports.

Although exploring the homestead withdrawal (HW) mechanism can optimize the allocation of land resource elements, the livelihood sources of farmers will change and face different sources of risk. Many studies have explored various factors affecting the HW. However, studies simultaneously exploring the relationship among farmers’ internal livelihood capital and external risk prevention capabilities and HW including differences among various HW models are still limited. The present study constructed a simple theoretical framework and used the probit model to analyze the decision-making behavior of 367 farmers in the Jinjiang Pilot in Fujian Province of China. Specifically, this study explored the impact of farmers’ livelihoods including natural, financial, and human capitals and risk expectations. Such risk expectations involve living conditions, social security, residential environment, and psychological conditions on HW in asset replacement, index replacement, and monetary compensation model. The empirical findings indicated that the farmers’ livelihoods and risk expectations have inconsistent effects on farmers’ HW decision-making in all the models, except for risk expectations. In other words, social security and residential environment have a significant inhibitory effect. These results implied that differentiated policies for HW should be considered to enhance the farmer’s sustainable livelihood capacity and controllability of risk. First published online 21 January 2022

With the rapid development of computer networking technology, people pay more and more attention to the role of online reviews in management decision making. The existing methods of online reviews fusion are limited to rational decision-making behavior, which does not accord with the characteristics of evaluators’ behavior characteristics in the real environment. In order to solve the online reviews fusion problem based on bounded rational behavior which is closer to the reality of property service quality evaluation, the multi-index and multi-scale (MIMS) method is extended into the generalized form, the online reviews are quantified by using the adverb structure scaling method, and an online reviews fusion method based on the improved TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese of interactive and multi-criteria decision making) model is proposed. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by an example analysis of property service quality evaluation. The research results are as follows: the adverb structure scaling method is suitable for a large number of online reviews processing, the proposed method improves the efficiency of online reviews information fusion, and it is feasible and effective to evaluate property service quality based on the bounded rationality of evaluator’s behavior. First published online 14 January 2022

The way macroeconomic variables such as unemployment/GDP per capita/inflation/wages/internal migration influenced housing prices (nominal house prices and housing rent prices) in Vilnius in 2006–2019 has been investigated in the research. Conditions under which different macroeconomic variables could influence housing prices were established in the research. Lower unemployment, higher GDP per capita and inflation rate were all related to higher nominal house prices in Vilnius. Higher GDP per capita, wages and internal migration were positively related to housing rent prices in Vilnius. Analyzed macroeconomic variables all together explained 88 percent of variance of nominal house prices in Vilnius over the period of 2006–2019 and 80 percent of variance of housing rent prices in Vilnius over the same period. First published online 02 December 2021

Inter-industry has various capital structures to take advantage of growth opportunities due to agency differences and information asymmetric problems. This research aims to analyze: (1) the differences in leverage between industries and (2) the impact of shareholders–debtholders conflict and information asymmetric on growth opportunities. The firm-level data used is extracted from Indonesia Stock Exchange's annual reports from 2008 to 2019. Authors used the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The findings show differences in leverage between industries. However, they are relatively stable and not excessive for assets to prevent conflicts between managers and shareholders with debtholders. Equity is also not used to utilize growth to reduce the discretionary power (dilution) of shareholders. As a result, the use of opportunities and growth is limited. This study identifies agency problems and asymmetric information that determines independent companies' decisions in exploiting growth opportunities.

The quality of online education is of interest to universities around the world. Only high quality and cyclical evaluation are the conditions for obtaining students’ satisfaction with this form of education. In the pandemic era, digital dissemination and open education have become a special obligation of academic education. This paper aims to present the opinions of postgraduate students on the quality of e-learning forced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The study was conducted using an online survey questionnaire sent to all 173 MBA and Executive MBA (EMBA) students studying during the pandemic era in Poland's leading Business School, 40% of whom returned completed valid surveys. Students assessed aspects of e-learning such as teaching materials, communication with lecturers, the attractiveness of online classes, networking, strategies, and criteria for evaluating didactic activities, e-learning platform, and support received from the university. The results showed that although most examined aspects are perceived very well or well by the students, there is always some space for improvement. Despite the fact that the study was conducted on a small sample of students, their opinions obtained during the survey provide valuable information to universities about the quality of postgraduate e-learning from its main actors, that is, students. Based on this, the paper presents clear recommendations to universities on how the quality of online education could be managed and improved.

Surveillance capitalists like Google and Amazon will do whatever they can to corner supply routes to data about us and our actions. In Zuboff’s lengthy book The age of surveillance capitalism, we learn about the strategic and often underhand means by which these data are captured, and the ‘instrumentarian’ ideology that provides the logic for this enterprise. Zuboff shows that the aim of advertisers and ‘people analytics’ advocates is to use our personal data to determine our behavior. At stake is free will and our ‘right to the future tense’. In this book review, I reflect on Zuboff ’s analysis of how Big Tech, as Big Other, is controlling our lives. I first highlight the prescience of the book’s arguments. I then compare aspects of the book with earlier tomes that were critical of new technology, to argue that taking a deterministic view of peoples’ relationship with technology may inadvertently support the hyped narrative that data analytics and algorithms are all-powerful.

International audience; Paid crowdsourcing connects task requesters to a globalized, skilled workforce that is available 24/7. In doing so, this new labor model promises not only to complete work faster and more efficiently than any previous approach but also to harness the best of our collective capacities. Nevertheless, for almost a decade now, crowdsourcing has been limited to addressing rather straightforward and simple tasks. Large-scale innovation, creativity, and wicked problem-solving are still largely out of the crowd’s reach. In this opinion paper, we argue that existing crowdsourcing practices bear significant resemblance to the management paradigm of Taylorism. Although criticized and often abandoned by modern organizations, Taylorism principles are prevalent in many crowdsourcing platforms, which employ practices such as the forceful decomposition of all tasks regardless of their knowledge nature and the disallowing of worker interactions, which diminish worker motivation and performance. We argue that a shift toward post-Taylorism is necessary to enable the crowd address at scale the complex problems that form the backbone of today’s knowledge economy. Drawing from recent literature, we highlight four design rules that can help make this shift, namely, endorsing social crowd networks, encouraging teamwork, scaffolding ownership of one’s work within the crowd, and leveraging algorithm-guided worker self-coordination.

Institutional work as a concept has evolved and diffused beyond roots in management and organizational studies since it was first defined by Lawrence and Suddaby (2006). A diverse literature and recent criticism call for an extensive review of the field. We conducted a systematic review of 452 peer-reviewed articles in 185 different journals published from March 2006 to December 2019. Semantic analysis revealed changes in topics over time, the rise of institutional maintenance, and a focus on individuals and agency. Using thematic analysis, we inductively categorized the claimed contributions to institutional work as theory combining, actors, contexts, institutional work types, representations, and methodology. The findings led us to develop an integrative conceptual framework for future institutional work study built around setting, motivations, types, and outcomes. We visualized the discourse around institutional work, growth of key themes from early theorizing, and an original process model.Keywords: Institutional work, institutional theory, Leximancer, systematic literature review

The paper validates a framework which is based on EFQM and associates quality criteria to results and outputs, reflecting the organization readiness and efficiency. The paper studies the views of school principals of Kindergarten and Elementary Schools in Greece. A nationwide survey provides a representative sample of 231 school principals who were administered an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was constructed by applying the EFQM framework as the basic pattern. Based on previous approaches which use PLS models in the education context, the paper provides findings on how key criteria of EFQM associate to each other when applied to the elementary education context in Greece. Findings provide evidence that EFQM criteria are indeed associated both directly and indirectly. The validation of the proposed model supports that the particular instrument can be used as a tool for continually assess, measure and improve the management procedures of elementary education organizations in order to have improved measures of key results criteria.

Previous research concerning religiosity and consumer behaviors highlights that consumers are possibly affected by religion in areas such as life satisfaction, faith, ethics, and materialism. Analysis, however, has yet to develop a systematic framework that examines the effects of particular religious commitments on consumer behaviors, such as life satisfaction, ethical decisions, and intentions of loyalty, which is the main incentive for us to conduct this research. This study which takes into account Catholic affiliation in the Vietnamese context intends to develop the literature on the relationship between religiosity and consumer behaviors. Specifically, aiming to explore potential mediators in the interrelationship between religious commitments and customer loyalty intentions at convenience stores, the research incorporates ethical judgements and life satisfaction. The Structural Equation Modeling method is utilized to analyze the surveyed data from 388 Catholics for hypothesis testing. According to the tested results, satisfaction with life plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between religious commitments and customer loyalty. On the other hand, ethical judgements serve as an important mediator that considerably enhances the impact of intrinsic religiosity on consumer loyalty. The findings also provide an insightful view of the sociology of religion regarding business enterprises.

Imbalances in bargaining position between companies in the supply chains lead to asymmetrical relationships. While a large body of literature has addressed asymmetrical relationships in the supply chain, not much work has been exploring the issues of tactical decisions. This study presents a framework and case studies regarding how dependent manufacturers deal with tactical decisions in the context of asymmetric relationships. We conducted four case studies and looked at the tactical decisions regarding capacity flexibility, planning time fencing that reflects planning flexibility, safety stock, rescheduling frequency, and information sharing. The study suggests that (1). Most relationships in supply chains are asymmetric. A focal company with less expertise receives less power distribution but greater uncertainty in supply chain relationships. (2). When dealing with asymmetric power relationships, dependent parties create capabilities to become responsive, but most of them implement reactive tactical strategies in the form of buffering or allowing frequent changes to schedules and not effectively sharing information with trading partners.

The focal point of this study was determining the effect of market orientation on farm performance as moderated by farmer resilience in the volatile dairy sector of an emerging country, Kenya. Using data from 682 respondents found in one of the vibrant dairy production counties in the country, Murang’a County, the study examined the interrelationships between market orientation, farmer resilience, and farm performance. Results from the analysis indicate a significant relationship between all the dimensions of market orientation (competitor orientation, customer orientation and inter-functional coordination) with both farmer resilience and farm performance with the exception of a non-significant relationship between customer orientation and farm performance. The significant relationship between inter-functional coordination and farm performance was the only one that displayed a negative correlation. The findings on the moderating effects of resilience on the market orientation-farm performance relationship report a positive significant effect. As this study represents the first effort to look into the linkages between the three concepts collectively, it provides important insight into the understanding the three concepts in the context of an emerging country.

The main aim of the current study is to examine the effect of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics on earnings management proxied by discretionary accruals. The study used 1,957 firm-year observations listed in Bursa Malaysia for the period from 2012 to 2016. Panel data method is used to examine the established hypotheses. The results show a significant negative association between CEO tenure, network, and gender and discretionary accruals. These results suggest that CEOs with more extended periods serving in the firm, CEOs with several external directorships, and female CEOs are more rigorous in improving their strategic decisions and are less likely to engage in earnings management. Hence, they are associated with high financial reporting quality (FRQ). However, there is no significant relationship between CEO expertise, CEO age and discretionary accruals. The results are robust to an alternative measure of discretionary accruals. Therefore, the current study extends the FRQ and corporate governance literature by investigating the impact of CEO characteristics on earnings quality and, consequently, FRQ. The results are important for policymakers, stockholders, and market participants in identifying the importance of CEO characteristics in producing high FRQ.

The rapid changes in technology and globalization lead to mediating role in formalization of RM methods among perceived business risk and organization performance. Questionnaire distributed among 301 financial professionals of selected industries and duly filled questionnaires received back 204. Pilot study was conducted at 96 responses to check the validity and reliability of instrument. Questionnaire distributed among CFOs/Finance managers/Risk Managers of selected industries. The study results imply that the performance of the organization has a significant positive relationship with all components of perceived Business risk (PBR) such as economic factors, financial indicators, technological change, political uncertainty, and market competition. It is also found that the Formalization of RM Methods mediates among the component of PBR and organization performance. The results provide meaningful insights for managers, which are used generally by any organization as a guideline to improve the organization’s performance.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between cultural factors and the financial performance of the firm. The study includes power distance, clan culture, uncertainty avoidance, firm innovation, and market culture as independent variables and financial performance as a dependent variable. This study relies on a primary data collected from 216 respondents from various organizations in Nepal. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The study results show that organizational culture has a significant impact on financial performance. Among the five cultural dimensions, firm innovation, and uncertainty avoidance have a strong direct impact on the financial performance of the firm whereas market culture has an indirect effect on the financial performance of the firm. This research encourages Nepalese firms to pay attention to the conducive working environment, especially the atmosphere of market culture, innovation, and uncertainty avoidance.

Understanding the spread of asset bubbles is pivotal to the effectiveness of risk management. This study thus estimates housing bubbles and investigates how and to what extent price bubbles spread between the tiers of luxury and mass housing in Hong Kong. The results show that price bubbles spread between housing tiers, the spreading of bubbles is not uni-directional from luxury to mass tiers, and more than 60% of bubbles come from inter-tier spreading. Moreover, bubble shocks from the luxury tier have stronger spreading influences on the movements of bubbles in the mass housing tier than the other way around during the period before the end of the global financial crisis (GFC), whereas the opposite is true for the period after GFC. The findings are important for policy makers attempting to tackle soaring housing bubbles, financial institutions seeking to managing lending risk, and housing investors wanting to time the submarkets. First published online 11February 2021

The purpose of this study is to examine the long-run and short-run relationship between house prices and business formation in various industries. Using data from Malaysian states over the period of 2000–2016 and applying ARDL/PMG models, our results show that changes in house prices have a positive and significant association with business establishment in specific economic sectors, including manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, information and communication, and financial and insurance in the long-run. However, the long-run relationship between house prices and business formation is negative and significant for electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, construction, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service activities, and real estate industries. The short-run analysis indicates that there is a difference in the responses of business establishment in various industries to the changes in house prices.

The study investigated the effect of innovative behavior of managers on the competitive advantage of small, medium, and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in South Africa. In addition, the study examined the moderating role of environmental dynamism in the relationship between innovative behavior and competitive advantage. The study adopted the quantitative research design, and the cross-sectional survey method was used for data collection. Hierarchical regression was used for data analysis. Based on a dataset of 140 respondents, the results indicated that innovative behavior has a significant positive impact on competitive advantage. The moderating effect of environmental dynamism is insignificant. Theoretically, the study explains the moderating effect of environmental dynamism in the relationship between innovative behavior and firm competitive advantage. To sustain competitive advantage, it is important for firms to invest in the innovative behavior of managers and employees through training. Management must foster an environment that support the generation of new ideas by employees and the coordination of such ideas to improve products and services.

Information Communication Technologies (ICT) research projects are important in generating breakthrough technologies that translate into solutions for numerous societal grand challenges through research and innovation (R&I). However, to ensure that such solutions are socially desirable, there is a concerted drive for the engagement of different stakeholders, including industry, academia, public and government. In the face of the growing recognition of stakeholder engagement in ICT research projects, particularly as part of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), there is a limited discourse on how its consequence could be evaluated. This paper suggests and uses a Theory of Change approach to evaluate the value of stakeholder engagement on the attainment of socially desirable and responsible outcomes in projects, particularly ICT research projects. Using a multi-case study approach, the paper appraises the value of stakeholder engagement in ICT research projects by elucidating the linkages between stakeholder activities and socially desirable outcomes. The findings from the paper could apply to other types of projects apart from ICT research projects in understanding some of the roles stakeholders play in ensuring responsible innovation as an outcome of the projects.

In the modern business environment spearheaded by digitalization, organizations are faced with the challenge of maintaining a competitive edge despite constant dynamic changes. Organizations therefore, have to adopt new, improved and modern ways of doing things. This can be achieved through proper knowledge management within the organization, which is an antecedent of innovation. Innovation is one of the crucial means for tackling the digitalization challenge as it enables organizations to maintain their competitive edge. Although extant studies have extensively studied learning in projects, there is a lack of concrete examples of the correlation between learning and improving innovation in the digitalization context. This article is based on a qualitative study aimed at examining the organizations’ preconditions of learning in achieving innovation in digitalization projects focusing on the perspective of the project team members. Data was collected through open-ended questionnaires with a total of 97 respondents and analyzed using NVivo qualitative software. The findings revealed two viewpoints regarding the perception of learning for innovation. The preconditions for learning for innovation in digitalization were also identified. Moreover, the immediate outcomes of learning were identified that can be utilized in assessing whether employees are actually learning given the necessary preconditions are established.

The rapid development of retail and e-commerce is forcing marketing and logistics to be competitive and adapt to the demands of end-customers. At the same time, accurately determining the demand for goods allows to better understand customers and plan deliveries. The purpose of this article is to study the change in patterns of probability of choosing the option to purchase goods among end-consumers with and without the presence of e-commerce. The study consisted of research buyers, determining the probability of purchasing goods from “consumer basket” in the traditional way and over the Internet, which is considered for the example of one of the Kharkiv districts. The results develop e-commerce potential in Ukraine and are intended to determine the motives of consumers when choosing a shopping option.

We employ the difference-in-difference and synthetic control methods to investigate the capitalization effect of hosting the G20 Summit on land market, based on China’s land transaction dataset from 2011 to 2019. We find that hosting the G20 Summit has a significant positive effect on land prices in the host city, increasing land prices by over 22.6% compared to comparable cities. The impact of hosting the G20 Summit on land prices is larger in the post-G20 period than in the preparation period. Further, hosting the G20 Summit has heterogeneous and distributional effects on land prices. The capitalization effects of venue construction and transportation infrastructure upgrading on land prices are the main channels.

Office buildings built before the entry into force of the first thermal regulation in 1991 constitute a relevant group for analysing the energy performance of the Portuguese building sector. A dynamic energy simulation was used to assess the energy performance of an existing office building located in the town of Bragança, Portugal. Four energy efficiency measures were selected and a financial evaluation through the internal rate of return (IRR) method was undertaken to choose the best retrofit option for improving the building’s energy performance. An investment package consisting of the roof insulation and a new equipment for the domestic hot water system presented an IRR higher than the discount rate used in the analysis, and, thus, a positive financial return. The results of the study also suggest that the EU’s comparative methodology framework is not particularly suitable for assessing building retrofit investment at the private investor’s perspective and further refinement in the cost-effective approach to renovations is needed to help stimulate building’s energy renovation market. Suggestions for further studies conducted for office buildings in the different climate zones in Portugal are also proposed. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

This study discusses the use of digital technology platforms (DTPs) in the context of cyber-security in the industrial sector, with a focus on digital industry (industrial) platforms (DIPs). A definition of DTPs is presented, including the author's interpretation, as well as the scope of DTP application in the industrial sector, which includes, in particular, European Digital Platforms (EDPs) and Polish Digital Platforms (PDPs), such as non-ferrous metals PDP or intelligent transport systems PDP. This is followed by a section covering the theoretical basis of the study that highlights the key challenges and risks associated with the use of DTPs as well as the methods for their neutralization in the form of specific concepts and systems that can be employed in the industrial sector. The subsequent section of the study is based on results of the author's own survey which collected information from a total of 120 companies operating in Poland, which were granted subsidies under the Operational Program Innovative Economy for investments involving the implementation and development of DTPs. The survey was carried out using a questionnaire developed by the author, which consisted of 23 questions. In this respect, as shown by the author's own studies, of greatest relevance are hardware failures and Internet outage events. Most importantly, concerns about such risks are some of the major factors underlying the negative attitudes of management staff of industrial companies toward DTPs, and therefore, it is so important to ensure that any such risks can be effectively addressed. They can be avoided through the use of certain concepts and systems such as STOE or CVSS. A typical company may know the model of DTPs in the context of challenges in the field of cybersecurity through this study; in particular, it can improve IT security.

This article examines the emergence of organizational dynamics in the context of fluid organizational phenomena. To do so, three organizational dynamics are studied: (1) identity, (2) actorhood, and (3) interconnected instances of decision-making. To study how these three organizational dynamics take shape in the context of fluid organizational phenomena, I rely on the events-based approach and a case study of makers operating in a makerspace in the Paris region. The results show, on the one hand, that the collective of makers enacts a structure of past, present, and future events that participates in the definition of a common frame of reference and, on the other hand, that this common frame of reference plays a role in the emergence of organizational dynamics. On the basis of this result, my main contribution is to show the role of the eventalization – that is, the definition, configuration and narration by the actors of past, present, and future events – in the definition of organizational dynamics in fluid organizational phenomena. This article contributes on the one hand to the literature on fluid organizational phenomena, and on the other hand to the literature on makers working in makerspaces., L’article s’intéresse à l’émergence des dynamiques organisationnelles dans le contexte des phénomènes organisationnels fluides. Pour cela, trois dynamiques organisationnelles sont étudiées: (1) l’identité collective, (2) l’acteur social, et (3) les choix collectifs. Pour étudier comment ces trois dynamiques organisationnelles prennent corps dans le contexte des phénomènes organisationnels fluides, nous mobilisons l’approche par les événements, ainsi que les données d’une étude de cas conduite auprès de makers exerçant dans un makerspace en région parisienne. Les résultats montrent d’une part, que le collectif de makers énacte une structure d’événements passés, présents et futurs qui participe à la définition d’un cadre de référence commun et d’autre part, que ce cadre de référence commun joue un rôle dans l’émergence des dynamiques organisationnelles. Sur la base de ce résultat, notre principale contribution consiste à montrer le rôle de l’eventalization – c’est-à-dire la définition, la configuration et la mise en récit par les acteurs d’événements passés, présents et futurs – dans la définition des dynamiques organisationnelles dans les phénomènes organisationnels fluides. Cet article contribue d’une part, à la littérature sur les phénomènes organisationnels fluides, et d’autre part, à la littérature sur les makers travaillant dans les makerspaces.

Hybrid practices incorporate conflicting institutional logics and are recognized for their capacity to cope with societal problems. Previous literature has concentrated on the hybridization mechanisms inherent in organizations. This focus on an entity has diverted attention away from equivalent mechanisms that operate in wider social systems – specifically, in organizational fields. In this article, I show how discourses can enable such mechanisms. To that end, descending hierarchical classifications were performed on media outlets to study the discourse on the emergence of servitization in France. The results reveal two original mechanisms enabled by discourses and supporting the hybridization of the practice under study: (1) practice renaming and (2) the pivotal role played by the institutional logic of environmental protection. Based on these results, I propose a model detailing how institutional logics and discourses interact to bring about a hybrid practice. This model offers original insights to develop knowledge on hybrid organizing and promote practices that realign business goals with those associated with social welfare and preservation of the natural environment.

For the last several decades, global airline alliances have ensured their market presence in the aviation industry. Scholars have focused on the effects of alliance affiliation for airlines and what the competitive advantages of alliances are. However, these issues have been discussed in relation to operational aspects. The quality of strategic communication can be an important factor in achieving a competitive advantage and realizing a differentiation strategy. This study assessed the differences in quality of strategic communication between the three leading alliance groups (oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance) and a non-alliance group. Comprehensive content analysis was implemented using the letters of chief executive officers (CEOs) of 46 airlines. We found that the non-alliance group has more ideal CEO letters than the alliance groups, and the main topics and quality of CEO letters of alliance group differed. This study provides a novel insight into the competitive advantage of global airline alliances.

This article examines how national identity influences organizational identity. The interactions and influences between these two identity levels have been underexplored in the identity literature. However, given the national and geographical anchoring of businesses, national identity plausibly influences both their behavior and their organizational identity. This article presents a qualitative case study of the organizational identity of four family-run Algerian businesses, leaders in their respective industries. It theorizes a process model explaining the influence of national identity on organizational identity through three identity mechanisms: protection, justification, and adaptation. The findings suggest that organizational identity can be a social affirmation response whereby businesses demarcate their role in a challenging institutional context. This work opens new research avenues in this field by highlighting the interactions and influences that characterize these two dimensions of identity in a country actively engaged in the identity formation process, which exemplifies a dynamic and complex institutional context.

Studies have typically adopted the price-rent ratio to determine whether housing exuberance exists and the periods of imbalance between house prices and rental costs. Using the price-rent ratio to conduct tests without considering the effects of mortgage interest rates on user costs may overestimate episodes of exuberance. This study uses data of the overall housing market and those of 10 major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the United States from 1979Q1 to 2018Q1 to evaluate whether housing exuberance exists in the markets; the results indicate that all the MSAs experienced episodes of exuberance at different times and the overall housing U.S. market was overheated from 1998Q2 to 2007Q3. By considering mortgage rates and using the user-cost-rent ratio, we further determine that short-term housing exuberance emerged in only two MSAs, Los Angeles and Miami, in 2006Q2, which was followed by immediate corrections. Thus, the research results of this study signify that only use the price-rent ratio to determine whether or not rational housing tenure choice made by traders exists is not sufficient. This study provides evidence showing that the method incorporating mortgage interest rates tends to obtain an equilibrium relationship between the rental and housing markets, indicating interest rates play an important role in housing tenure choice. First published online 31 May 2021

Homeowners can be viewed as the put option holders who can sell housing to lenders when the housing price is lower than its mortgage value and sell houses when the housing price rises above a certain threshold. On the basis of the theory of investment under uncertainty, we model the housing value from the perspective of houseowners who can choose to either live in their houses or switch houses for comfort improvement and price appreciation. We can decompose the housing value into consumption and investment values by exploring parameters affecting housing value and decision making of houseowners. We find that the proportion of investment value to housing value increases with the volatility of the housing market, indicating the possible formation of housing bubbles. In addition, the comfort and utility provided by housing are critical for homeowners to decide whether to sell their houses. The analysis provides policymakers and market participants in the real estate market with insights into the price formation of real estate.

The property management services sector in China is developing rapidly, contributing significantly to employment and income. We have made recommendations for service differentiation and low costs so that even with limited resources, property management services can distribute their services effectively, reduce unnecessary costs, and implement an optimal plan. This study helps property management service providers understand the needs and expectations of customers because it is a key factor contributing to the success of the business. Based on the consumer and service quality (SERVQUAL) theories, this study applies the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to construct a quality evaluation scale for property management service companies and determine key property management service items that are valued most by customers and operators in this sector. The results show that it is feasible to determine accurately factors that are used to quantify the competitiveness of the existing market and identify improvements to ensure a win–win situation for both customers and companies in this sector.

In this paper the meaning of “under invoicing in a real estate market” signifies that the market value of real property exceeds its record value appearing in government documentation. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of under invoicing and determine the factors that affect the under invoicing in real estate markets in Pakistan. We apply OLS and Extreme Bounds Analysis techniques to test our propositions. The statistical sample consists of 338 real estate contracts. We find that under invoicing is determined by a multiplicity of factor. These include: the capital gains tax rate, the measurable amount of corruption in the economy, the risk-free rate, a buyer’s profession, the reputation of the local housing authority, and the degree of disequilibria in regional real estate markets. Our findings are consistent with four distinct hypotheses: (a) tax evasion hypothesis, (b) widening gap hypothesis, (c) a corruption hypothesis and (d) a signaling hypothesis. The evidence suggests that higher rates of taxation and a larger statistical incidence of corruption in markets tend to be associated with a greater probability of under-invoicing. The findings of the study have practical implications for those investors who are interested in real estate markets of emerging and developing economies. First published online 05 March 2021

Despite the popularity deep learning has been gaining, measuring the uncertainty within the result has not met expectations in many deep learning applications and this includes property valuation. In real-world tasks, however, rather than simply requiring predictions, assurance of the certainty of the predictions is also demanded. In this study, supervised learning is combined with unsupervised learning to bridge this gap. A method based on principal component analysis, a popular tool of unsupervised learning, was developed and used to represent the uncertainty in property valuation. Then, a neural network, a representative algorithm to implement supervised learning, was constructed, and trained to predict land prices. Finally, the uncertainty that was measured using principal component analysis was incorporated into the price predicted by the neural network. This hybrid approach is shown to be likely to improve the credibility of the valuation work. The findings of this study are expected to generate interest in the integration of the two learning approaches, thereby promoting the rapid adoption of deep learning tools in the property valuation industry. First published online 23February 2021

Buyers in the property market often use an agent who is employed by the seller to assist their home searches. This unique and widely used agency arrangement in the property market is known as “sellers’ agents”. While principal-agent theory advocates that buyers should directly hire their agents (i.e., buyers’ agents) to do the home-hunting, search theory however implies that sellers would employ their agents (i.e., sellers’ agents) to increase the probability of the sale and selling prices. Although sellers’ agents and buyers’ agents are two very distinct institutions, many previous studies assume that their agency characteristics are identical and provide limited insights on how such a seemingly subtle but crucial agency arrangement affects transaction outcomes. Using transaction data from Wuhan China, this study disentangles the effects of the buyers’ and sellers’ agents on properties’ selling prices and their time on the market. The findings indicate that on average transactions conducted by sellers’ agents will be associated with a significant selling price premium of around 3.4%. As a critical test, we further show that the transactions completed by sellers’ agents with selling price premiums will have a shorter marketing time than those completed by buyers’ agents.

The way housing affordability/wages/unemployment influenced internal migration of the population in Lithuania within the period of 2005−2019 is being analyzed in the article. Correlation-regression analysis is used to determine the relationships between the analyzed social phenomena. First, the correlation between housing affordability/wages/unemployment (their changes) and internal migration indicators is calculated, and the impact of data delays is assessed. Later simple and multiple regression equations are constructed. The conditions under which and how strongly housing affordability/wages/unemployment can influence population migration decisions have been identified in the analysis. Higher affordability of housing/wages is positively related to the number of people who moved to a certain Lithuanian city from other places in Lithuania per year. On the contrary, negative dependence of the number of people who moved to a certain city from other places in Lithuania on the unemployment rate in the city where those people moved in have been recorded. Both, affordability of housing and the unemployment rate explain actually 73−88 percent of variable dispersion of the internal migration in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda. First published online 30 September 2020

In addition to the sustainable development of coastal areas, the success of local corporations investing in coastal urban projects is significantly affected by severe sea level rises and extreme disasters. Investment companies should plan which objectives need to target to reduce uncertainty in the early project stages, track project execution, and assess project output as projects complete the construction phase and start operational activities. To assist enterprises in planning, evaluating, and monitoring project performance aligning with vision and strategy, this study contributes a strategic management tool developed by integrating the Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Analytic Network Process (ANP), and Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methods. A case study of a well-known investment corporation in Vietnam illustrates the research approach. This research appreciated stakeholder’s satisfaction as the main consequence and human resource as the most prominent cause of coastal urban projects. Furthermore, the proposed model for Vietnam in this study could be referred by other developing countries to facilitate companies to plan, measure, evaluate, and control the organizational performances for the coastal urban project success. First published online 09 February 2021

Considering that the real estate industry is a critical industry to promote the economy in China, it is necessary to measure the real estate performance. However, few studies about the performance evaluation of China’s real estate industry have focused on the production process. To fill this gap, this paper proposes a two-stage framework to investigate the real estate productivity of 30 sample provinces on mainland China from 2008 to 2015, based on a common-weight global Malmquist productivity index (MPI). The major findings are shown as follows: (a) the real estate efficiency is low, and it is mainly caused by the inefficiency in the sales stage, not the development stage; (b) the development trend of the real estate sector in China is sensitive to the government policies, and the fluctuations of MPI are consistent with the direction of policy adjustment during the observation period; (c) as for the regional analysis of MPI, we introduce the concept of the dependence degree of the economy on the real estate industry and predict that MPI in economically underdeveloped regions may decline in the future. Finally, policy recommendations are provided for the high-quality development of China’s real estate industry. First published online 25 January 2021

The emergence of Building Information Modelling (BIM) has revolutionized the infrastructure construction industry by introducing real-time and collaborative information management tools to be used throughout the lifecycle of projects.The importance of BIM in this industry has been emphasized in previous research. However, strategies for the implementation of this system is still less explored, which requires more elaboration and validation. The purpose of this paper is to investigate such strategies considering all necessary dimensions of the BIM system in infrastructure construction projects. The findings are based on theoretical discussion and semi-structured interviews in a case study project in New South Wales, Australia. The results revealed that BIM integrates various elements of infrastructure construction, which include but are not limited to risk, time, cost, energy, safety, and sustainability. It was found that implementation strategies should focus on improving the contribution of the BIM system to infrastructure construction in terms of improved (1) integrity and automation, (2) collaboration, and (3) optimization. Identification of seven technical and managerial implementations strategies is the core contribution of this research. These strategies provide practitioners with insight into technical and managerial measures to be taken for the successful implementation of the BIM system.

Intense competition existing in speculative house-building market creates an industry dominated by client groups. This paper provides insights into house-buyers’ perceptions of a set of criteria contributing to their selection of the product (house) to buy together with the post-occupancy residential satisfaction levels reached after their selections, by presenting survey findings of 320 house-buyers in North Cyprus house-building market. A striking finding was the fact that the responding house-buyers belonging to different categories had very significantly different priorities in the house selection stage. Therefore, market segmentation is the area with a great potential for competitive advantage which will help the house-builders to focus on the product selection criteria of buyers in specific segments so that the capabilities and the strategies of the company can be presented in ways best suited to take advantage of these. Furthermore, the findings demonstrated that price/payment method, design and customization were all crucially important for the buyers. Therefore, builders should focus on determining the optimum customization to offer greater product choice and a proper design without losing their competitive prices. The post-occupancy residential satisfaction values varied significantly according to the categories of house-buyers. This study will combine house-buyers’ product selection criteria and the related satisfaction levels reached during post-occupancy stage. Although this study was based on input provided by house-buyers in North Cyprus market, we believe the findings are of good value to builders and buyers in other similar markets. First published online 26 October 2020

The presented research work relates to the category of quality in higher education. This article aims to present the determinants of the quality of education in the context of international standards. The background of the considerations is the Bologna Declaration and the European Higher Education Area. The results of the research carried out with the use of the nominal group method and the data analysis carried out based on the SERVQUAL model for education revealed groups of quality determinants that are not included in the standards of internal quality assurance. It has been found that the principle of autonomy of universities in the European Higher Education Area is a sufficient basis to include the determinants of the quality of education identified by internal stakeholders of a given university in the internal quality of education assurance system.

Professional ethics is one of the two pillars of the valuer’s business practice, alongside expert knowledge. Ethical principles are usually formulated within a code of professional ethics which valuers are obliged to follow. The approach to professional ethics is a complex problem and it is conditioned by several factors. In our study, we pose the question whether higher professional satisfaction of real estate valuers translates into more ethical attitudes regarding work-related dilemmas. We conducted research on property valuation services in two European markets: Austria and Poland. Data for the analysis was drawn from 176 surveys in which valuers were asked to respond to hypothetical work situations corresponding to the principles of the real estate valuer’s code. The results obtained using the ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-stage last squares (2SLS) regression methods allow us to conclude that higher job satisfaction positively impacts valuers’ ethical attitudes. The segment of the market served is also an important driver. Valuers who mainly work for property developers show a significantly lower level of ethical attitudes. The influence of the country on professional ethics is ambiguous.

The subject of the paper is the investigation of possible improvements to the process of eyeglass lenses production. The research area concerns the application of modern IT tools to the enhancement of production results, in the context of digitalization of the economy, including industry. The main objective is to improve the efficiency of the realized production process in terms of the defined quality criterion. The applied approach is based on a simulation experiment method. A computer program implementing this method was used. The results show the effectiveness and universality of the proposed approach for the studied class of problems. The main theoretical contribution to the studied field is integration of the buffer allocation issue, defined as an optimization problem, into the simulation experiment method. The practical conclusions show the benefits for the company from the perspective of implementation of the production process.

In today's world, the success of modern company in dealing with change depends, to a large extent, on a positive approach toward its knowledge workers. The aim of the present study is to indicate the significance of positive leadership in the implementation of crucial changes in an organization in the environment of knowledge workers. The study has researched the case of a major Polish bank undergoing significant change in the Risk Management Division. Presented research covers the period between 2013 and 2019 and was conducted thanks to the participation of nearly 600 employees. Changes in the level of their engagement were systematically studied. All ten leaders in the division were also investigated, so that ten individual Reiss Motivation Profile (RMP) profiles could be created. Study results have confirmed that team leaders possess characteristics that confirm their preferred style is positive leadership, with a clear servant leadership attitude. The formulated hypotheses have been positively verified. It has been confirmed that the orientation of leaders on positive leadership ensured an effective implementation of crucial changes in the environment of knowledge workers.

The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate the basis and perception of mobile money (MM) service among Nigerian university students. The paper adopted a positivistic ontology and descriptive survey design. Two hundred and fifty students from five universities in the southeast geopolitical zone of Nigeria were sampled. Results showed that perceived ease of use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), perceived credibility (PCRED), and perceived risk (PR) had significant and positive relationship with behavioral intention. Given the results, these four fundamental issues must be central to inclusive mobile money-based financial service for Nigerian university students. The adoption of the technology acceptance model (TAM) by mobile network operators (MNO) and banks is critical to ensure acceptance of innovative and inclusive mobile-based financial service and success in the university student market.

The current, fast market changes require enterprises to dynamically adapt the way they conduct their business. This poses many challenges for information technology. Market requirements for immediate response to business changes became the basis of the idea of a real-time information processing (RTE) company. RTE provides real-time information to employees and business partners. Integrated IT systems supporting management constitute a common platform – the foundation of a real-time enterprise. The aim of the article is to present the basic problems of building an IT system that is the basis of a real-time information processing (RTE) company. It is a summary of our work on this type of system. The article justifies the thesis about the need to build a system for the RTE's requirements and the conditions of its implementation. Such a system is designed to provide employees and business partners with the information they need in real time. The use of integrated systems such as ERP, CRM, SCM, and so on provides the ability to implement the main business processes of a real-time enterprise. The article presents both literature analysis and the characteristics of own work on designing IT systems for RTE. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of success factors (determinants) in system design and the use of MUST methodology (MUST is a Danish acronym for theories of and methods for design activities). The final part of the article presents a proposal for further work on IT systems for RTE in the context of existing trends such as DARQ technology (Distributed Ledger, Artificial Intelligence, Extended Reality, Quantum computing).

Taiwan is facing the dual severe social problems of an aging population coupled with a low birth rate. Aging has given rise to an urgent need for future long-term care and daytime care, while the low birth rate has led to a large number of vacant classrooms on campus. The government is actively developing the policy of reusing idle campuses as daily care centers for the aged. However, the implementation of this policy lacks a set of complete evaluation mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to propose a three-stage site selection assessment model to construct site selection assessment indicators, construct indicator weights using the analytic hierarchical process (AHP), and rank the campuses most suitable for transformation into daily care centers for the aged according to the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The results showed that the convenience of family members’ transportation, access to medical treatment, service life of school buildings, barrier-free spaces, and ventilation condition are all key factors regarding the future transformation of vacant campus spaces into daily care centers. The assessment model could provide a reference to accelerate the decision-making benefits regarding the sustainable reuse of idle campus spaces. First published online 19 November 2020

Today healthcare globally is growing at a rapid pace and despite the huge technological advancement, healthcare still faces primitive challenges and hence results in the poor service and facility to the needy. Layout planning acts as one major reason which requires improvements for the effective and efficient working of the healthcare facilities. This research aims at optimizing several quantitative criteria related to economic, technology and society which are taken into consideration for the decision-making during the evaluation, analysing and selection of the best layout for an existing healthcare facility. Critical areas for the improvement were found out using statistical analysis based on a survey questionnaire and Apple’s layout procedure is utilised to design the different possible layouts for an efficient facility. The seven criteria namely inter-departmental satisfactory level, the average distance travelled and the average time required for staff flow, the average distance travelled and the average time required for patient flow, the average distance travelled and the average time required for material flow were taken into consideration. The ELECTRE methodology was used as multi-criteria decision making based on decided seven criteria for comparing the different layout by methodical and orderly thinking. First published online 23 November 2020

As the collateral for the issuance of urban investment bonds (UIBs), land leasing revenue is the fund that is used to repay the debt with large-scale land hoarding and increasing land price due to China’s rapid urbanization. This paper employs the fixed effect model and panel data from 2006 to 2015 to analyze the influence of land hoarding and price on debt scale and risk of local governments. Results reveal that both land hoarding scale and land price exhibit a positive influence on the UIBs’ scale and risk. However, regional differences are evident. In the Eastern region, the correlation between land asset and UIBs can be testified. First published online 19 November 2020