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This study aims to provide a modern perspective on the role of dividends in smaller developed countries such as Ireland by examining views regarding the determinants of payout levels, the role of taxation and the relevance of conventional signalling theory.

The study employs semi‐structured interviews with the financial directors of 20 leading Irish companies.

The results suggest support for the notion that dividend policy affects share valuations. However, views regarding this issue – and the role of taxation and signalling theory – vary markedly between quoted and unquoted firms as well as depending on firms' dividend histories.

The study suffers from the problem that in interview‐based research the participants are necessarily a self‐selecting group. Notwithstanding this point, the evidence suggests that the views of managers in a nation with a small, but highly developed, stock market are in line with those in countries with much larger exchanges. Further research could usefully extend the analysis and establish whether similar views exist in other countries with relatively small stock markets, but where the exchange is in an “emerging” rather than “developed” state.

The contribution of the paper comes from the uniqueness of the Irish setting: the Irish market is relatively small but, unlike many similarly sized markets, it is highly‐developed, with long‐term historical links to the London Stock Exchange. The results, therefore, provide evidence about the extent to which earlier findings based on the world's largest developed markets also prevail in those that are more modestly sized.

This paper aims to identify the views of Dublin‐based financial analysts and major Irish fund managers on dividends.

The paper uses semi‐structured interviews with 16 participants and analyses their responses concerning the role of dividends in the share screening process; the perceived relationship between dividend payment policy and share values; the impact of taxation and attitudes to share buybacks.

The results support the notion that dividends are an important in investor decision‐making processes and that dividends influence share valuations. Another key finding is that fund managers appear to be able to influence the dividend policy of Irish companies in which they have a shareholding. Finally, taxation issues appear relatively unimportant and the majority of fund managers prefer cash dividends to buybacks.

The paper addresses the issue of dividend policy from a qualitative standpoint, rather than the conventional large‐sample aggregate form of analysis. Moreover, whilst most other studies have investigated the issue from the corporate point of view, this investigation focuses on analysts' and fund managers' views.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the changing nature of commercial leases with specific reference to the landlord and tenant relationship, lease lengths and incentivisation in the post-recessionary UK property market.

The research applies data analysis utilising the Estates Gazette Interactive database coupled with survey analysis conducted across three UK cities to investigate and compare the changing nature of the commercial property leasing market and the landlord and tenant relationship.

The empirical analysis highlights that recessionary conditions prevalent in the market from the 2007 global crisis has caused a reassessment of lease structures, leading to shorter lease terms and increased use of incentives, as tenants have been empowered to negotiate more flexible leases due to their stronger market position.

This paper builds upon previous research conducted back in 2005, investigating commercial leases in the market up-cycle. The recent volatility in the commercial property sector requires fresh insights and in-depth analysis of lease patterns, length and covenant strength, which is fundamental for investor decision-making. In addition, past research has tended to consider solely landlord or occupier perspectives, whereas this research offers new insight into the landlord–tenant lease negotiation process.

Understanding the key locational and neighbourhood determinants and their accessibility is a topic of great interest to policymakers, planners and property valuers. In Northern Ireland, the high level of market segregation means that it is problematic to understand the nature of the relationship between house prices and the accessibility to services and prominent neighbourhood landmarks and amenities. Therefore, this paper aims to quantify and measure the (dis)amenity effects on house pricing levels within particular geographic housing sub-markets.

Most hedonic models are estimated using regression techniques which produce one coefficient for the entirety of the pricing distribution, culminating in a single marginal implicit price. This paper uses a quantile regression (QR) approach that provides a “more complete” depiction of the marginal impacts for different quantiles of the price distribution using sales data obtained from 3,780 house sales transactions within the Belfast Housing market over 2014.

The findings emerging from this research demonstrate that housing and market characteristics are valued differently across the quantile values and that conditional quantiles are asymmetrical. Pertinently, the findings demonstrate that ordinary least squares (OLS) coefficient estimates have a tendency to over or under specify the marginal mean conditional pricing effects because of their inability to adequately capture and comprehend the complex spatial relationships which exist across the pricing distribution.

Numerous studies have used OLS regression to measure the impact of key housing market externalities on house prices, providing a single estimate. This paper uses a QR approach to examine the impact of local amenities on house prices across the house price distribution.

Inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection has received limited attention in the tax administration literature. Recent experiences from Tanzania offer a unique opportunity to examine opportunities and challenges facing such cooperation between central and local government agencies in a developing country context. The administration of property taxes (PT) in Tanzania has been oscillating between decentralised and centralised collection regimes. This paper aims to examine how inter-organisational cooperation affected implementation of the reforms.

The study draws on data from a variety of sources of information collected during a series of fieldworks over the past decade. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior managers and operational staff of the national and municipal tax administrations. The interviews focused on the background and objectives of the property tax reforms, working relations between the central and local government revenue administrations, technical and administrative challenges and innovations, and changes over time with respect to revenue enhancement and implementation of the reforms. Relevant tax legislation and regulations, budget speeches and reports were reviewed.

Two lessons of broader relevance for policy implementation and PT administration are highlighted. First, institutional trust matters. Top-down reform processes, ambiguity related to the rationale behind the reforms and lack of consultations on their respective roles and expectations have acted as barriers to constructive working relationships between the local and central government revenue agencies. Second, administrative constraints, reflected in poor preparation, outdated property registers and valuation rolls and inadequate incentives for the involved agencies to cooperate hampered the implementation of the reforms.

This paper contributes to the literature on inter-organisational cooperation in revenue collection through a detailed case study of property tax reforms in a developing country context. It also contributes to the literature on policy implementation by identifying political and administrative factors challenging the reform process. In line with this literature, the study shows that policy implementation is not necessarily a coherent process. Instead, it is frequently fragmented and disrupted by changes in policy formulation and access to adequate resources.

The purpose of the study is to examine the efficiency of linear, nonlinear and artificial neural networks (ANNs), in predicting property prices.

The present study uses a dataset of 1,468 real estate transactions from 2020 to 2022, obtained from the Department of Property Taxes of Republic of Kosovo. Beginning with a fundamental linear regression model, the study tackles the question of overlooked nonlinearity, employing a similar strategy like Peterson and Flanagan (2009) and McCluskey et al. (2012), whereby ANN's predictions are incorporated as an additional regressor within the ordinary least squares (OLS) model.

The research findings underscore the superior fit of semi-log and double-log models over the OLS model, while the ANN model shows moderate performance, contrary to the conventional conviction of ANN's superior predictive power. This is notably divergent from the prevailing belief about ANN's superior predictive power, shedding light on the potential overestimation of ANN's efficacy.

The study accentuates the importance of embracing diverse models in property price prediction, debunking the notion of the ubiquitous applicability of ANN models. The research outcomes carry substantial ramifications for both scholars and professionals engaged in property valuation.

Distinctively, this research pioneers the comparative analysis of diverse models, including ANN, in the setting of a developing country's capital, hence providing a fresh perspective to their effectiveness in property price prediction.

This paper aims to report a synopsis of a recent systematic review of the literature regarding the effectiveness of workplace physical activity interventions, commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

A search for English‐language papers published between 1996 and 2007 was conducted using 12 relevant databases and associated grey literature. Search protocols and analysis regarding study quality as recommended by NICE were utilised. Key inclusion criteria were, workplace intervention aiming to increase physical activity, intervention aimed at working adults, intervention initiated/endorsed by the employer, physical activity outcome. Thirty‐three studies (38 papers) met the inclusion criteria and were independently reviewed (checked by two reviewers) with a narrative synthesis of findings.

Fourteen studies were graded as high quality or good quality. Evidence from previous systematic reviews was inconclusive. Data regarding the effectiveness of stair walking interventions was limited and intervention effects were short‐lived. Three public sector studies provided evidence that workplace walking interventions using pedometers can increase daily step counts. One good quality study reported a positive intervention effect on walking to work behaviour (active travel) in economically advantaged female employees. There was strong evidence that workplace counselling influenced physical activity behaviour. There is a dearth of evidence for small and medium enterprises.

Due to the necessary UK focus and time constraints, only studies from Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Canada were included.

The paper shows that there is a growing evidence base that workplace physical activity interventions can positively influence physical activity behaviour.

In July 2010, a mandatory European Union (EU) logo for organic food was introduced to strengthen the organic sector by making the identification of organic products easier for consumers. The present study aims to analyse how consumers in five EU countries view a mandatory EU logo for organic food and to give recommendations for agrarian decision makers and market actors in the organic sector.

The study is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to provide a comprehensive picture of consumer views. Focus group discussions were conducted with consumers in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the UK. A subsequent survey with 2,042 participants was carried out to quantify consumer views on key issues and analyse country differences. Finally, the results of the qualitative and quantitative study were brought together.

While the introduction of a mandatory EU logo for organic food was generally welcomed in all countries, trust in the underlying production standards and the inspection system was not very pronounced (except in Italy). The authors conclude that the introduction of the new EU logo should be supported by communication campaigns to make clear what the new logo stands for and remove unfounded consumer concerns regarding the downscaling of standards and the trustworthiness of the inspection system.

To the authors' knowledge, no previous studies exist on consumer views on a mandatory EU logo for organic food. The recommendations drawn from their findings can help to reach the objectives connected with the introduction of the mandatory EU logo.

Start‐up Driver's Mart applies the latest management ideas to a much maligned business.