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The paper looks at the influence of adding more projects on overall investment feasibility under conditions of uncertainty, and how far into the future the project cash flows should be relied upon, given that the project owner expects a reasonable level of feasibility attached to the investment.

The paper presents a formulation for the feasibility of the multi‐project case under uncertainty. A second order moment analysis method is adopted. Existing theory is extended to take into account the presence of multiple projects with a requirement imposed on feasibility by the project owner. In tandem with the theoretical development, example case study numerical results are presented.

With a conventional deterministic discounted cash flow analysis, the feasibility calculations change little in going from one to many projects. However with uncertainty attached, the feasibility calculations need to be reworked and become more complex, the issue of feasibility becomes less transparent on going from one to many projects, distinct feasibility transition points disappear, and feasibility is found to vary over the projects' time horizons.

The need for the analysis given in this paper resulted from an actual investment decision. The paper formulation provides interesting insight into feasibility calculations, and will be of use to practitioners engaged in front‐end project investment risk work.

The paper provides original commentary on the feasibility of multiple projects and the time‐variant nature of feasibility.

Buy/sell decisions in the property market, as in most markets, are based on individual or professional opinions that the exchange price is below or above the individual’s opinion of worth. This article considers the RICS definition of worth and explores other definitions and meanings in the property investment market. It reviews the current provision for DCF in standards or information papers and concludes that, while the International Valuation Standard Committee’s definition of market value is now recognised on a world basis, confusion over the meaning of “worth” and the use of DCF will continue if similar international standards are not agreed.

The application of hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) can mitigate inadequate access to clean, stable and sustainable energy among households in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Available studies on HRES seem to concentrate only on its techno-economic and environmental viability. In so doing, these studies do not seem to underline the likely challenges that follow the acquisition of HRES by especially low-income households. The ensuing reality is, of course, a limitation in the use of HRES in homes with low incomes. It is therefore imperative to analyze how a household with low income can afford this kind of energy system. The purpose of this study, therefore, lies in presenting a techno-economic, environmental and affordability analysis of how HRES is acquired.

To arrive at a grounded analysis, a typical household in SSA is used as an example. The analysis focused on the pattern of energy use, and this is obtained by visiting an active site to evaluate the comprehensive load profile. In the course of analysis, an optimal techno-economic design and sizing of a hybrid PV, wind and battery were undertaken. Additionally, an acquisition analysis was done based on loan amortization.

The interesting result is that a combination of the photovoltaic-gasoline-battery system is the most cost-effective energy system with a net present cost of $2,682. The system combination can lead to an emission reduction of approximately 98.3 per cent, compared to the use of gasoline generating sets, common mostly in SSA. If an amortized loan is used to purchase the energy system, and the payment plan is varied such that the frequency of payments is made quarterly, annually, semi-annually, bi-monthly, semi-monthly and bi-weekly, it will be observed that low-income household can conveniently acquire a HRES.

The result presented a framework by which a low-income household can purchase and install HRES. To facilitate this, it is recommended that low-income households should be given interest-friendly loans, so as to enhance the acquisition of HRES.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a holistic way of incorporating biophilic building design that creates a restorative environment attractive to prospective urban hotel employees. This study additionally examines the role of perceived well-being from nature attributes and associated impacts on emotions and likelihood to choose to work for a hotel with nature attributes.

This study used a conjoint analysis to detect the most resotrative individual and combinations of biophilic attributes that can improve employee well-being. In addition, nature attributes influence on emotions and intentions to work for a hotel were analyzed.

Results showed that not all nature attributes are equally evaluated by urban hotel prospective employees. In this study, the authors found that natural lighting, outdoor green views and indoor landscaping are important factors in the evaluation of an urban hotel with biophilic features. However, this tendency varies when the sample was divided by prospective employees’ who perceived higher or lower levels of well-being would be influenced by nature attributes.

Unlike previous studies, the authors tested a multiattribute design and results demonstrate the perceived restorative effect of nature attributes in an environment on prospective employees. In addition to extending the biophilic design in hospitality literature, the authors provide practical suggestions to urban hotels incorporating biophilic design and propose that specific elements have the propensity to enhance the well-being of prospective employees and reinforce positive emotions and intentions to work for urban hotels that incorporate them.

The paper published below was prepared by Taylor Ostrander for Frank Knight’s course, Economic Theory, Economics 301, during the Fall 1933 quarter.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the main factors that influence the organizational change in a steel company.

The methodological procedures used were literature review and survey. The literature review allowed the listing of 24 factors and these factors were grouped into three constructs (Behavioral Aspects, Cultural Aspects and Management Aspects). The survey allowed the quantification of each factor based on information provided by employees who work in the mentioned company. The data collected were analyzed using the Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling technique.

For the Behavioral Aspects, the following factors were validated: fear of the unknown; insecurity and anxiety; stress and feeling of suffering. For the Cultural Aspects the following factors were validated: multiculturalism in the company; low degree of risk acceptance and low performance acceptance; excessive concerns about consensus. Finally, for the Management Aspects, the following factors were validated: lack of clarity in communications; lack of alignment of goals; lack of leadership engagement.

The results are valuable for the company studied and for other managers interested in subject. The findings presented here can broaden the debate about this topic and contribute with professionals that wish to evaluate the mentioned factors.

Provides a brief overview of the methods that used in real estate valuation with a particular emphasis on the valuation of specialised property. Proposes that the underlying requirement is to estimate market value and that the role of the valuer is to choose the method that is the best model to achieve this objective. Concludes that a valuer must work with the recognised techniques and, in the case of specialised property, these are methods that go back to analysing value from first principles by identifying the value of the property to the business.

The rise of the ‘green movement’ in Europe over the last 10 years has been quite astonishing. From being dismissed as cranks and eccentrics, they have reached the position where they are either important pressure groups (as in the UK) or have real political power (in those countries that have proportional representation). This pressure and power has implications for the way in which businesses carry out their activity. We are already seeing the ‘greening’ of commerce, starting with those organisations who are nearest to the end user such as retail stores. This ‘greening’ process will move backwards up the supply chain over the next few years to influence many organisations.

Previous articles this year (Facilities, Vol 5/No 4 and Vol 5/No 8) have introduced the concept of life cycle costing, its use in design and its value as a facilities management tool. The arguments for decision making based on the total economy of solutions rather than just on the initial cost are becoming widely recognised and accepted, but are only slowly being put into practice.

Since 2000 house prices have risen much more rapidly than rents. This has resulted in questions being raised about the traditional relationship between residential rents and property values. The objective of this paper is to determine if changes in private sector residential rents can be used to forecast changes in New Zealand house prices. The hypothesis being that there is a strong linkage between income and value in both the share markets and commercial property markets and the same effect is likely to be true for housing.

The relationship between changes in residential rents and changes in house prices over the period 1993‐2005 was determined by using correlation analysis. Cross correlations were calculated with rents leading and lagging house prices by seven half yearly periods. These calculations were computed for all New Zealand and the three main cities (Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch).

The highest correlation coefficients between rents and house prices occurred when rents lagged house prices by six months. This finding supports the contention that rents drive house prices and not vice versa.

The main limitation with the study is the private sector data only covers a relatively short time period (1993‐2005). Longer rental time series are unreliable because they include periods when social housing rents were set at market levels and longer periods when rents were subsidised.

Housing in New Zealand appears to be over priced because with net yields generally less than half mortgage interest rates there is an over reliance on capital gain that is not supported by rental income.

The study identifies the effect of net migration on rents and explains why rental supply tends to lag demand.