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1 – 10 of over 2000Kim Hin David Ho, Satyanarain Rengarajan and John Glascock
The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure and dynamics of Singapore's Central Area office market. A long-run equilibrium relationship is tested and a short-run…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure and dynamics of Singapore's Central Area office market. A long-run equilibrium relationship is tested and a short-run adjustment error correction model are estimated, incorporating appropriate serial error correction. The long-run equation is estimated for office rent, with office employment and available stock.
Design/methodology/approach
With the vector error correction model (VECM), the lagged rent, available stock, office employment, vacancy and occupied stock (OS) can impact the rental adjustment process. Equilibrium rent on the whole reacts positively to lagged rents, available stock, office employment, OS and negatively to vacancy rates (VC). Past levels of positive change in VC and rental growth can have negative effects on current OS.
Findings
While good economic conditions signaled by increases in rents increase the supply of new stock (available space), higher rents and VC dampen the long-term occupied space (space absorption) in accordance with economic theory. Available stock can be forecasted by past rent and absorption levels owing to the developer's profit-driven nature.
Research limitations/implications
An understanding of the interaction between the macroeconomic variables and the Central Area office market is useful to domestic and foreign investors and developers, who then can better evaluate their decision making in commercial real estate investment and development projects.
Practical implications
It is implicit that the Singapore Central Area office market requires at least a year before any rental increase can potentially dampen the space demanded. Firms are attracted to locate there owing to agglomeration economies and they are willing to pay premium office rents in conjunction with office space intensification in the Central Area. Newly built space is positively affected by past rents. Urban Redevelopment Authority and private real estate developers should be wary of excess office sector vacancies by avoiding over supply, even though an increase in the supply of office space in the Central Area can have a positive impact on office rent in the longer term. Most of the office space development would tend to meet the demand in the long run. Rental stickiness is exemplified as rental changes are affected by lagged rent.
Social implications
Policy makers are better enabled to stabilize the office sectors of the real estate market if so required.
Originality/value
The paper adopts the VECM and validated by empirical evidence, to investigate the long-run equilibrium relationship and short-term corrections underlying the dynamics of the Singapore Central office market. Delay in the restoration of equilibrium in real estate markets is attributed to factors like lease terms and supply lags.
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Dulani Halvitigala and Richard G. Reed
With strategies including flexible work practices, tenants are increasingly seeking flexibility in their physical office space and layouts. The purpose of this paper is to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
With strategies including flexible work practices, tenants are increasingly seeking flexibility in their physical office space and layouts. The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent investors address tenants’ changing demand for office space with reference to layouts in new and existing office buildings.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study comprising in-depth individual interviews with senior portfolio managers of all listed property trusts investing in the office sector in New Zealand was undertaken.
Findings
The findings confirmed property investors incorporate several adaptive and flexible space design and specifications in their modern office buildings to enhance space flexibility and functional efficiency. These include adaptive building structures, efficient floor plates, flexible building services, advanced IT networking, high-quality building amenities and modern building materials. Building structures and layouts are designed to be modified quickly and cost effectively to address tenants’ changing needs. Implications affecting tenant demand for flexible spaces on their lease contracts were also identified.
Research limitations/implications
The findings from this research have implications for management of office space. Although the data were sourced with reference to buildings located in New Zealand only, the findings are applicable to office buildings in other countries.
Practical implications
The study provides an insight into design strategies adopted in modern office buildings to enhance space flexibility and functional efficiency. These findings are of practical application to professionals involved in the design, development, investment and valuation of modern office buildings.
Originality/value
The paper provides in-depth insights into how investors meet tenants’ changing demand for physical space which is linked to delivering improved and stable market-driven returns to investors.
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Will the information and communications technology (ICT) prevail over the market and agglomeration forces in inducing a negative demand in office space? The evidence of long‐term…
Abstract
Purpose
Will the information and communications technology (ICT) prevail over the market and agglomeration forces in inducing a negative demand in office space? The evidence of long‐term impact of ICT use is not conclusive at this stage. This study aims to empirically test whether space reduction effects of ICT are significant in the office market in Singapore. The study also seeks to examine variations in firms' responses, and how increasing use of ICT will impact on firms' operational and activities that include productivity, staffing structure and requirements, adoption of working practices, quality of customer service, and importance of a central meeting place.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data were collected in a mailed questionnaire survey conducted in July and August 2002, which involved a sample of 2,049 firms randomly selected from 121 office buildings located in the CBD and other key office submarkets in the fringe of CBD in Singapore. The firms' perception of ICT impact on real estate space needs was asked in the survey, and the variations in their responses were empirically tested with respect to factors like business types, firms' attitude towards ICT use, and their ICT strategies. Two different statistical tests are used in the tests, which include a non‐parametric chi‐square analysis and a logistic regression model. The chi‐square analysis examines different treatment effects of sample firms on the response variables. The logistic regression model jointly tests relationships between the respondent firms' binary choice of ICT impact on office demand and firm business types and views towards ICT and NWPs.
Findings
Based on a mailed questionnaire survey conducted on office occupiers in CBD of Singapore, 79 percent of the respondent firms felt that there is no negative impact of an increase use of ICT on the office space; 63 percent of the respondent firms, however, agree that ICT‐enabled changes to working practices were more important in affecting real estate space changes of firms. In the logistic regressions, the results showed that four variables that represent firm characteristics and their attitude towards ICT use were significant in explaining the variations in the firms' perception of no significant impact of ICT use on office space demand. Market rent factor was found to have no influence on the perception of a negative ICT‐office space relationship by the sample firms.
Originality/value
Impact of ICT use on firms' office space needs have not been as pervasive as expected in office markets. There are frictions and resistance by firms and their employees against the adoption of ICT in the office place in many countries. The study based on a random sample of office occupiers in Singapore's CBD and fringe submarkets supports the observation. Only 21 percent of the respondents felt that they can reduce office space with more ICT use. However, more sample firms (63 percent) felt that ICT will enable flexible workflows, which in turn will change the way corporate real estate strategies are designed. Firm characteristics and their attitude towards ICT are factors in determining firms' perception towards ICT use in offices.
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Stephen Bradley and Christopher Hood
Unwarranted allocation of personal space and the accumulation of personal ‘stuff’ can become impediments to business agility, turning conventional offices into ‘millstones’ which…
Abstract
Unwarranted allocation of personal space and the accumulation of personal ‘stuff’ can become impediments to business agility, turning conventional offices into ‘millstones’ which suppress an organisation’s ability to change direction smartly in the face of new competition and other business forces. Workplace design needs to cater for perpetual change of occupancy, organisation, work processes and messages about the business. Tangible assets should be dynamic, adaptable and even portable. Setting aside arguments in favour of ‘showpiece’ corporate headquarters, this paper advocates that what is needed to help business units to stay competitive is a ‘minimalist workspace’ ‐ kept free of ‘stuff’ that clutters and impedes quick and inexpensive adaptation to local needs, every few months rather than every few years. The minimalist workplace does not need to be bland or impersonal. Imaginative design and minute attention to detail of the physical environment and the tools, technology and support services can produce attractive and ‘liveable’ environments which can successfully accommodate personal preference and promote a sense of belonging as well as mobility. This paper outlines four ‘golden rules’ for best practice in the minimalist workplace, demanding more proactive space management and more intelligent real estate design and specification to cater for greater utilisation of facilities.
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The study examines socio-spatial appropriations in dwellings of Cairo, which were undertaken to expand dwellings affordances and accommodate new utilitarian demands during…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines socio-spatial appropriations in dwellings of Cairo, which were undertaken to expand dwellings affordances and accommodate new utilitarian demands during lockdown. The study questions whether those appropriations impacted dwellers' conceptions of dwellers' dwellings and scrutinizes how those appropriations could feedback the design of dwellings post-pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopted a mixed-method approach and was constructed over two phases as follows: first, in-depth interviews with 20 participants to acquire qualitative data about the adopted appropriation strategies and the subsequent actualized affordances and second, an online quantitative survey answered by 133 respondents to quantify the frequency of the adopted appropriation strategies and test the relationship between appropriations and mental conceptions of dwellings.
Findings
The study identifies five main appropriation strategies undertaken by dwellers and builds upon them to recommend favorable design features of dwellings post-pandemic. Those are: securing unscripted spaces, reviving dormant spaces, space compartmentalization, temporal programing of space and space esthetic personalization. The study also affirms a relationship between undertaking appropriations and improved mental conceptions of dwellings. Finally, the study suggests recommendations for space use optimization which could be deployed in existing dwellings and could ultimately be considered for designing post-pandemic dwellings.
Originality/value
The originality of this study lies in the study's opportune documentation and analysis of such an exceptional condition. Thus far, very few studies have tackled socio-spatial practices in dwellings during lockdown, let alone the impact of the pandemic on the design of future dwellings.
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Annemaree Lloyd and Alison Hicks
The purpose of this second study into information literacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic is to identify the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this second study into information literacy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic is to identify the conditions that influence the emergence of information literacy as a safeguarding practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative research design comprised one to one in-depth interviews conducted virtually during the UK's second and third lockdown phase between November 2020 and February 2021. Data were coded and analysed by the researchers using constant comparative techniques.
Findings
Continual exposure to information creates the “noisy” conditions that lead to saturation and the potential for “information pathologies” to act as a form of resistance. Participants alter their information practices by actively avoiding and resisting formal and informal sources of information. These reactive activities have implications for standard information literacy empowerment discourses.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is limited to the UK context.
Practical implications
Findings will be useful for librarians and researchers who are interested in the theorisation of information literacy as well as public health and information professionals tasked with designing long-term health promotion strategies.
Social implications
This paper contributes to our understandings of the role that information literacy practices play within ongoing and long-term crises.
Originality/value
This paper develops research into the role of information literacy practice in times of crises and extends understanding related to the concept of empowerment, which forms a central idea within information literacy discourse.
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With current commercial space activities accelerating, the purpose of this paper is to contexualise enlivening the discipline of real estate law for outer space.
Abstract
Purpose
With current commercial space activities accelerating, the purpose of this paper is to contexualise enlivening the discipline of real estate law for outer space.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on essential topics in real estate law, contracts and insurance, this paper discusses these themes in their terrestrial and extra-terrestrial contexts.
Findings
Real estate law for the outer space environment carries many similarities to real estate law but also significant differences. At this early stage in human space exploration and travel, there is a need to deal more with goods/chattels (property assets); however, this will change as land – the Moon, asteroids, planets – are made available for mining and other activities. Given outer space activities carry high risk for spacecraft and humans, there are reciprocal lessons for real estate law and practice.
Practical implications
Real estate law for outer space is an area already in existence. However, as access to space develops further, particularly with inevitable human presence on the Moon and exploration to Mars, real estate law will also grow in importance and sophistication. Real estate law for outer space relies on contract and property law. These are levers for commercial activities, and a further array of complex law and governance – the Outer Space Treaties, international and national law, international custom, guidelines, codes and standards. Real estate law for space will require an interdisciplinary and global approach in an era where human needs are already reliant on goods and services derived from space, as well as in the quest for exploration beyond the earth and the moon itself.
Originality/value
The time is ripe for space law to be taken into nuanced areas, with real estate law being an important step. Entrenched into the combined real estate and outer space disciplinary context must be consideration of the environment (earth and beyond), sustainability, heritage protection issues, etc., as well as ensuring outer space has equitable opportunities for all nations and citizens.
The purpose of this paper is to gauge consumer attitudes to food sharing practices in Italy and to assess the support that digital technologies can offer in to promote more…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gauge consumer attitudes to food sharing practices in Italy and to assess the support that digital technologies can offer in to promote more responsible consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology involves a web-based survey through using specialized online platforms (e.g. websites; Facebook groups; and Facebook pages), which provide content on sustainable and responsible consumption and crowd funding campaigns.
Findings
The research highlights the increasingly aware and attentive consumer attitudes towards collaborative economic practices compared to the past. In Italy, however, digital platforms for exchanging surplus food or goods are still poorly used. In fact, there is still a lack of knowledge, largely conditioned by recent experienced with some apps and by the poor development of this type of market.
Research limitations/implications
The research is a pilot of a small-scale study protocol conducted in January 2017 to ascertain the suitability of a wider project on social food sharing practices and environmental sustainability, by determining its feasibility or obtaining information for identification of the key indicators and analysis of the dimensions of the final study.
Originality/value
The research produces first empirical results that may provide new information, related to the role of digital media, on consumption habits.
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