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Consumers are often faced with a choice to rent or buy. Beyond the economic attributes such as price, limited research has examined how specific product attributes influence consumers' choices. We show that unethical product attributes influence consumers' choice between renting and buying. Across six studies, we demonstrate that consumers are more likely to choose renting over buying when an unethical product attribute is present (vs. absent) because consumers anticipate feeling less guilt about renting (vs. buying) a product with unethical attributes. Consistent with the anticipated guilt mechanism, this effect is greater for consumers with higher guilt-proneness and with stronger self-brand connection. Taken together, we show that consumers use renting as a coping strategy to reduce negative emotions associated with using unethical products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) include sustainable cities and communities. The availability of housing for young people is a contemporary global problem, and the severity of housing problems for young people in many countries is widely discussed and raises important policy questions. Generation Z, described as digital, critical, adventurous, open-minded and, above all, mobile people, is now entering adulthood. The study attempted to identify the housing preferences of young people to determine whether they prefer renting a flat or owning one. Although generation Z differs from older generations in many respects, their perception of the housing issue does not differ significantly from the attitudes presented by older generations. The dominant model of the housing system in Poland, the non-commodified-familial model, which prefers ownership over renting, is also shared by the youngest generation. Hence, the conclusion addressed to the public authorities and the financing system is to enable the expansion of the credit offer supported by a long-term savings plan aimed at young people. Renting as an alternative way of securing housing needs is also perceived positively, with nearly 80% of respondents stating that they would be able to live in rented accommodation, mainly due to greater mobility, rising property prices and reluctance to take out a long-term loan. Hence, we suggest the need to support institutional renting along the lines of other countries with similar housing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research into the fast-growing segment of the rental market fits perfectly with the current wave of excitement. In this research, we attempt to answer a fundamental question: how large is the rental segment in Poland? To our surprise, the answer to this key question remains wrapped in mystery, with an absence of continuous studies disclosing its true size.

Agricultural mechanization is one of the key components that enhance agricultural intensification. Thus, this study investigates determinants of agricultural machine renting of smallholder farmers using cross-sectional data obtained from 192 agricultural machine users and 208 non-users of agricultural machine smallholder farmers from West Gojjam zone, Ethiopia. Three districts were selected because of the presence of agricultural mechanization intervention The data were collected from 400 households selected randomly and proportionally from Wonberma, Burie Zuria, and Dembecha districts from January to April 2021 year. To describe and analyze the data descriptive statistics and econometric model were used. The descriptive statistics show among agricultural machine renting households about 25.3% households were rented tractor, 22.3% combine harvester 28.54% maize Sheller and other farmers use two or all three types of machines simultaneously. The result of multivariate probit model showed that correlation coefficient between tractor and combine harvester, tractor, and maize Sheller, and combine harvester and maize Sheller were 63.1, 48.2, and 68.6%, respectively. The positive sign indicates the adoption of one type of machine enhancing the marginal productivity of other types of machines. Adoption of agricultural machine renting were influenced by age of households, level of education, ownership of oxen, total cultivated land, extension visit, and information access from extension agent positively and significantly. On the other hand, family size, distance to development agent and distance to the nearest market were negatively and significantly affect agricultural machine renting. Based on the finding, this paper recommends that the governmental and non-governmental organization should focus on the strengthening of formal and informal education, development of infrastructures, and extension visit which promote agricultural machine renting services.

This article considers how house-sharing – sharing a home with other, usually unrelated people – is mediated by digital technologies. Drawing on academic literature on house-sharing and self-(re)presentation in digital cultures, interviews with share-house residents in Melbourne, Australia, and user posts in house-sharing groups on Facebook, we identify a sequence of steps and stages integral to the process of (re)forming a share-house in the competitive private rental market. These include advertising, screening, vetting, digital interactions, interviews and house tours. Considering this multi-stage process from the dual perspective of 'home-seekers' (applicants) and 'housemate-seekers' (existing household), we analyse how both parties deploy representational and communicative strategies, explore the conventions and complexities underpinning these interactions, and present a conceptual framework that explicates the process. The article contributes to scholarly debates about mediated practices of self-(re)presentations, and about house-sharing as a significant practice in a housing market that renders home ownership increasingly unaffordable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital real estate technologies (Proptech) have rapidly become ubiquitous in many nations—including Australia—their presence reshaping how tenants, landlords and agents navigate private renting. How Proptech are mediated by regulatory settings and responses shapes their presence, impacting on their potential for both subtle and overt forms of discrimination. In this paper we draw on our Australian-based research to illustrate the utility of a rental schema to develop understandings of digital reconfigurations and their discrimination effects in the private rental sector. Our research sought to identify and examine discrimination against renters across the entire experience of renting—particularly in relation to new and emerging forms of discrimination arising from, or exacerbated by, digital technologies. By focusing on the experiences of renters, the schema that we employed inverts Proptech approaches that create and target new assets for financial extraction through the rental sector, instead recognising the discriminatory potential of such approaches. We signal the utility of this renter-experience-centred approach to examine the rental sector through a discrimination lens, and the real and potential role for regulation including, but not limited to, a focus on digital technologies. Incorporating research, alliance-building and advocacy into our schema bolsters its renter-centredness and reiterates the necessity of these efforts at housing justice for urgent regulatory reform. We point to our own nascent efforts in collaboration with Australian tenant advocacy groups—inspired by others—to use digital technologies to subvert embedded power imbalances that drive discrimination in Australia's private rental sector.

The text discusses residential rentals in Latin American cities as real estate innovations that have transformed both the nature of the relationship between landlords and tenants and the way in which this relationship is established, which today is permeated by digital platforms and mystified by the idea of the sharing economy. By dealing with mercantile relationships based on rent, it brings to the debate, from a critical perspective, a theoretical approach to the foundations of rent, seeking to show that rent is not a product of property ownership and should not be confused with land rent, but is the product of a particular social relationship between landlord and tenant. Some examples of innovations in the forms of short-term residential property rental and multifamily property are analyzed using primary and secondary research sources. The text concludes that these innovations highlight the contemporary platamorphisation of real estate in its relationship with finance, creating new market niches and guaranteeing the expanded reproduction of capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to explore the motivational drivers and barriers that influence consumers' participation in three online collaborative clothing consumption models (i.e. renting, swapping and buying second-hand clothing). A survey was used to collect primary data from South African consumers (n = 766) aged 19 years and older, who shopped online. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to uncover the factors influencing participation in the three models. Subsequently, three multiple regression models determined which drivers and barriers influenced the particular collaborative clothing consumption model. A collaborative lifestyle was the only driver for renting while swapping was positively affected by hedonic dimensions, collaborative lifestyle and economic benefits, and negatively impacted by hygiene issues, unfamiliarity with the concept and materialism. Motivational drivers for buying second-hand clothing were hedonic dimensions, environmental benefits, and economic benefits, while hygiene issues, unfamiliarity with the concept, online trust issues, and materialism prohibited second-hand buying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the threat of the climate emergency intensifying and limited time left to reduce irreversible consequences, the need to consider how natural resources are excavated and managed from cradle to grave intensifies. This positions the circular economy (CE) as being highly relevant, particularly for the fashion industry, which is criticised for encouraging continued frequent and impulsive consumption of inexpensive garments with limited longevity. Advancing the circular fashion economy (CFE) has received little attention. Limited research to date has found that consumers have not been socialised to consider fashion acquisition as a collaborative or sharing activity, revealing an established attitude–behaviour gap that prohibits the advancement of the sustainable-fashion agenda. Primarily, fashion is imbued with social and emotional capital, as experienced with the dominant social paradigm (DSP) of fast fashion. This paper argues that similar tactics can be adopted for sustainable fashion practices through the CFE by exemplifying a case study of a fashion-renting platform, "Wardrobe," that enables consumers to rent fashion owned by influencers and celebrities. In doing so, the paper makes four contributions to the knowledge: Firstly, in developing a conceptual framework from research examining fashion, sustainable fashion, and the CFE, the paper illuminates how fashion marketing emphasises social and celebrity capital to appeal to consumer emotions, encouraging frequent impulsive consumption, and how this can be transferred to the CFE. Secondly, the DSP is contextualised alongside the theory of disruptive innovation to understand how social norms of fashion consumption can be disrupted. Thirdly, although there is an emerging literature stream examining the CE and CFE, this focuses more on consumer practice and behaviours, and little attention has been paid to how the CFE can be marketed to engage with consumers. Fourthly, this paper illuminates how similar marketing tactics used by fast fashion can be exploited to advance the CFE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) people's housing experiences are under-explored in Australia. Previous Australian and international research in social geography and housing studies suggests that this group experiences a range of barriers to secure and affordable housing, confirming the need for further insight in the Australian context. This article examines LGBTIQ housing tenure and satisfaction, drawing on data from two Australian surveys. Our analyses of nationally representative data from the Housing, Income and Labour Dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey, and state-specific data from The Tasmania Project, identify significant differences in housing tenure, and housing satisfaction between LGBTIQ and non-LGBTIQ Australians. We find LGBTIQ Australians are more likely than non-LGBTIQ to rent their homes and less satisfied with their housing overall. We also identify novel differences in housing patterns within LGBTIQ communities. The experiences and needs of LGBTIQ people must be considered for housing policy and services, as well as efforts to address housing stress and homelessness in Australian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of commercial banks and financial institutions has been described as crucial for the circular economy since they are key actors in financing companies and projects. The facilitating potential of some financial instruments managed by the financial sector has not been studied in connection to extending the circular economy in the environmental accounting framework. Particularly, the renting contracts service, which has been associated with more sustainable performance, shows interesting circular characteristics for servitization and the sharing economy. By studying the details of renting contracts of a financial institution over 18 years as a case study in Spain, this research demonstrates how this type of service, applied to vehicles, can render important benefits in terms of use of resources, environmental impact, energy efficiency and reduced carbon emissions. Measuring these quantitative impacts and reporting about them is important from an environmental accounting basis and in the framework of the European Union taxonomy for sustainable finance. The results obtained from the stakeholders’ perspective highlight the pivotal role of existing financial instruments and the need for new metrics for reporting linked to the servitization of the economy as a specific circular issue. This paper contributes to the academic literature by bringing empirical results to a still recent line of research. For practitioners, we provide innovative metrics for circular economy in the financial sector, and for policymakers, this research highlights the wider role of financial institutions in promoting circular economy within the sustainability framework.

This study focuses on how to implement digital marketing in heavy vehicle rental of a construction company, PT. Tussens Krida Utama (private company). this study uses qualitative methods with secondary data that are collected personally from PT. Tussens Krida Utama. The respondents of this study are managers and two employees. The methods used to collect data are direct observation and research on relevant documents. This study reveals that there are marketing ways that can be applied in a construction company that can contribute to significant income for the company, this is digital marketing. This study shows that the PT. Tussens Krida Utama has a high desire for digital marketing in order to develop the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rental discrimination is a key factor in the reproduction of socio-economic inequality under emergent rentier capitalism within the asset society. Our research into the effects of discrimination in the Australian private rental sector shows how factors including age, race, gender and socio-economic status intersect to shape experiences of discrimination. A compounding and exponential discriminatory burden – financial, psychological, and physical – confronts those experiencing discrimination based on more than one factor. Yet, to date, policy aimed at improving housing experiences has largely been ad hoc and carried out in policy siloes. We argue for an intersectionalized approach to housing research, planning and policy, highlighting the conceptual value of intersectionality for responding to structural disadvantage and lived experiences of discrimination amid rentier and asset logics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal (FCSRJ) is a multidisciplinary journal which includes housing and interior design as one of the eight topic areas. To increase the visibility of housing and interior design, this review focused on housing research by presenting a summary of the 27 housing and interior design articles published in FCSRJ between 2008 and 2022. The following categories emerged: history, culture, housing counseling, issues and trends, affordability, renting versus owning, college students, and older adults. The results of each published study were timely and productive, and many of the authors called for additional research to explore the topics in more depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postponement of first birth has implications for the health and well-being of women and is often associated with lower fertility levels, a demographic reality affecting most high-income countries. Country-level institutional differences are one factor behind the variation in fertility in these countries. This paper examines the relationship between housing and mean age at first birth across 39 low-fertility countries. Using newly compiled indicators of multiple dimensions of the housing context we explore housing from the perspective of renters and homebuyers and examine differences for former-communist and non-former-communist countries. We use six indicators of the housing context and combine them into three different indexes: renter support index, homebuyer support index, and a combined index of both dimensions. Analyses show that access to housing is associated with age at first birth, but that this relationship has changed over time and is different for former-communist and non-former-communist countries. Findings support theories that expectations regarding the importance of homeownership for family formation are changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumers can obtain skill-based products through a variety of acquisition modes, such as purchase or rental. Despite the rise of nonpurchase acquisition modes, surprisingly little research has explored the effects of differential acquisition modes on consumer behavior. This research begins to fill this gap in the literature by examining the effect of acquisition mode on the expected time necessary to master newly adopted skill-based products and the downstream consequences for consumers and marketers. Results of four experiments and a field study show that purchasing, versus renting, products requiring skill-based learning increases the amount of time consumers expect to be required to master them. Further, the differences in speed of product mastery, in turn, impact subsequent consumer behavior via differential levels of product use commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionHuman beings have numerous needs and try to satisfy them in different ways. One of their most important needs is shelter. Having a shelter is very important since having a proper house has been stated as a right for every Iranian family in the 31st principle of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Also, providing a minimum shelter for all Iranian citizens has been considered as the duty of the government in the 29th and 42nd principles of the constitution. Housing has an important role in the economy of a country and since a house is not transportable, it has a capital value that can affect any country’s development. Owning a house has become more difficult in recent years due to economic fluctuations and households’ decreased purchasing power. Hence, renting a house has become a common phenomenon. In fact, both the number of tenants and even duration of renting are increasing. Meanwhile, each social class may be involved in different levels of intensity related to this social problem. Therefore, it can be said that the difficulties imposed on the middle- and lower-class households have more intensities. This procedure is more prominent in larger cities, especially in Esfahan where new marginal towns are being formed. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the role of unequal political and economic relations in this process and show the issues and complications of the mentioned groups of people. Materials and MethodsThe present research followed the method of critical ethnography with Carspecken's approach. Critical ethnography has been widely used as a study method for dealing with the issues of low-income groups in recent years. This approach aims at redefining some social situations and phenomena by revealing the hidden hypotheses and utilizing the principles of critical theories with the aim of making a link between social phenomena and socio-historical events.Carspecken's 5-stage approach starts with non-participatory field observations so that the researcher first acts as an anonymous observer in the research field and makes initial notes according to his/her observations. The second step is to do a prior structural analysis. In this stage, the researcher organizes his/her in-filed observations and provides an initial analysis of them. He/she raises his/her interpretations in the form of basic categories by using an etic approach and then prepares the conditions to enter the 3rd stage that involves a clear conversation without intermediaries. In this stage, the researcher enters the field again by informing the participants. The second step in this stage is gathering information from the subjects’ ideas and views obtained from personal interviews. The extracted data from these interviews can verify or reject the researcher’s knowledge obtained in the former steps. The 4th and 5th stages are followed together through an etic approach. In these 2 stages, the data obtained via available theories and intersystem relations are analyzed. Accordingly, after conducting primary studies based on the etic approach, filed investigations, initial observations, and identification of tenants in this research, 19 tenants were chosen for a deep interview through an emic approach. Then, the gathered data were coded. The main categories included political and economic inequalities, trading in the housing market, inefficient tax system, economic and political de-subjectifications, tenant merchandising, unequal life and subjectivity, experience of an added class gap, and fear and hope of economic protest.Discussion of Results & Conclusions The present study sought to investigate the situation of tenants throughout Esfahan City from a critical view. Renting is not a new phenomenon, but a struggle for the households, most of whom are from the middle class and have no power for buying a house. It is not a choice for experiencing different houses, but a coercion for the middle-class people. It is a permanent coercion that destroys some family members’ personal development opportunities. Since the families’ incomes are mostly paid for rent day after day, this situation makes them less capable for long-term planning. The biggest concerns imposed on tenants are financial worries and economic fluctuations, unbalanced average income and everyday expenses, as well as the lack of management in the housing sector. Since political affairs affect people’s lives, along with economic affairs, especially more intensely in developing societies, tenants are more involved in the implacability of life capacities. In fact, when both economic and political fields play roles to decrease citizens’ welfare, people fall by default at a distance from their decision-making fields. These people usually get a defensive position in response and decrease their needs though suffering from their social class decline anyway. The results in this study showed that economic fluctuations had disrupted Esfahani tenants’ lives, which were fluctuating themselves like financial markets. Their life qualities had decreased, while they were experiencing an increasing class gap. As a result, marginal living around big cities was being increasingly formed.

An increasing focus in aged care policy is supporting older people to age at home. However, there is little recognition of the health and independence of older private renters living in a space they do not own or control. This paper draws on in-depth interviews and assessments undertaken in the homes of 27 older tenants in the Brisbane environs aiming to understand how renting privately influenced their ability to meet their basic needs. An analysis of the findings highlights the disadvantage experienced by many older private renters. Most older private renters were unable to meet their basic needs given unaffordable rent whilst reliant on the aged pension. Further, with limited access to community aged care including home modifications, the health and independence of older private renters was found to be at risk. IMPLICATIONS Community aged care is difficult for older private renters to utilise in Australia, with unaffordable services and tenancy law limiting access to community aged care services including home modifications. It is vital social workers advocate for the community aged care needs of older private renters in practice and policy settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Akademik Hassasiyetler is the property of Huzeyfe Suleyman Arslan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rising rents play an important role in the displacement of residents through gentrification processes in Germany. Applying an interactionist approach and conceptualising gentrification as an emergent phenomenon that results from an interaction process, we explore how residents of the gentrifying district Altona-Altstadt in Hamburg deal with situations of rent increases. Four strategies emerge: de-problematisation, unwilling consent, changing the field of action and confrontational rejection. Using an interpretive analysis and the concept of the 'moral economies of housing', we investigate the normative and strategic conditions of these strategies and how they contribute to or counteract housing-related displacement. This analysis contributes to qualitative research on how residents experience gentrification and negotiate situations relevant to displacement, and, thereby, to the exploration of power in the tenant–landlord relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ireland's housing situation in the 2020s is similar to many other Anglophone countries, including Australia and the UK: A deepening housing crisis, an increased reliance on the private rental sector, and a residual ideological preference for homeownership, despite this increasingly being a less viable option for 'Generation Rent'. Using Fullilove's concept of rootshock, we argue that tenant perceptions of landlords' actions and beliefs can contribute to a sense of rootlessness: no or few ties to the spatial setting of the dwelling. Using work done by resistance scholars, we also demonstrate that the inability to feel fully ontologically secure in one's residence often leads to attempts by the tenant to make roots in their dwellings or resist rootlessness to create the sense of being at home. Based on qualitative research undertaken in 2019 with renters in three Irish cities, Dublin, Cork and Galway, we examine everyday forms of resistance, to explore the possibilities tenants carve out for themselves in order to survive and exist in the private rental sector and conclude by asking how we can learn from these practices to think about how to improve living standards for tenants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Insurantial imaginaries' describes the shared structures of comprehension and action that establishes the social value of insurance and its practical influence. As insurance is a bricolage of economic, legal, political, cultural and moral elements that vary across time and space, for insurance to be intelligible and functional, these imaginaries render this dynamic complexity into stable and discrete forms. In this paper, we explore one such imaginary constituted through the intersection of housing and insurance norms, vis a vis house and contents insurance, in home-owning democracies. Drawing on the cases of Australia and the United Kingdom, we observe how a rise in renting in these countries is resulting in an increase in underinsurance, with renters less likely to insure their assets. This is refashioning a long-standing insurantial imaginary shaped by socio-cultural aspirations for home-ownership, liberal norms of individual autonomy, and links between home-ownership and democracy, including participation in voting. In observing that this imaginary valorises home-ownership and insurance, and problematises renting and underinsurance, we draw attention to the covert power of insurance in co-constituting everyday practices and identify a novel spatialised insurantial imaginary. In grounding our analysis within home-owning democracies, we also make a broader contribution to economic and financial geography by extending understanding of the complex spatial nature of financial mechanisms and processes, and how market-based economies appear to be reconfiguring democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a research which examines the challenges, policy priorities, and consumer preferences in the Australian rental sector during an evolving covid-19 pandemic. Topics discussed include emerging policy priorities for governments in the Australian rental sector, tenants' experiences at different stages of the pandemic and tenant housing plans and future housing aspirations.

Abstract Background Poor acoustic conditions at home can have negative health impact. The aim was to investigate home environment factors and medical symptoms associated with noise disturbance. Methods All adults (≥18 y) registered in selected apartments in Sweden were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey including medical questions and personal factors. Totally 5775 adults participated (response rate 46%). Information on home environment was obtained through an indoor environment questionnaire. Two-level logistic regression models (individual, municipality) were performed to estimate associations. Results Totally 11.9% reported noise disturbance in general at home. Noise disturbance from voice/radio/TV/music/similar sounds from neighbours (13.2%), scraping sound/footsteps/thumping from neighbours (16.5%) and road traffic (16.1%) were common. Younger age and smoking were related to more noise disturbance and more medical symptoms. Noise disturbance was related to tiredness, headache and difficulty concentrating (OR = 1.70–8.19). Renting the apartment (OR = 2.53) and living above ground floor (OR = 1.37) were related to more noise disturbance in general. Living in newer buildings (constructed from 1986 to 2005) was related to less noise disturbance in general (OR = 0.40–0.59). A warmer climate (OR = 1.95), higher municipality population density (OR = 1.24), a longer living time (OR = 1.34), construction year (1961–1975) (OR = 2.42), renting (OR = 1.80–2.32), living above ground floor (OR = 1.45) and having a bathroom fan (OR = 1.84) were associated with increased noise disturbance from neighbours. Factors associated with increased noise disturbance from installations or ventilation/fans/heat pumps included a warmer climate, higher municipality population density, construction year (1961–1995), renting and any mechanical ventilation. Higher municipality population density, construction year (especially 1961–1985) and renting were associated with more noise disturbance from traffic (OR = 1.77–3.92). Renting the apartment (OR = 1.73) and living above ground floor (OR = 1.60) were related to more severe traffic noise disturbances. Noise disturbance in general was partly a mediator of the effects of old buildings, renting the apartment and lack of mechanical ventilation on medical symptoms (% of total effect mediated by noise disturbance: 19–44.8%). Conclusions Noise disturbance can be associated medical symptoms. Younger age, smoking, a warmer climate, higher municipality population density and different building factors (e.g. renting the apartment, construction period 1961–1985) can be associated with noise disturbance.

Copyright of Journal of Applied Sociology (1735-000X) is the property of University of Isfahan and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is a growing trend towards renting rather than permanent ownership of various product categories such as designer clothes and accessories. In this article, we study an emerging retail business model that simultaneously serves rental and sales markets. Specifically, we consider a retailer that primarily focuses on renting while also selectively meeting incidental sales demand. Once a unit is sold, the firm forgoes potentially recurring rental revenues from that unit during the remaining periods. Therefore, it is critical for a retailer to dynamically decide how much of its inventory to allocate for sales and rentals at each period. We first develop a consumer choice model that determines the fraction of the market that chooses renting over purchasing. We characterize the optimal inventory allocation policy and explore how market characteristics and prices impact inventory allocation. We discuss the value of dynamic allocation and observe that the profit improvement can be substantial. In addition, we propose a simple and efficient heuristic policy. Finally, we extend our analysis to study the optimal allocation policies for (i) a retailer that is primarily a seller that selectively meets rental demand, and (ii) a retailer that does not enforce any prioritization between rental and sales demand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When people own their homes, they are released from subordination to landlords and can, moreover, enjoy the financial asset those homes represent. By contrast, renting can only ever provide a weaker property right, with restricted rights of use and possession, and rights of alienability limited to handing tenancics back to landlords. However, I want to argue for the advantages of certain forms of renting, precisely because of the limited rights of alienability renting entails: people can rationally prefer secure tenancies because they decrease their control over an asset, which eliminates the need for developing those competencies associated with home/asset ownership. Moreover, in instances when the burdens of homeownership interfere with the functions a home should perform for a person, then making homeownership a condition of housing security is a violation of housing rights. As a consequence, people's right to secure housing should be understood both in terms of freedom from landlords exercising extensive rights of alienability and decoupled from full- liberal ownership. Tenan - cics unlimited by periods of tenure and which are enjoyed free of landlord's rights of alienability thus put into action a right not to own one's home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As is known, sustainability issues represent one of the main challenges companies have to face. Among all, the fashion industry is considered one of the most impactful, both in terms of resource utilization and pollution. Fashion renting is a recent business model for companies to reduce their environmental footprint, following a circular economy approach. The study aims to develop and discuss the proposed hybrid approach to effectively support fashion companies in designing new business models, taking into account both the customer and the company perspective. On the one hand, agent-based modeling (ABM) allow us to represent customers' behaviour and interaction. On the other hand, discrete event simulation (DES) paradigm is used to model fashion renting processes. Because customers' attitude to that service reflects its successful implementation, motivators and barriers have been investigated to be included in the model. The practical implication is defining a model to support fashion companies in designing rental business models before implementing them. From a theoretical point of view, it overcomes the literature gap about the definition of a unique model for fashion renting, including processes, customers and interactions between agents. Follow-up research will include the presentation of simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renters in homeowner societies like Australia, the United States and United Kingdom occupy a complex moral landscape, maligned for failure to achieve homeownership but pivotal to the value of investment properties. Identification of 'good' and 'risky' tenants is an important landlord practice. We investigate how tenants conceptualise and perform the 'good tenant' through research with 36 single older women renting in greater Sydney, Australia: a cohort on the margins of secure housing. The good tenant demonstrates responsibility through paying rent on time and property stewardship (reporting repairs, making home). However, these practices are made necessary and risky through limited tenure security. The emotional and financial risks attending performances of the good tenant drive paradoxical relations; a good tenant is also acquiescent and silent, not reporting property repairs or lapsed leases to avoid rent increases and/or evictions. Variegated performances of the 'good tenant' reflect cultural property norms and valorize the investment function of housing yet could also productively unsettle tenant-landlord relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is a growing distributed list of records that are linked using cryptographic hashes. Its robustness, simplicity, immutability and trust are basis for development of interesting innovative business solutions. Considering some use-case scenarios within the financial sector, we developed a Blockchain based trading application placed on the Cosmos network. Cosmos is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable Blockchains, creating the foundation for new economy. Our work describes the application functionalities for buying, selling and renting goods. It shows the easiness of trading, while eliminating the third parties and demonstrates the disruptive potential of the Blockchain technologies.

Uber, Airbnb, CouchSurfing, Netflix, electric scooters: all of these have become part of our daily lives, just as Allegro.pl, Amazon.com and other network economy businesses already have. Even so, according to their promoters they are a harbinger of a new order. For the market economy, with its anonymous market, sharing economy practices are to be what institutions of direct citizen influence on political decisions are to representative democracy. The economy will at last begin to fulfil actual human needs instead of producing superfluous things on a mass scale. The Earth's devastation and the wasteful exploitation of its resources will cease. Old pre-capitalist economy institutions, spread all over the globe by means of the Internet, will empower the people marginalized by the market and reconstruct the communities weakened by it. Trust will be the greatest capital at people's disposal, both in the local and global exchange of things and services. I do not estimate how realistic this promise is; all I do is present, from the perspectives of both sharing economy advocates and its critics, the specific institutions (in the sociological sense) meant to deliver on it. In the summing-up I highlight the ambivalence towards the market economy that the very idea of sharing itself is burdened with, and consequently, the ambiguity of its self-professed mission: is to be a mere correction to the present-day form of capitalism or an alternative to it? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article discusses a series of theoretical and practical aspects regarding the fiscal mechanism for taxation of income obtained by natural persons tax payers through a maximum number of five foreign currency rental contracts.

Background: Poor acoustic conditions at home can have negative health impact. The aim was to investigate home environment factors and medical symptoms associated with noise disturbance.Methods: All adults (≥18 y) registered in selected apartments in Sweden were invited to participate in a questionnaire survey including medical questions and personal factors. Totally 5775 adults participated (response rate 46%). Information on home environment was obtained through an indoor environment questionnaire. Two-level logistic regression models (individual, municipality) were performed to estimate associations.Results: Totally 11.9% reported noise disturbance in general at home. Noise disturbance from voice/radio/TV/music/similar sounds from neighbours (13.2%), scraping sound/footsteps/thumping from neighbours (16.5%) and road traffic (16.1%) were common. Younger age and smoking were related to more noise disturbance and more medical symptoms. Noise disturbance was related to tiredness, headache and difficulty concentrating (OR = 1.70-8.19). Renting the apartment (OR = 2.53) and living above ground floor (OR = 1.37) were related to more noise disturbance in general. Living in newer buildings (constructed from 1986 to 2005) was related to less noise disturbance in general (OR = 0.40-0.59). A warmer climate (OR = 1.95), higher municipality population density (OR = 1.24), a longer living time (OR = 1.34), construction year (1961-1975) (OR = 2.42), renting (OR = 1.80-2.32), living above ground floor (OR = 1.45) and having a bathroom fan (OR = 1.84) were associated with increased noise disturbance from neighbours. Factors associated with increased noise disturbance from installations or ventilation/fans/heat pumps included a warmer climate, higher municipality population density, construction year (1961-1995), renting and any mechanical ventilation. Higher municipality population density, construction year (especially 1961-1985) and renting were associated with more noise disturbance from traffic (OR = 1.77-3.92). Renting the apartment (OR = 1.73) and living above ground floor (OR = 1.60) were related to more severe traffic noise disturbances. Noise disturbance in general was partly a mediator of the effects of old buildings, renting the apartment and lack of mechanical ventilation on medical symptoms (% of total effect mediated by noise disturbance: 19-44.8%).Conclusions: Noise disturbance can be associated medical symptoms. Younger age, smoking, a warmer climate, higher municipality population density and different building factors (e.g. renting the apartment, construction period 1961-1985) can be associated with noise disturbance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The holy grail of finance researchers and practitioners is to fully understand and explain the behavior of stock returns. The current study offers a new source of risk, which relates to firms' renting expenses. A major topic in finance and economics is whether to rent or own an asset. Specifically, this is interesting for businesses. This study uniquely analyzes a sample of 178,837 US firm‐year observations from 1963 to 2019. This analysis shows that a risk characteristic—the Ratio of Renting expenses To Assets (RORTA)—explains the cross‐section of stock returns. A higher RORTA explains higher expected stock returns. Interestingly, when analyzing only the past decade for robustness, the RORTA is the only characteristic which remains significant when controlling for Size and Book‐to‐Market. That is, Size and Book‐to‐Market are insignificant in the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain is a growing distributed list of records that are linked using cryptographic hashes. Its robustness, simplicity, immutability and trust are basis for development of interesting innovative business solutions. Considering some use-case scenarios within the financial sector, we developed a Blockchain based trading application placed on the Cosmos network. Cosmos is a decentralized network of independent, scalable, and interoperable Blockchains, creating the foundation for new economy. Our work describes the application functionalities for buying, selling and renting goods. It shows the easiness of trading, while eliminating the third parties and demonstrates the disruptive potential of the Blockchain technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When research encounters are conducted within the home environment there is a need for strategies that are ethically and practically sensitive to the complex character of these places. We report on an approach to explore the management practices of damp and mouldy housing, and wellbeing implications for tenants living in private rentals in New Zealand. The objective of paying close attention to the embodied and mental activities that a tenant performs within their home led to development of ‘Home Tours’. This is a multi-modal strategy combining a phenomenological methodology with mobile interviews, photographic elicitation, embodied observations, and logbook reflections in order to account for eventualities occurring during a research encounter within the home. We outline and critically reflect on this approach as a way of investigating tenants’ experiences of damp housing and wellbeing implications in a close-up and ethically sound manner.