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This paper aims to describe the outcome of a research program carried out by the Austrian IIBW to support the Romanian Government in redesigning its national housing law in order to cope with specific problems on the Romanian housing market, such as the absence of tenure choice and affordable and tenure‐secure rental housing.

Specific housing problems and requirements of legal changes were identified by policy makers and in previous studies. Solutions are provided by an international team of experts with the target to include European best practice concerning rental and limited‐profit rental law.

This paper concentrates on three major topics within the restructuring of the Romanian housing law that permit integrating European best practice in the field of housing policy. First, Romanian rental housing legislation is reconsidered and a market‐based relative price control based on the German experience and on written contracts is proposed. Second, a new public‐private‐partnership (PPP) housing law, building on the framework of PPP social housing providers in Europe, and especially Austria, is considered. A rigid frame of checks and balances and public compensation of social service obligations are core elements. Third, special attention is paid to the compliance of proposed measures with European Union legislation on competition, which is of major importance for any legal recommendations to be applicable.

The proposed legal changes are designed to foster the development of a functional long‐term private and social rental market in order to meet the housing needs of the Romanian population.

The overarching research program this paper builds on was commissioned by the Romanian Government and was intended to address specific and current problems on the Romanian housing market.

The purpose of this chapter is to shed light on humanistic knowledge traditions and highlight their value in informing educational administration and leadership curricula designed for graduate students. We argue that, despite their distinctive features, humanist traditions such as the Confucian, Buddhist, Islamic and European share many core values and practices that should be incorporated into the educational administration and leadership curricula. However, these traditions tend to be overlooked or marginalised by curriculum designers. We argue that incorporating these traditions into educational administration and leadership curricula can contribute to greater internationalisation and achieve a greater diversity. The chapter starts with an exploration of the origins, nature and definitions of humanism. The following parts discuss Confucian, Buddhist, Islamic and European humanist traditions and examine how they can contribute to shaping educational administration and leadership curricula.

The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that influence so-called born-again global firms’ internationalization behavior. Specifically, this article explores the following questions: why do mature, domestically focused firms suddenly turn into born-again global firms, how do they do so and what elements are needed for born-again global firms to be sustainable.

Using an established international entrepreneurship model as a starting point, we extract relevant factors for a conceptual framework on born-again global firms’ internationalization activities. Case study research among a cross-sectional sample of born-again global firms is being applied for that purpose.

Driven by the insufficient size of their domestic market, born-again global firms typically embark on internationalization after a generational change at the chief executive officer level. Throughout their internationalization journey, they flexibly adapt toward new needs of their foreign environments. Due to their idiosyncratic characteristics, born-again global firms deserve consideration as a separate group of research objects in the field of international entrepreneurship.

The investigated sample of case study firms was drawn across a variety of industries. As such, industry-specific conditions could not be observed and the findings from case study research run the risks of being generalized too broadly. In addition, the accuracy of the case study results may suffer from a certain degree of hindsight bias as the internationalization event took place in the past.

Openness to learning from other markets and the flexibility to modify products according to client needs strengthen born-again global firms’ competitiveness. To endure, born-again global firms have to be innovative in adapting to changes, which makes it easier for them to launch their products in new markets.

To date, international entrepreneurship has focused on the activities of small and newly established firms, largely neglecting the behavior of somewhat larger and established firms in traditional sectors. This study shows that established companies can exhibit the same innovative, proactive and risk-seeking behavior across borders as new ventures do. Despite their strongly rooted structures, strategies and cultures, born-again globals can flexibly adapt to new environments.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate key contingencies affecting the internationalization of young ventures, and to shed light on early internationalization's implications for organizational survival and growth.

A previously suggested conceptual framework is tested based on a quantitative study of UK firms before explorative analysis takes the analysis further.

Contrary to the model suggested by Sapienza et al. that internationalization is of increasing importance at young ventures' founding stage, no such indications were found in this study. Further statistical tests revealed interesting insights into the relationship between other organizational factors and a young firm's survival and growth prospects.

The empirical results suggest that internationalization is a largely overrated theoretical factor as far as young ventures' short‐term survival and performance are concerned. As internationalization paths differ contingent upon country of origin and other factors, further empirical tests are needed beyond the UK sample.

Empirical tests of previously suggested conceptual frameworks are needed to advance the body of knowledge on successful internationalization. Next to this initial test, further exploratory analysis suggests a refined framework.

This paper aims to examine the main characteristics of the housing taxation and subsidy systems in six European Union countries. The structure of this support over the past two decades, before and after the global financial crisis has been investigated and its total effective dimensions have been approximated.

Official national data and existing literature on housing policy expenses have been analysed and the authors add their own estimations of missing data, where possible. Latest changes in housing policy guidelines and expenses were interpreted.

It was found that state support for housing is heavily underestimated by official data in most countries, mainly due to missing estimates for the value of imputed rents tax relief, reduced VAT rates and low real estate and capital gains taxation. Our estimates suggest that total public support for the housing sector reaches more than 3 per cent of the gross domestic product in three of the six countries, and about 2 per cent in the others. State support to the housing sector has developed quite differently in the investigated countries over the past decades. In particular, there was no universal downward trend.

This is the first attempt to provide a more comprehensive analysis of national housing policy expenses applying a very broad definition of state support for housing. In particular, we consider indirect tax advantages to the housing sector that are generally not taken into account. Furthermore, we apply a discounted present value approach of current housing policy expenses to facilitate international comparison.

Although principal–agent theory has gained a prominent place in research, its negative image of self-serving managers is frequently criticized. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine how existing theories of agency and stewardship can be combined by using behavioral characteristics.

This study reviewed articles on the behavior of agents and stewards from the domains of finance, economics, management, corporate governance and organizational research. Additional theoretical and meta-analytical empirical literature from the fields of psychology and sociology was used to account for general patterns of human behavior.

The results indicate that goal congruency and the perception of fairness can serve as moderators distinguishing agency theory and stewardship theory. Goal congruency can be achieved by stipulating psychological ownership. The perception of distributive and procedural fairness is demonstrated by two major corporate governance mechanisms: performance-based compensation and board monitoring. The results are summarized in six hypotheses that allow a situational, customized corporate governance. These hypotheses can be tested in future research.

Prior work either focused on the merits of principal-agent theory or advocates the utilization of positive management theories, such as stewardship theory. However, little work has been done on bridging the gap between both constructs and develop a more extensive view of management theory.

The responsible politician for environment in Vorarlberg spoke at the Energy Gala in November 2002 in Bregenz and said: “It is necessary not only to discuss central regulations but to invest more in decentralised actions”. The communities are central players in this field because they can act in various ways: as authority, owner of buildings and as motivator for the people.

Two examples of strategies in Austria are introduced:

e5 - program for energy efficient communities (congruent to the European Energy Award)

This program supports communities with high ambitions on energy and sustainability. The program helps to give structure, tools and a quality insurance system, so that even smaller communities can act in a professional and efficient way. Additionally it is a labelling and awarding system, which is quite important because a lot of work in the communities happens voluntarily and it is important to give approval to these actors.

Energy point system in housing subsidies

In the federal state of Salzburg the energy point system is a subsidy system for energy-saving measures and the use of renewable energy in housing.

Quality points are given, depending on the energetic and ecological quality of a building. Every point increases the subvention that is granted by the government of the federal state Salzburg. Additional points exist, for example, for the use of biomass, solar energy and controlled living space ventilation. Using this simple system, the quality of sponsored housing was increased significantly and the use of renewable energies was successfully introduced into social housing. Today more than 80% of the residential buildings in Salzburg are heated by biomass and more than 60% of the buildings are using solar energy for hot water and heating.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had severe effects on economies worldwide and, in particular, on public institutions that must keep their operations running while supply chains are interrupted. The purpose of this study is to examine how public institutions act during a pandemic to ensure the security of supply.

The distinct focus is if, why and how public institutions have adopted additive manufacturing (AM) – a production technology colloquially known as three-dimensional printing in which a product is created by joining raw material layer by layer based on a digital model (computer-aided design [CAD] file) of the product – in reaction to supply disruptions caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. For this purpose, four cases within the context of the pandemic supply disruption are used as the units of analysis.

The findings are twofold: public institutions reacted, on the one hand, with a behavioral solution approach, trying to solve the supply disruption with new or changed forms of cooperation and collaboration. On the other hand, public institutions used a technical solution approach (TSA) as a supply disruption response and intensified their use of AM.

This research derives an implications model that focuses on the TSA. Considering the ex ante and ex post phases of the disruption, several effects of AM on resilience are identified. The most relevant is the long-term learning effect (i.e. AM data created during this disruption might also help in a new disruption).

Practitioners who act under extreme pressure and uncertainty are informed by cases that have managed to close bottleneck situations with either a behavioral or TSA. Specific strategies are given for how public buyers could use AM within a pandemic situation to mitigate supply bottlenecks, such as increasing their robustness by localizing sourcing and increasing agility by combining traditional and additive supply sources. Additionally, insights are provided into how public organizations can increase their level of preparedness by including disruption paragraphs, establishing CAD databases, in contract clauses and keeping reserve contracts with AM service providers.

This research contrasts behavioral and technical solution concepts for a pandemic in the public sector. Thus, it provides insights into the relative benefits of AM and causes and effect with regard to how AM affects supply robustness and agility.