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Micro-regeneration can effectively enhance a neighborhood’s commercial vitality and serve as a viable approach to boost economic benefits. However, the small scale of micro-regeneration efforts and the fragmented nature of information currently limit the availability of strong empirical evidence demonstrating its impact on neighborhood commercial vitality. The aim of the study was to examine the link between micro-regeneration and neighborhood commercial vitality, focusing on the average, time-lag, spatial spillover, and spatial heterogeneity effects.

Using the panel data set of 1,755 neighborhoods in Chongqing from 2016 to 2021 as the research sample, the difference-in-differences (DID) method was employed in this study to explore the impact micro-regeneration has on neighborhood commercial vitality.

The results illustrate that: (1) micro-regeneration can promote neighborhood commercial vitality in terms of the number and types of local consumption amenities by 27.76 and 5.89%, respectively, with no time-lag effect; (2) the positive spillovers can exist within the range of 5,000 meters–5,500 meters of regenerated neighborhoods; and (3) the effect of micro-regeneration on neighborhood commercial vitality can be greater in peripheral areas than in core areas of the city.

The findings fill the knowledge gap on the relationship between micro-regeneration and neighborhood commercial vitality. Additionally, the results on the time-lag effect, spatial spillover effects, and spatial heterogeneity provide practical implications that can support the government and private sector in developing temporal and spatial arrangements for micro-regeneration projects.

Within the labor-intensive construction industry characterized by distinctly structural shortages in the labor force worldwide, efficient and effective migration of construction workers across regions is critical for the smooth operation of construction activities. This study aims to investigate how the interregional migration patterns of construction workers are impacted by the disparities in both employment opportunities and environment amenities between the origin and destination provinces.

Drawing on the push and pull theory and the archival data on 13,728 migrant construction workers in China, descriptive analyses are first performed to characterize the interregional migration patterns of the investigated construction workers. Combining regional data in the National Bureau of Statistics of China, this study uses hierarchical regression modeling techniques to empirically test the relative importance of the employment-related and environment-related factors in driving the interregional migration of construction workers after controlling for the effects of related economic and geographic factors.

The results provide evidence that the interregional migration of construction workers is principally driven by the disparities in employment opportunities while disparities in environment amenities (including climate comfort disparity, medical service disparity and educational service disparity) generally play much fewer substantive roles. With regard to the impacts of employment opportunities, the results provide evidence that compared with the disparity in job market size, the disparities in job income and industry development level are more significantly relevant factors, which positively pull and adversely push the interregional migration flows, respectively.

This study contributes to a deepened understanding of how workers specifically balance their employment and amenity needs to make temporary migration decisions in the “laggard” labor-intensive construction industry. This study also adds to the literature on population migration by characterizing the specific characteristics of construction workers and the temporary nature of the workers' migration activities. The findings hold important practical implications for construction organizations and policymakers for effectively managing the mobility of migrant construction workers.

The extant literature on migrant construction workers has primarily focused on the consequences of international migration and the generalization of empirical findings on population migration mechanisms in other domains to the construction industry is substantially limited by the specific characteristics of construction workers and the temporary nature of their migration activities. In addressing this gap, this study represents an exploratory effort to quantitatively characterize the interregional migration patterns of construction workers in the labor-intensive construction industry and examines the roles of employment opportunity and environmental amenity in driving interregional migration.

This study aims to examine the determinants that influence housing prices in Dammam metropolitan area (DMA), Saudi Arabia, by using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) model. The study considers determinants such as building age (BLD AG), building size (BLD SZ), building condition (BLD CN), access to parking (ACC PK), proximity to transport infrastructure (PRX TRS), proximity to green areas (PRX GA) and proximity to amenities (PRX AM).

The AHP decision model was used to assess the determinants of housing prices in DMA, using a pair-wise comparison matrix to determine the influence of the investigated factors on housing prices.

The study’s results revealed that building size (BLD SZ) was the most critical determinant affecting housing prices in DMA, with a weight of 0.32, trailed by proximity to transport infrastructure (PRX TRS), with a weight of 0.24 as the second most influential housing price determinant in DMA. The third most important determinant was proximity to amenities (PRX AM), with a weight of 0.18.

This study addresses a research gap by using the AHP model to assess the spatial determinants of housing prices in DMA, Saudi Arabia. Few studies have used this model in examining housing price factors, particularly in the context of Saudi Arabia. Consequently, the findings of this study provide unique insights for policymakers, housing developers and other stakeholders in understanding the importance of building size, proximity to transport infrastructure and proximity to amenities in influencing housing prices in DMA. By considering these determinants, stakeholders can make informed decisions to improve housing quality and prices in the region.

This study aims to identify factors affecting travellers' behavioural intentions regarding beach destinations in Bangladesh. The study also examines how destination experience and satisfaction mediate the nexus between destination service factors and travellers' behavioural intentions.

A self-administered survey was carried out to gather data from 375 people who had visited the beaches in Cox's Bazar. Data were examined using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the hypotheses.

The destination experience mediates the relationship between destination service factors and complaint intention but does not mediate the relationship between destination service factors and word of mouth (WOM). Moreover, destination satisfaction mediated the relationship between destination service factors and WOM, along with complaint intention.

This study's findings can be utilised by the Bangladeshi destination management to increase the number of tourists by instituting and maintaining improved destination service features in popular tourist destinations.

This is one of few studies on beach tourism destinations in Bangladesh that comprehensively overviews destination service factors and their influence on tourists' behavioural intentions, with a special emphasis on the mediating roles of destination experience and destination satisfaction.

This paper aims to investigate the effects of school quality (SQ) on residential property prices in Johannesburg, South Africa. Previous studies have empirically examined the quality of private and public schools without a standard proxy that is accepted in the literature. As a result, this paper extends the literature to the global south by the effect that SQ has on residential property price changes in the local markets of the City of Johannesburg.

The research adopts the hedonic pricing model to evaluate and quantify the impact that the structural attributes such as erf size; number of bedrooms and bathrooms; and SQ measured by pass rates, sport rankings and quality of facilities have on house prices. A total of 2,763 property transactions covering the Kensington and Observatory areas of the City of Johannesburg over the period 2010 and 2020 were obtained from the deeds registry and used for the empirical analysis.

The study finds that SQ has a positive impact on house prices. When the average pass rate of the model school increases by 1%, all other things being equal, house prices also increase by 1.8%. This suggests that people who live closer to the model school are willing to pay more when the school performance improves. The 1.8% premium this study attributes to a 1% increase in school performance is however generally low when compared to some findings in the literature suggesting that there may be some other important factors that households consider when purchasing their home.

The main contribution is uncovering the relationship between the SQ and residential property prices in the local markets, using Kensington and Observatory in Johannesburg as sampled areas. Due to the presence of reliable and quality of data sets, such studies are not many in the global south and a study of this nature in South Africa is notably not existing in the literature.

Past research often relies on linear relationship assumptions from the perspective of managers when studying the relationship between attribute performance and satisfaction. However, this study extracts tourists’ online reviews to explore asymmetric relationships and identifies island tourism satisfiers, hybrids and dissatisfiers.

The research uses 3,523 reviews from Tripadvisor to examine Langkawi Island’s tourist satisfaction. Latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) machine-learning approach, penalty–reward contrast analysis and asymmetric impact-performance analysis (AIPA) were employed to extract and analyse the data.

Langkawi’s dissatisfiers included “hotel and restaurant”, “beach leisure”, “water sport”, “snorkelling”, “commanding view”, “waterfall”, “sky bridge walk”, “animal show”, “animal feeding”, “history culture”, “village activity” and “duty-free mall”. Amongst these, five were low performers. Hybrids encompassed “ticket purchasing”, “amenity” “traditional food market” and “gift and souvenir”, all of which were low performers. Only one attribute was categorised as a satisfier: “nature view” which performed exceptionally well.

This study provides recommendations to enhance tourist satisfaction and address tourist dissatisfaction. The elements requiring immediate attention for enhancement are the five low-performance dissatisfiers, as they represent tourists’ fundamental expectations. Conversely, the satisfier or excitement factor (i.e. nature views – mangroves and wildlife) could be prominently featured in promotional materials.

This research constitutes an early endeavour to categorise attributes of island tourism into groups of satisfaction, hybrid or dissatisfaction based on user-generated data. It is underpinned by two-factor and three-factor theories.

This study aimed to the attributes, consequences and personal values that motivate the behavior of consumers of fruits and vegetables (FV) at local markets and how these elements are associated with food safety.

This is a qualitative research that used the laddering in-depth interview technique for data collection. Fifty interviews were conducted with consumers from Minas Gerais, Brazil. From the codification of the interview content, a hierarchical value map was constructed, showing the relationships between the attributes, consequences and values involved in the consumers’ purchasing decision.

Consumers value characteristics related to the origin of the product and the way it is produced and marketed. They seek particular benefits – such as satisfaction with the purchase, care for their health/well-being and safety when consuming food – and social benefits, such as the possibility of contributing to the local economy. Issues related to hygiene, organization, exposure and handling of products were some of the concerns reported by respondents with regard to food safety.

It is worth highlighting the application of the laddering technique itself. Analyzing the predictive validity of the method, there is a propensity for biases linked to possible interference by the researcher, especially in the coding stage of the elements.

This study can be used by producers, marketing professionals and public policymakers to promote FV sold at local markets and to encourage the improvement of food safety practices.

The research points to five consumer segments according to the different motivations that guide their purchase behavior for local FV. In addition, a focus is given to food safety, revealing its importance in the investigated context.

The lack of a proper register to store, match and display information on the adapted property has led to a waste of resources and prolonged delays in matching the disabled and elderly people with appropriate properties. This paper presents the development of a Housing Adaptations Register with user-matching functionalities for different mobility categories. The developed system accurately captures and documents adapted home information to facilitate the automated matching of disabled/aged applicants needing an adapted home with suitable property using banding, mobility and suitability index.

A theoretical review was conducted to identify parameters and develop adaptations register construct. A survey questionnaire approach to rate the 111 parameters in the register as either moderate, desirable or essential before system development and application. The system development relied on DSS modelling to support data-driven decision-making based on the decision table method to represent property information for implementing the decision process. The system is validated through a workshop, four brainstorming sessions and three focus group exercises.

Development of a choice-based system that enables the housing officers or the Housing Adaptations Register coordinators to know the level of adaptation to properties and match properties quickly with the applicants based on their mobility status. The merits of the automated system include the development of a register to capture in real-time adapted home information to facilitate the automated matching of disabled/aged applicants. A “choice-based” system that can map and suggest a property that can easily be adapted and upgraded from one mobility band to the other.

The development of a housing adaptation register helps social housing landlords to have a real-time register to match, map and upgrade properties for the most vulnerable people in our society. It saves time and money for the housing associations and the local authorities through stable tenancy for adapted homes. Potentially, it will promote the independence of aged and disabled people and can reduce their dependence on social and healthcare services.

This system provides the local authorities with objective and practical tools that may be used to assess, score, prioritise and select qualified people for appropriate accommodation based on their needs and mobility status. It will provide a record of properties adapted with their features and ensure that matching and eligibility decisions are consistent and uniform.

Existing Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools such as “Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design - Neighborhood Development” (LEED-ND) and “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM Communities) are widely criticized for a lack of transparency in the selection of indicators and an unbalanced focus on specific sustainability dimensions.

This paper asks how the expectations and use values of the professionals and residents involved in developing, designing, managing and living in a sustainable neighborhood can shape sustainability indicators that affect progress towards project goals. Taking as its focus The Sustainable City (TSC), a neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the paper develops data from in-depth, go-along interviews with 46 different actors.

Findings indicate that when given the opportunity to express their opinion, many actors will prioritize metrics different than the metrics dictated to the by sustainability experts and international rating systems. The findings suggest that NSA tools should place greater emphasis on local factors, public engagement and operational concerns.

The paper provides a method that any community can replicate to better understand the different use values of local actors and establish its own NSA tool. This can help experts learn how design, management and operational decisions interact to impact different dimensions of performance.

This paper recognizes sustainable neighborhoods as spaces with multiple identities. Hence, the indicators used to evaluate these neighborhoods need to be based on the expectations and use values of different actors. This paper proposes using the priorities of different local actors to reshape how these neighborhoods are assessed.

Sacred forests are biocultural landscapes deeply rooted in centuries-old traditions of spiritual veneration. These sacred sites, including shrines, temple forests churches and graveyards, have historically been significant reservoirs of traditional resource management practices underpinned by spiritual reverence. However, despite their cultural and ecological importance, the cultural ecosystem services inherent to these sacred forests remain unexplored, particularly in urban settings.

This study focused on six sacred sites within Kanazawa City, Japan, using a meticulous face-to-face survey with 342 participants. We collected data on the extent of forest utilisation, the breadth of activities engaged in by visitors and their holistic appraisal of the rendered cultural ecosystem services. The findings illustrate the multifaceted benefits of urban sacred forests, encompassing participation in religious ceremonies, cultural events and festivals, complemented by educational programming that elucidates the historical and traditional underpinnings of the shrines and their surrounding communities.

It has been observed that urban forests have a crucial role in providing spiritual and communal connectivity, preserving traditional heritage, offering vital aesthetic values as green spaces and making visitors connected with nature while they are in the urban landscape. However, a concerning trend has emerged, as the younger demographic appears to lack interest in participating in the stewardship and cultural activities associated with these biocultural landscapes. Community engagement strategies must be strengthened, conservation measures should be implemented and cultural awareness programs need to be established to ensure the perpetuation and appreciation of these valuable urban sacred forests.

This study provides original perspectives on the measurable cultural ecosystem services and intangible values associated with urban sacred forests using the sacred forests in Kanazawa City, Japan. Our research illuminates the various advantages that visitors derive by examining the intersection of spiritual traditions, resource management practices and cultural significance, which has been relatively unexplored. The present study provides a significant basis for establishing initiatives that seek to promote the cultivation of respect and responsibility towards urban sacred forests.