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Homeownership has been the main focus of housing policies in most countries. Typical means that households use to achieve homeownership is to take out a loan and supplement this with accumulated wealth for a downpayment. This paper aims to analyze the mortgage demand behavior of households in the UK, Australia and Japan.

Using three panel data sets, HILDA for Australia, KHPS for Japan and USS for the UK, the paper estimates three equations using ordinary least squares: mortgage demand function, housing demand function and initial loan to value ratio function.

Though homeownership is a preferred tenure and the mortgages are “recourse” loans, housing markets in these three countries operate in different mortgage market institutional structures. Results indicate that income elasticity of mortgage demand differ despite income elasticity of housing demand being similar. Different mortgage institutions in countries that pose constraints for borrowers also determine mortgage demand. Other factors such as demography and economic conditions have also played an important role in determining mortgage and housing demand.

The paper is first, to the authors’ knowledge, that explores the role of institutions in mortgage demand in a comparative framework for the UK, Japan and Australia.

The purpose of this study was to explore strategies used by developers of master-planned housing development projects in Victoria, Australia, for obtaining certification under the Urban Development Institute of Australia’s (UDIA) EnviroDevelopment (ED) sustainable development certification programme. To be awarded ED certification, a development must demonstrate that it meets the assessment criteria within at least four of the six ED “leaves”. These leaves relate to its performance in terms of energy, water, materials, waste, community and ecosystems. This study explored how developers make choices regarding sustainability features they build into the planning, design and management of their developments to gain the leaves needed for ED certification. Having this certification is valued by developers as it can be used to demonstrate the sustainability credentials of their developments to potential house buyers, the validity of which is backed up by a trusted independent non-profit organisation (UDIA).

The study sought to quantify the preferential weightings of nine developers in selecting ED “leaves” and the strategies they use for meeting the assessment criteria needed to obtain selected ED leaves. This was done using a novel data collection and analysis method, the analytical hierarchical process (AHP), which relies on respondents, in this case, developers of ED certified development projects, making pairwise comparisons between choices of different development factors associated with the different ED “leaves”.

The most highly preferred ED leaves were found to be community, energy and ecosystems. “Community facilities” and “on-site transportation” were the two most highly weighted factors associated with the community leaf. Energy, the next most preferred leaf, was most highly weighted on “saving on operational costs” for the consumers (home buyers). Here consumer demand factors seem to be driving preferences. The ecology leaf was the next most preferred, with “existing site conditions” being the most highly weighted factor for this leaf. For sites that already contain significant areas of indigenous habitat, such as wetlands, selecting this leaf would seem to be an attractive, and potentially lower cost, option. Existing ecologically significant natural areas that are preserved, and where necessary enhanced, can be used for marketing purposes and serve in fulfilling planning open-space contribution requirements. The developers were more indifferent to the water, waste and materials leaves; however, the water leaf was rated slightly higher than the other two and was most strongly associated with “recycled water” and opportunities for “water conservation”, another example of demand factors driving preferences.

The results of this study reveal the preferences of a small sample of developers in terms of how they weigh different factors in making decisions about acquiring sustainability certification for residential master-planned development projects through the UDIA’S ED programme. The findings provide insight into the types of decisions developers make in the process of seeking ED certification, which includes considerations of site characteristics, costs, predicted effectiveness of different interventions and usefulness for marketing and other factors in terms of which ED leaves to pursue and how to acquire them to gain ED certification. The study also tested the AHP method as a methodological tool for addressing this question. Modifications in how data are collected using the on-line survey can be made to allow the method to be more easily used with larger respondent sample sizes. Collection of more focussed data elicited from respondents with specific areas of expertise, for example, specialists in energy, water, landscape architecture and planning, ecology and other relevant areas of knowledge, should also been considered.

Property often forms the biggest component of household wealth and assets. Irrespective of landowners’ willingness, the act of compulsory acquisition abruptly ceases the security that this ownership carries. This often induces dissatisfaction among affected landowners over the: loss of “property rights”; loss of commodity, or property; and loss of future opportunities associated with the property. Though there have been attempts in various land acquisition laws and a practice to compensate acquirees for their loss, the dissatisfaction of acquirees has persisted. The persisting resistance of landowners compels deeper insight into the process of compulsory purchase and the compensation mechanism to understand underlying causes for resistance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent of involvement of these different stakeholders, at various stages in the compulsory purchase process, using stakeholder interaction analysis. Results obtained from this research will be helpful in identifying the gaps in the process of compulsory purchase of land for public projects in Australia.

A survey of ten different stakeholder groups has been conducted to inquire the level of interaction of different stakeholders at various stages of compulsory purchase process. A comparative study was then performed to identify the gaps between the advocated process (suggested in the literature) and the process adopted by stakeholders.

The results illustrate that: affected landowners seek involvement at the initial stage when the project plan is under preparation and compulsory purchase declaration are not finalised; objectors (from the public) seek opportunities to convey, to the public agency, their views even though the accountability of public agencies towards this stakeholder is nil; and strong interactions are established during negotiation over the compensation amount thus signifying the urge of acquirer and acquirees to avoid monetary losses and time delays.

This research will be useful in identification of pain points in the compulsory purchase process for public projects. This shall help in evolution of fairer mechanism of land acquisition.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and propose a framework for environmental impact assessment of packaging material being used to package a product.

The research considers parameters identified in the literature by the use of “Delphi Technique”. Based on available data, methods of measurement of the parameters are carried out. Furthermore, a metrics is proposed for measurement of environmental impact. Based on the metrics, the research proposes a framework for environmental impact assessment by use of Dominic’s method. The research validates the proposed framework through Pahl and Beitz method.

The proposed framework establishes a metrics for measurement of 16 parameters for environmental impact assessment. The framework can be used to compare a set of alternate packaging material for the same product for its environmental impact. The framework also provides a quantitative measure of the environmental impact assessment of a product packaging.

The research can be used to evaluate a packaging as compared to its alternate. It can also be used to propose suggestions for improving the environmental impact of packaging in comparison to its alternate.

The data considered for establishing of metrics for measurement of parameters for environmental impact may not be available in all practical situations in the similar way as considered in the research.

This paper proposes a framework for environmental impact assessment for product packaging considering data in the Indian scenario.

Over the past few years, the electronic media, as represented by the internet version of print media and independent blogs of journalists, has become a major player in the coverage of incidents related to violence against women. While this has brought forward issues of violence and specifically rape prominently into the public sphere, the media portrayal of women has often been as victims or victims who are somehow responsible for the violence against them. Such portrayal has been repeatedly challenged by feminists. Using data from 572 national and international English media reports for a six-month period (from December 2012 to April 2013) the coverage of the protests about the 2012 case of gang rape and eventual death of Jyoti Singh Pandey in India’s capital city, New Delhi, is examined in this chapter. Drawing from past research, three main frames are discerned in the portrayal of women in the reports: mainstreaming gender, endangered woman, and the ungendered woman. Media portrayals of these three frames by three broadly categorized actors most prominently covered by the media reports are analyzed: activists, state representatives or political actors, and ordinary citizens. The findings suggest that while some reports allude to women’s agency and rights particularly when they cover feminist activists, women’s agency is marginalized in the debates around safety and protection for women when other actors (such as state representatives or political actors, and ordinary citizens) are considered. Indian women’s rights have been reduced to passive messages negating the broader politics of the contemporary women’s movement.

The concept of sustainable livelihoods – commonly understood as managing of means of living without undermining natural resources – has gained momentum in international development discourse. This review focuses on broadening of conceptualisation of policy intervention process for sustainable livelihoods approach and synthesis of evidence to track development in their knowledge structure.

Evidence available in the literature systematically reviewed with the established methods and themes of interest are curated, to assess the characteristics, mechanisms and caveats arising in policy and practice.

The authors found seventy-five independent studies that fit into the pre-specified research protocol and objectives. The authors classify these studies into six major themes: Economic wellbeing; Opportunities and capabilities; Climate and natural resources; Policy design; Formal-informal institutional environment; and Labour, entrepreneurship and exports. Various research gaps and directions for future research are also discussed.

The study provides a typology of reviewed literature examining the profile dynamics. Thematic analysis resulted into identifying complementarities and trade-offs and results demonstrate multiple heterogeneity in structures, processes and outcomes.

The definitive areas of interventions are discussed to broaden the utility of the concept in a structured way. This review paper brings a comprehensive view of livelihood intervention system and contribute in enriching the social policy perspective.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2022-0402

This study intends to identify, prioritize and rank the enablers for organizational work–family balance (WFB) planning specifically for working sole mothers by employing the fuzzy Delphi and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method.

This paper utilizes the integrated methodology in two steps. Initially, a broad literature review and the fuzzy Delphi method have been utilized to recognize and validate the key WFB enablers. Afterward, the AHP approach has been applied to prioritize and detect the relative importance and rank of identified WFB enablers.

This paper has identified 9 WFB sub-enablers for working sole mothers under work, family and personal enablers. The work enablers obtain the first rank based on the highest importance weight followed by personal and family enablers. The findings indicate the top five sub-enablers: organizational work–family culture, work from arrangements, emotional intelligence, flexible work schedule and family support.

The findings offer prioritized areas of concern to the human resource managers and administrators to manage these WFB enablers as per their priority in the direction to formulate the organizational WFB policy-planning specifically for sole mothers.

The prioritized WFB enablers amongst working sole mothers may help sole mothers to manage their social, family and work-related roles in a more effective manner.

Based on the best of the authors' considerations, this study firstly incorporates the fuzzy Delphi-AHP method to prioritize and rank the WFB enablers to organizational WFB planning for sole mothers.

The present study seeks to evaluate the role of village bamboo management in the rural landscape of North East India in global climate change mitigation.

A set of 100 home gardens and 40 bamboo groves were selected from Irongmara and Dargakona village, in Cachar district, Assam, North East India through random sampling. Sampling was done mostly for smallholders. Culm growth, carbon storage, carbon sequestration and carbon in litter floor mass and soil of bamboo growing areas in homegarden was explored from 2003‐2007.

Culm growth extension revealed the brief periodicity of culm growth in a single growth period. Of the total carbon storage soil contributed 84.6 per cent of the total (50.1 Mg ha⁻¹) followed by carbon in above ground vegetation 15 per cent (9 Mg ha⁻¹) and carbon in litter floor mass 0.4 per cent (0.2 Mg ha⁻¹).

Bamboo plantation development and its management in home gardens has social, ecological and economical benefits for the rural life in North East India and its promotion can become an effective choice for climate change mitigation strategy.

Bamboo forms an important component in the traditional home garden system of North East India where the practice of bamboo cultivation and management provides an important sink for CO₂. Village bamboos play an important role in local economics, societies and environments and, considering its potential to mitigate global climate change, the authors recommend the promotion of bamboo in agroforestry expanding practices and rehabilitation of degraded lands. Management of village bamboos in rural landscape is highlighted in context to environmental sustainability and as a sink measure under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of Kyoto Protocol.

This study, an exploratory research, aims to investigate social media users' expectations of information systems (IS) products that are conceived but not yet launched. It specifically analyses social media data from Twitter about forthcoming smartphones and smartwatches from Apple and Samsung, two firms known for their innovative gadgets.

Tweets related to the following four forthcoming IS products were retrieved from 1st January 2020 to 30th September 2020: (1) Apple iPhone 12 (6,125 tweets), (2) Apple Watch 6 (553 tweets), (3) Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 2 (923 tweets) and (4) Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 3 (207 tweets). These 7,808 tweets were analysed using a combination of the Natural Language Processing Toolkit (NLTK) and sentiment analysis (SentiWordNet).

The online community was quite vocal about topics such as design, camera and hardware specifications. For all the forthcoming gadgets, the proportion of positive tweets exceeded that of negative tweets. The most prevalent sentiment expressed in Apple-related tweets was neutral, but in Samsung-related tweets was positive. Additionally, it was found that the proportion of tweets echoing negative sentiment was lower for Apple compared with Samsung.

This paper is the earliest empirical work to examine the degree to which social media chatter can be used by project managers for IS development projects, specifically for the purpose of end-users' expectation management.