Search results

Examines the role of property in a portfolio investment context. Demonstrates that the return an asset is required to achieve depends on the variability and correlation of returns and not simply average returns. Shows that property, as measured by the Jones Lang Wootton Index, should have been included in institutional portfolios using both nominal and real returns, even if the variability of property was more than doubled. Suggests that property portfolios still offer considerable benefits to existing gilt/equity dominated funds in terms of improved risk‐adjusted performance.

The purpose of this paper is to test the extent of convergence in rents and yields in the European real estate office market.

The paper uses the concepts of beta‐convergence and sigma‐convergence to evaluate empirically the hypothesis of rent and yield convergence in seven European office markets during the period 1982‐2009. Because of the introduction of a single currency in January 1999, the analysis is carried out sequentially, first for the overall sample period and then the periods before and after the introduction of the single currency.

The results indicate that, irrespective of the time period considered, there is not enough statistical evidence of beta‐convergence in either rents or yields but evidence of significant sigma‐convergence in rents and yields in the European office markets under review. Additionally, some evidence is found that the introduction of the single currency in 1999 has led to increasing signs of convergence, especially in the Continental European markets.

The results show that the real estate office markets in Europe are not fully integrated and so indicate that diversification across Europe is still a viable investment strategy.

This is the first paper to use beta and sigma convergence tests on European office market data.

A number of studies have examined the convergence in European real estate markets and find that convergence is time‐varying. Additionally, the returns of some countries, notably the UK, are as equally, if not more, influenced by the real estate returns in the USA than those in Europe. This paper aims to study the time‐varying convergence of the UK securitised real estate market shows with countries within Europe relative to that with the USA.

This paper utilizes a model estimated using a Kalman filter.

Using monthly data over the period 1990‐2007 we show that from 1990 to 1998 the returns of the UK securitised real estate were more influenced by the US market than the other countries in Europe. However, from autumn 1998 to 2004 the short‐run movements in the return of the UK securitised real estate market became increasingly associated with movements in the other countries in Europe market rather than the USA. But since 2004 the returns in the UK real estate have once again started to diverge from those of most countries in Europe.

This is the first paper to examine the time‐varying convergence of the securitised real estate markets using time‐varying parameter modelling techniques estimated by the Kalman filter. The results showing that the UK has not converged with the other markets in Europe, which implies that real estate diversification is still a viable investment strategy for UK investors in most countries in Europe.

Italian real estate mutual funds have shown enormous growth over the past few years, however, little is known about their performance. The purpose of this paper is to correct this oversight.

The risk‐adjusted performance, as measured by the Sharpe ratio, of 17 Italian real estate funds is valued using a number of fund characteristics and monthly data over the period 2005‐2008. Two models are constructed and ordinary least squares regressions are applied.

Active property management, the level of property‐type diversification and the way the fund is initially setup (either by subscription or by contribution) are found to be significant factors in differentiating the performance between Italian real estate funds.

The relatively short period of time (three years) used in the empirical analysis might represent its major drawback, also considering that data cover only the upward trend of the market cycle: a further research should be addressed when a longer time series is available.

Results are of interest to investors and financial planners alike in revealing which factors should be considered in selecting Italian real estate funds.

The main contribution of the paper is to study those characteristics of Italian real estate funds which have power in explaining their performance. The area of research is well known, the sample is new.

The purpose of this paper is to examine individual level property returns to see whether there is evidence of persistence in performance, i.e. a greater than expected probability of well (badly) performing properties continuing to perform well (badly) in subsequent periods.

The same methodology originally used in Young and Graff is applied, making the results directly comparable with those for the US and Australian markets. However, it uses a much larger database covering all UK commercial property data available in the Investment Property Databank (IPD) for the years 1981 to 2002 – as many as 216,758 individual property returns.

While the results of this study mimic the US and Australian results of greater persistence in the extreme first and fourth quartiles, they also evidence persistence in the moderate second and third quartiles, a notable departure from previous studies. Likewise patterns across property type, location, time, and holding period are remarkably similar.

The findings suggest that performance persistence is not a feature unique to particular markets, but instead may characterize most advanced real estate investment markets.

As well as extending previous research geographically, the paper explores possible reasons for such persistence, consideration of which leads to the conjecture that behaviors in the practice of institutional‐grade commercial real estate investment management may themselves be deeply rooted and persistent, and perhaps influenced for good or ill by agency effects.

Presents empirical evidence for a sample of 48 UK property company initial public offerings over the period 1986 to 1995. Several conclusions can be drawn. First, property companies in general show a significantly positive average first day return. Second, property investment companies’ average first day return is not significantly different from zero. Third, property trading companies’ average first day return is significantly positive. Fourth, the higher average first day return of property trading companies over property investment companies is significant.

Remarks on the parallel in the basis of the riches of the aristocracy and plutocracy. Illustrates the argument from the history of the development of the cotton textile industry, the underpinnings for its growth being the inventions prior to and during the eighteenth century. Exemplifies the part of inventions as the begetter of plutocratic wealth. Sir Richard Arkwright, notably, was its salacious issue.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the driving factors of user innovation behaviors using the case of smartphone applications to estimate the indirect and direct effects of consumers’ attitudes toward user-generated content (UGC).

This study proposes a structural model to examine the relationship between user innovation behaviors toward UGC and three attitude factors: involvement, consumer knowledge and customer orientation. The empirical analysis is based on a consumer survey that examines the commonalities and differences between Japan and China. In each country, two social media services are chosen as representative cases of the UGC business model to measure user innovation behaviors toward the quality and quantity aspects.

Customer orientation is the most significant driving factor of user innovation behaviors toward UGC. It positively affects both the number of followers and the frequency of information transmissions. In particular, for the quality dimension of user innovation, customer orientation has a more significant effect on the number of followers than does familiarity.

This study emphasizes the quality aspect of user innovation. Previous research has focused on the quantity of user innovation behaviors by measuring the amount of information. However, this research measures both the quality and the quantity aspects with the number of followers and the frequency of uploading content. The findings of this study suggest that companies should maintain relationships with highly customer-oriented users to manage content quality.

This study aims to present a novel approach of using technology trends to trigger product ideas. It is primarily addressed to product ideation where limited applied approaches are available.

The model is built by extending the theoretical framework of ideation study. It comprises morphological analysis with product breakdown as primary and technological trends as a secondary dimension to prompt product ideas from user’s intuition. The approach is multidisciplinary using insights from the areas of cognition, management strategy and project management. The model is further tested in two different test configurations with university students (n = 81).

The results indicate that this systematic model can increase the quality and number of ideas generated by the students compared to generally practised approaches. It is shown that this approach increases the chances of triggering ideas.

The testing of the present model is comprehensive and in no means exhaustive.

Because of the shrinking product life cycle, organisations have a need for systematic product ideation models that can assist in innovating their product ranges. It is important to study idea generation for products to not only assist product innovation but also comprehensively understand the process of creativity. The proposed model is primarily addressed to product innovation projects where limited practical tools are available for product ideation. The present model is easy to apply and has the tendency to generate novel product ideas that can lead to successful product innovations.

Product innovation currently has limited systematic ideation tools where this study contributes.