Search results

The aim of this paper is to forecast the office property returns in Helsinki CBD using both short‐run and long‐run econometric specifications. Real economy, monetary and financial market indicators are included in these specifications to explain the variation in office property returns and forecast them. The paper illustrates the steps that analysts can follow to select models based on common diagnostics criteria and ex post forecasting evaluation tests. The findings of this research are in accordance with the results of previous comparative research in Europe and suggest that the growth of the gross domestic product in Finland is a key variable for modelling and forecasting office property returns in Helsinki. Moreover, the analysis indicated that information from a long‐run relationship of the gross domestic product and the real office return index should be monitored in the future as a way of improving the forecasts through an error correction model. It is predicted that Helsinki office returns will show a growth of about 7.1 per cent on average in the period 1999‐2001.

The purpose of this study is to explore public servants’ perspectives on return to office, hybrid work model and digital government. This is done by answering two research questions: what benefits and challenges public servants foresee with return to office and whether hybrid work enables or impedes digital government initiatives.

This research is designed as a mixed methods study of federal and provincial governments in Canada based on the analysis of Reddit data. Research methods include machine-assisted toxicity and sentiment analysis and manual content analysis to identify emerging themes.

The findings highlight public servants’ mostly discussed concerns with return to office. Other notable discussion topics include resistance to the hybrid work model and identifying the ways how it would be operationalized. Some supported return to office.

This study’s limitations are related to using Reddit as the data source and user representation on Reddit. The main implications are its contribution to emerging literature on the future of work and digital government.

This study highlights that perspectives of public servants are paramount for development and implementation of transformational initiatives and offers insights for public sector managers on how to incorporate these into practice while improving the efficiency of digital government initiatives and the system.

This study addresses the gap in literature by seeking to understand the perspectives of public servants in a variety of roles as well as implications of transition to hybrid work on digital government and future of work initiatives.

The purpose of this paper is to explore capital gains, income, and total returns in various property markets in Europe. In a comparative study the nature of returns for different commercial and residential properties is investigated. Hereby, total returns, income returns, and capital growth are distinguished. The paper further presents an analysis of the risk‐return relationship of the different markets and investigates the interactions between property markets, other local financial markets, and macroeconomic variables.

Focusing on the risk‐return relationship of the different asset classes and countries, the Sharpe ratio is used as a risk‐adjusted performance measure to investigate the European markets. Using a simple linear regression model, a comparison of the European commercial property markets with respect to their returns and risk are provided. Finally, a capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and factor models based on arbitrage pricing theory (APT) are used in an effort to further explain the spreads and risk premiums for individual property markets.

The large differences between the markets regarding spreads, risk premiums, and risk‐return relationships are found. Overall, the Dutch market can be regarded as giving the highest compensation for the risk taken by the investors in the last decade, while the German market performed the worst and was the only market with negative capital growth rates for the considered period. Applying the CAPM, It has also been found total returns in commercial property markets are not significantly related to the performance of stock market indices. On the other hand, factor models using macroeconomic variables are able to explain a higher fraction of property total return spreads over the risk‐free rate in the considered countries. But depending on the country, different macroeconomic variables were estimated to be significant such that there is no single factor model available that could be applied to all European markets. Overall, these findings indicate that classic financial models drawing on existing datasets are unable to satisfactorily explain the performance of property as an asset class. On the other hand, the fact that property office markets yield relatively high returns that exhibit rather low correlations with stock market returns, makes them a very suitable candidate for portfolio diversification.

The paper investigates the risk‐return relationship in various European property markets. The large differences between the markets observed also partly explain the diversity of literature results on this relationship across single countries by, e.g. Goetzmann, Englund, or Bourassa et al. By using classic financial models like the CAPM or APT a contribution to the literature is made by explaining the factors that actually determine property returns over the risk free rate in different countries.

This study aims to critically evaluate the COVID-19 and future post-COVID-19 impacts on office design, location and functioning with respect to government and community occupational health and safety expectations. It aims to assess how office efficiency and cost control agendas intersect with corporate social accountability.

Theoretically informed by governmentality and social accountability through action, it thematically examines research literature and Web-based professional and business reports. It undertakes a timely analysis of historical office trends and emerging practice discourse during the COVID-19 global pandemic's early phase.

COVID-19 has induced a transition to teleworking, impending office design and configuration reversals and office working protocol re-engineering. Management strategies reflect prioritisation choices between occupational health and safety versus financial returns. Beyond formal accountability reports, office management strategy and rationales will become physically observable and accountable to office staff and other parties.

Future research must determine the balance of office change strategies employed and their evident focus on occupational health and safety or cost control and financial returns. Further investigation can reveal the relationship between formal reporting and observed activities.

Organisations face strategic decisions concerning both their balancing of employee and public health and safety against capital expenditure and operation cost commitments to COVID-19 transmission prevention. They also face strategic accountability decisions as to the visibility and correspondence between their observable actions and their formal social responsibility reporting.

Organisations have continued scientific management office cost reduction strategies under the guise of innovative office designs. This historic trend will be tested by a pandemic, which calls for control of its spread, including radical changes to the office at potentially significant cost.

This paper presents one of few office studies in the accounting research literature, recognising it as central to contemporary organisational functioning and revealing the office cost control tradition as a challenge for employee and community health and safety.

This paper examines the extent of the short-run relationship between Australian real estate investment trusts (A-REITs) and direct real estate returns on both a commercial property sector and a prime and secondary grade basis, i.e. a subsector basis.

Two-step methodology is used. First, we identify the dynamic interdependencies between A-REITs and each commercial property subsector to determine whether the returns of A-REITs lead each subsector or vice versa. Second, short-run deviations between these asset returns are estimated by measuring their individual response behaviours to changes in key economic and financial market factors that are expected to influence these returns.

Results suggest that each subsector shares a unique relationship to A-REITs, given each prime and secondary grade commercial property return series varies in behaviour. Some property subsector returns can be predicted by movements in A-REIT returns, whereas returns for others move independent to changes in A-REITs. Similarly, some subsectors commove with A-REITs in response to changes in certain market factors, whereas others diverge. As such, these findings have practical significance to fund managers and portfolio selection, as each commercial subsector embodies its own exposure to A-REITs and vulnerabilities to market forces. Subsectors that commove with A-REITs in response to certain market forces may be used as substitutes in a portfolio. Alternatively, subsectors that diverge from A-REITs in response to market forces may offer diversification benefits when combined.

These findings extend beyond existing research to offer critical decision-making guidance at the acquisition level, as fund managers may more closely consider the impact that prime or secondary grade properties within a given commercial sector may have on a portfolio that consists of public and private Australian real estate. Ultimately, a more informed acquisition may be carried out as consideration of a property's asset grade allows for a deeper insight into the property's risk profile and its anticipated short-run impact on a portfolio.

This paper extends previous studies that focus mostly on aggregate or sector-level returns by measuring REIT and real estate dynamics at the subsector level, allowing for practical significance at not only the portfolio level but crucially at the acquisition level, a pivotal decision-making stage for fund managers. This is also the first paper to study REIT and real estate causality and response patterns to changes in market factors at the Australian sector level.

This study aims to investigate whether the shift to teleworking during COVID-19 pandemic is going to diminish the need to procure/rent extensive office space and how this emerging trend impacts the real-estate market in Israel.

The methodologies used in this study include triangulation of Google search engine, survey and post hoc case study analysis.

The analysis indicates a decline both in procuring office space and its price per square meter. Employee productivity while teleworking remains relatively high despite home distractions. Interestingly, the survey results forecast a continuous shift to hybrid work mode after the pandemic.

The study introduces the development of numerous innovative Israeli technologies to allow a gradual return to work in public places.

As the coronavirus outburst, business sectors were forced by government regulations to change the way of employment extensively, specifically, teleworking has become an integral part of the routine to accommodate social distance. The study provides insights into the impact of teleworking on gender and ethnic diversity in the Israeli workplace.

Israel provides a unique bedrock for investigation because of its status as a start-up nation with both high skilled workforce and advanced information technology infrastructure. The study enlightens an Israeli perspective on how a small size country with a high-density population succeeds to deal with coronavirus by teleworking coupled with strict government enforcement of social distance.

Members of Congress become involved in scandals on a regular basis. These range from personal imbroglios, like sexual affairs or substance abuse, to professional scandals like embezzlement of campaign funds, abuse of office, or insider trading. As a common feature of congressional life, scholars have shown that scandals frequently disrupt the electoral and legislative trajectories of representatives' careers.

However, it must be remembered that congressional offices are comprised of more than just an individual member. Congressional offices are legislative enterprises, and a representative's staff are integral to his or her political and lawmaking activities. Accordingly, studying how scandals relate to the careers of congressional staff is an important but overlooked topic.

In this chapter, the authors investigate the relationship between members' malfeasances and the careers of the staff around them. The authors combine a list of congressional scandals with a dataset that captures the turnover of staff in congressional offices. The chapter proceeds in four parts. First, the authors describe the structure of a congressional office and the relationship between members and their staff. Next, the authors provide an overview of scandals in Congress and what previous literature has uncovered about their effects. Third, the authors examine staffing patterns and turnover in offices hit by scandal, uncovering evidence that scandals are associated with staff departures. The authors end by considering how Congress as an institution could help to protect and support employees who are caught up in a member's poor choices.

The authors take a historical perspective and compare office market performance metrics and CMBS loan delinquency rates over the past two years with previous downturns.

What will happen to the office sector in the post-pandemic era? we examine this question from three perspectives. First, the authors discuss the (short-term) risk of commercial real estate investment with high inflation and rising interest rates. If investors want to use CRE as an inflationary hedge, the cash flow must increase enough to counteract growing cap rates given rising interest rates.

As it turns out, the COVID-19 recession has been notably innocuous. Third, the authors focus on medical office space – an emerging investment option for the office sector.

The authors remain somewhat positive (or at least less downbeat) about the future of the office market based on the data they reviewed.

The office market is experiencing an odyssey rather than an exodus, at least in the short run. However, the authors remain cautious and they are monitoring key signs, prepared for the possibility of (r)evolutionary change in the office sector.

This study aims to examine the key components to facilitate flexible work arrangement (FWA) and the issues and challenges arisen in preparing the workplace for FWA during Covid-19, and to recommend better approach of FWA implementation in workplace.

This study adopted extensive literature review and case studies approach using interviews and observations to determine the key components to facilitate FWA and the issues and challenges arisen in preparing the workplace for FWA during Covid-19, and to recommend better approach of FWA implementation in workplace. Three offices that owning FWA experience during Covid-19 and featuring flexible workspace concepts, elements and layouts in Klang Valley, Malaysia were chosen as case studies.

Findings have suggested that there are four components required to form flexible workspace for FWA adoption, such as open plan workspace design, task-oriented space, hot desking policy and IT infrastructure. Interestingly, the interview findings do not support the idea that the flexible furniture can facilitate FWA; instead, they believe that versatile, acoustical and aesthetical furniture may be installed when necessary. Among the issues and challenges faced were rearranging and designing open office plan layout, hot desk relocation and reconfiguration of spaces where people may congregate. Lastly, this research recommends that innovative planning software and tools, smart technology and apps, modern IT technology and infrastructure, and digital apps can be introduced to the workplace to help FM manage and monitor the facilities operations, workplace situations and occupancy rates.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19, FWA such as “Work From Home” and remote working have become the mainstream in the workplace, affecting how the workplace looks and feels as flexible working is fundamentally related to the flexible workspace. From Facilities Management (FM) perspective, FWA is the biggest consequence of Covid-19, but it also presents opportunities and certain challenges to incorporate a new office environment and employees’ needs in terms of FWA into the corporate culture.