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Commonly used rent indices are based on average developments or expert opinions. Such indices often suffer from compositional biases or low data coverage. The purpose of this paper is to overcome these challenges using the authors' approach.

The authors construct a quality-adjusted rent index for the office market in Oslo using detailed data from 14,171 rental contracts.

The authors show that compositional biases can have a large impact on rental price developments. By adding building-fixed effects to a standard hedonic regression model, the authors show that the explanatory power increases considerably. Furthermore, indices excluding location-specific information, or which include less granular location controls than at the building level, portray quite a different picture of rent developments than indices that do take this into account. The authors also exploit information on contract signature date and find that a more timely detection of turning points can be achieved by using the signature date instead of the more typically used start date of the lease.

The study is confined to Norwegian data, and an avenue for future research would be to explore if similar results are obtained for other countries. A weakness with the paper is that authors' do not observe quality changes over time, such as renovation. Controlling for time-varying and unit-specific attributes in hedonic models for the commercial real estate (CRE) market would be useful to purge indices further for compositional effects and unobserved heterogeneity. While the authors do control for building-fixed effects, there are additional variations within a building (floor, view, sunlight, etc.) that the authors do not capture. Studies that could control for this would certainly be welcome, both in order to estimate the value of such amenities and to see how it affects estimated rent developments. Another promising avenue for future research is to link data on rental contracts in the CRE market with firm-specific information in order to explore how firm profitability and liquidity may affect rental contracts.

The authors show that the hedonic index yields a sharper fall in rents after the global financial crisis and more muted developments in the period between 2013 and 2015 than the average rent index. The results show that rents have followed their estimated equilibrium closely and have re-adjusted quickly in periods of deviation. From a financial stability perspective, the risk of a sharp fall in rents is reduced because rents often are in line with their fundamentals.

The authors find that a more timely detection of turning points can be achieved by using information on the signature date. This is an important finding. The financial system is heavily exposed toward CRE, and timely detection of turning points is critical for policymakers.

The financial system is heavily exposed toward the commercial real estate market and timely detection of turning points is of major importance to policymakers. Finally, the authors use our quality-adjusted rent index as the dependent variable in an error correction model. The authors find that employment and stock of offices are important explanatory variables. Moreover, the results show that rents have followed their estimated equilibrium path.

This paper investigates the dependence structure and market risk of the currency exchange rate portfolio from the Malaysian ringgit perspective.

The marginal return of the five major exchange rates series, i.e. United States dollar (USD), Japanese yen (JPY), Singapore dollar (SGD), Thai baht (THB) and Chinese Yuan Renminbi (CNY) are modelled by the Bayesian generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) (1,1) model with Student's t innovations. In addition, five different copulas, such as Gumbel, Clayton, Frank, Gaussian and Student's t, are applied for modelling the joint distribution for examining the dependence structure of the five currencies. Moreover, the portfolio risk is measured by Value at Risk (VaR) that considers the extreme events through the extreme value theory (EVT).

The finding shows that Gumbel and Student's t are the best-fitted Archimedean and elliptical copulas, for the five currencies. The dependence structure is asymmetric and heavy tailed.

The findings of this paper have important implications for diversification decision and hedging problems for investors who involving in foreign currencies. The authors found that the portfolio is diversified with the consideration of extreme events. Therefore, investors who are holding an individual currency with VaR higher than the portfolio may consider adding other currencies used in this paper for hedging.

This is the first paper estimating VaR of a currency exchange rate portfolio using a combination of Bayesian GARCH model, EVT and copula theory. Moreover, the VaR of the currency exchange rate portfolio can be used as a benchmark of the currency exchange market risk.

The purpose of this study is to examine how customers’ perceptions of brands’ social media interactivity impact customer engagement behaviors (CEBs) (e.g. customer purchases, referrals, influence and knowledge) while accounting for the moderating role of brand type and social media platform.

Two separate online surveys (Study 1 (N1) = 341, Study 2 (N2) = 183) were conducted to measure the constructs of interest. Regression analyzes tests research hypotheses; PROCESS Model 1 was used to test the moderating roles of brand type and platform. Further, the pick-a-point approach (i.e. spotlight analysis) was used to probe the interaction terms.

The results indicate that when customers perceive a brand to be highly interactive on social media (vs inactive), they are more willing to buy brand offerings, refer the brand in exchange for monetary incentives, inform their family and friends about the brand on social media and provide feedback and suggestions for improving the brand. Furthermore, the positive impact of perceived social media interactivity on customer purchases, referrals, influence and knowledge varies across brand and social media platform types.

Online surveys using convenience samples were conducted to assess the constructs of interest. Archival data may provide an avenue for further insight. Future research may be able to track actual online customer behavior using such data. Further, researchers are encouraged to corroborate the results found here over time as the winds of social media shift to new platforms.

The results suggest that interacting on social media encourages customers to contribute to brand value directly (through purchasing) and/or indirectly (through referring, influencing and suggesting). While all brands may leverage social media activity for success, the positive impact of perceived social media interactivity on CEBs is particularly impactful for non-global 500 brands. The results also indicate that customers are more willing to add value to the brand through purchases and suggestions when they perceive the brand to be highly interactive on both social media networking sites and the brand’s website. However, they are more willing to promote this brand and influence their social networks about it only when they perceive the brand to be highly (vs less) interactive on its own website.

This study examines the novel issue of the impact of perceived social media interactivity on different CEBs while accounting for the moderating role of the brand and platform used by customers. The results provide value in better understanding the levers through which social media affects performance.

Six years ago, Bonneau et al. (2012) proposed a framework to compare authentication schemes to the ubiquitous text password. Even though their work did not reveal an alternative outperforming the text password on every criterion, the framework can support decision makers in finding suitable solutions for specific authentication contexts. The purpose of this paper is to extend and update the database, thereby discussing benefits, limitations and suggestions for continuing the development of the framework.

This paper revisits the rating process and describes the application of an extended version of the original framework to an additional 40 authentication schemes identified in a literature review. All schemes were rated in terms of 25 objective features assigned to the three main criteria: usability, deployability and security.

The rating process and results are presented along with a discussion of the benefits and pitfalls of the rating process.

While the extended framework, in general, proves suitable for rating and comparing authentication schemes, ambiguities in the rating could be solved by providing clearer definitions and cut-off values. Further, the extension of the framework with subjective user perceptions that sometimes differ from objective ratings could be beneficial.

The results of the rating are made publicly available in an authentication choice support system named ACCESS to support decision makers and researchers and to foster the further extension of the knowledge base and future development of the extended rating framework.

To date e‐Learning material has usually been accessed and delivered through a central web server. As the number of users, the amount of information, the frequency of accesses and the volume of data increase, together with the introduction of multimedia streaming applications, a decentralized content distribution architecture is necessary. In this paper we propose the adaptation of the well‐known scalable Content Distribution Networks (CDN) schema for media streaming supported e‐Learning using a novel architecture named COMODIN SCDN (COoperative Media On‐Demand on the InterNet ‐ Streaming Content Distribution Network). COMODIN SCDN utilises surrogates as edge content delivery nodes, incorporates a redirection mechanism able to route requesting clients to the closest copy of the content, encompasses distributed content delivery and management mechanisms to improve the speed, reliability, and scalability of user access to prevent flash‐crowds. Preliminary results in testbeds have shown that COMODIN SCDN increases the efficacy of information distribution through intra and inter‐campus area netwoks. This overlay network will provide learners and educators a scalable, balanced and expeditious access to e‐Learning contents.

THIS issue opens the new volume of THE LIBRARY WORLD and it is natural that we should pause to glance at the long road we have travelled. For over forty years our pages have been open to the most progressive and practical facts, theories and methods of librarianship; our contributors have included almost every librarian who has held an important office; and we have always welcomed the work of younger, untried men who seemed to have promise— many of whom have indeed fulfilled it. In the strain and stress of the First World War we maintained interest and forwarded the revisions in library methods which adapted them to the after‐war order. Today we have similar, even severer, problems before us, and we hope to repeat the service we were then able to give. In this we trust that librarians, who have always regarded THE LIBRARY WORLD with affection, will continue to support us and be not tempted because of temporary stringency, to make a victim of a journal which has given so long and so independent a service.

Only a day or two ago the Stars and Stripes were floating over the House of Lords and the invigorating “Battle Hymn of the Republic” was sung at St. Paul's in the presence of the King Emperor. The events were unique, and to all Britons happy in prophecy. English librarians have long admired their American brethren and their work; and of late they had read with regret the rather querulous remarks in at least one American library journal about the restrictions on book imports incidental to the blockade, and such phrases as “we have friends in both countries,” which gave the impression that our American friends failed to distinguish between the moral value of right and wrong in this world‐struggle. All this was intensified by the fact that every Briton in his heart believes the American to be of his own household, “to come of the blood,” and the want of understanding which we thought we detected was a particularly bitter thing. Of course this was a superficial view, and many of us realized how great was the sympathy between the English speaking races, and how difficult for the American the interracial problems of his country. Now, however, the air has been clarified, and the English librarian may look upon his American brethren as at one with himself in the struggle to preserve that freedom in the world which pervades the literature of our common language.

In the run‐up to the 1992 single‐market deadline, there were concerns that inter‐industry adjustment pressures among EU member countries would increase. Such expectations were due partly to a perceived reversal of the post‐Second World War growth in intra‐industry trade (IIT). Finds that average IIT levels continued to rise during the implementation of the single market. It is argued that the concept of marginal IIT(MIIT) is of greater relevance to adjustment than “static” IIT. Some evidence is shown to support this proposition, and a comprehensive set of intra‐EU MIIT indices is calculated for the 1980s. Since average MIIT levels in the 1988‐92 period were higher than in the early 1980s, this analysis also supports the conclusion that, on average, adjustment to the single market was no more disruptive than that experienced during earlier stages of European integration. It also appears that the forces for inter‐industry adjustment are stronger in traditional, declining industries, whereas the expansion of relatively advanced industries tends to be more evenly shared by the EU member countries.

Cipla-Medpro acquisition: the pre- and post-merger story.

The learning outcomes are as follows: to develop a deeper understanding of the pre- and post-merger factors that should be considered in an M&A transaction; to develop an appreciation of the human capital and organisation cultural aspects involved in cross-country M&A’s; to develop an understanding of the role of leaders and an integration team to make an M&A realise the intended value; and to develop a sensitivity for doing an M&A in a developing country like South Africa.

This case study creates opportunities for discussing both pre-merger and post-merger dynamics to create a sensitivity that multiple factors contribute to a successful merger and acquisition strategic move. It is intended for classroom discussion only and does not represent correct or incorrect handling of the situation.

The complexity is MBA level. This case is primarily focussed on M&A’s as part of a course in Strategic Management (MBA level) but can also be considered for a course on Strategic HRM.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS: 11 Strategy.