Determinants of satisfaction amongst tenants of UK Offices

Purpose – Corporate Occupiers require offices and services which meet their business needs, whilst landlords must attract and retain occupiers in order to maximise occupancy and rental income. The purpose of this research is to help landlords and corporate occupiers understand each other better, in order to achieve a mutually beneficial relationship. Design/methodology/approach - This paper analyses interviews with 1334 office tenants in the UK, conducted over an 11-year period, to investigate determinants of occupier satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. Structural equation modelling and regressions are performed using respondents’ ratings of satisfaction with many aspects of occupancy as explanatory variables. The dependent variables include satisfaction with property management, value for money, overall occupier satisfaction, lease renewal intentions and occupiers’ willingness to recommend their landlord. Findings - The aspects with most impact on occupiers’ satisfaction are the office building itself, its location and amenities, and also communication with their property manager, a belief that their business needs are understood and the property manager’s responsiveness to occupiers’ requests. Occupiers’ loyalty depends mainly upon feeling that their rent and service charges provide value for money, an amicable leasing process, the professionalism of their property manager and the Corporate Social Responsibility of the Landlord. ‘Empathy’ is crucial to occupiers’ willingness to recommend their landlord, and clear documentation and efficient legal process improve occupiers’ perception of receiving ‘Value for Money’. Research Limitations - The sample is skewed towards occupiers of prime office buildings in the UK, owned by landlords who care sufficiently about their tenants to commission studies into occupier satisfaction. Practical implications - This research should help to improve the landlord – tenant relationship, benefitting the businesses that rent property and helping building managers understand where to focus their efforts to achieve maximum effect on occupier satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy. Originality/value - There has been little academic research into the determinants of satisfaction of occupiers of UK commercial property. This large-scale study enables the most influential factors to be identified and prioritised.

A utilização dos fundos de investimento imobiliários como veículos na gestão de ativos das empresas

No Brasil, historicamente, as companhias sempre detiveram ativos imobiliários (sede social, plantas fabris, galpões, etc.), influenciadas pela instabilidade macroeconômica, o que acarretava a dificuldade em estimar o preço do dinheiro. Com o controle inflacionário, foi possível expandir formas de financiamento de longo prazo, permitindo que as empresas passassem a realizar a alocação de recursos financeiros com mais eficiência, direcionando-os para as suas atividades principais. Assim, a discussão sobre a propriedade imobiliária pelas empresas é recente. E, há menos tempo ainda é que foram elaboradas novas alternativas, como os fundos de investimento imobiliário que tornaram-se mais representativos nos últimos três anos. Este trabalho visa analisar sobre as razões que permitem aos fundos de investimento imobiliário serem propostos como uma opção para as empresas realizarem a gestão de seus ativos imobiliários, quando estas buscarem não imobilizar recursos, mas sim, a locação do imóvel. Para alcançar este objetivo, o trabalho fará uma abordagem qualitativa, apresentando as características operacionais e tributárias dos fundos imobiliários e dois estudos de casos de empresas que promoveram a desmobilização de ativos por meio de fundos imobiliários. O primeiro caso é a venda de um centro de distribuição do Magazine Luiza, uma das maiores redes varejistas no Brasil, para o fundo Kinea Renda Imobiliária. O segundo exemplo é o processo de desmobilização do Banco do Brasil e o desenvolvimento do fundo BB Progressivo II. Será verificado que os objetivos das empresas foram alcançados nos dois casos e que, de fato, os fundos imobiliários podem ser considerados como uma alternativa. Entretanto, não é possível a conclusão de que ele produza os melhores resultados e que exista alguma atividade empresarial que tenha maior propensão a sua utilização. A pesquisa aborda os fundos de investimento imobiliário com o foco no locatário e possibilita que sejam aprimorados estudos quantitativos, identificando reações do mercado brasileiro ao aumento na quantidade de operações, e outras pesquisas qualitativas que envolvam novas estruturas de financiamento.

Resistência anti-helmíntica em equinos na Região Oeste do Estado de São Paulo

Pós-graduação em Ciência e Tecnologia Animal - FEIS

Transnational Law for Transnational Communities The Emergence of a Lex Mercatoria (or Lex Informatica) for International Creative Communities

Open Source Communities and content-oriented projects (Creative Commons etc.) have reached a new level of economic and cultural significance in some areas of the Internet ecosystem. These communities have developed their own set of legal rules covering licensing issues, intellectual property management, project governance rules etc. Typical Open Source licenses and project rules are written without any reference to national law. This paper considers the question whether these license contracts and other legal rules are to be qualified as a lex mercatoria (or lex informatica) of these communities.

Dispositivos contemporáneos ante el reto del neomadismo

Cuatro dispositivos. Cuatro golpes de vista deteniéndonos sobre aspectos de la realidad contemporánea en los que juzgamos pertinente reparar. Usuarios transeúntes a través de los locutorios[D1], entornos dinámicos mediante la sucesión ecológica[D2], sistema de gestión de la propiedad obsoleto ante la realidad de flujos económicojurídicos[D3] y estructuras topológicas electromagnéticas que permiten desplazarnos con unos mínimos comunes[D4]. Modelos transdisciplinares muy directos elegidos por su efectividad ante la inestabilidad, arquetipos de los que tendremos que transferir claves a nuestra disciplina. ABSTRACT. Four devices. Four glances stopping on aspects of the contemporary reality in which we judge relevant to look at. Transient users across the phone booths[D1], dynamic environments through the ecological succession[D2], obsolete property management system facing the reality of financial and law flows[D3] and topological electromagnetic structures that allow our displacements with a few common minimums[D4]. Very direct transdisciplinary models chosen by their efficiency with the instability, archetypes from which we will have to transfer keys to our discipline

Vehicle rules /

Cover title.

Building up resilience of construction sector SMEs and their supply chains to extreme weather events

Wider scientific community now accept that the threat of climate change as real and thus acknowledge the importance of implementing adaptation measures in a global context. In the UK , the physical effects of climate change are likely to be directly felt in the form of extreme weather events, which are predicted to escalate in number and severity in future under the changing climatic conditions. Construction industry; which consists of supply chains running across various other industries, economies and regions, will also be affected due to these events. Thus, it is important that the construction organisations are well prepared to withstand the effects of extreme weather events not only directly affecting their organisations but also affecting their supply chains which in turn might affect the organisation concerned. Given the fact that more than 99% of construction sector businesses are SMEs, the area can benefit significantly from policy making to improve SME resilience and coping capacity. This paper presents the literature review and synthesis of a doctoral research study undertaken to address the issue of extreme weather resilience of construction sector SMEs and their supply chains. The main contribution of the paper to both academia and practitioners is a synthesis model that conceptualises the factors that enhances resilience of SMEs and their supply chains against extreme weather events. This synthesis model forms the basis of a decision making framework that will enable SMEs to both reduce their vulnerability and enhance their coping capacity against extreme weather. The value of this paper is further extended by the overall research design that is set forth as the way forward.

Lennar Technology: The Connected Consumer Has Arrived in Multifamily

As multifamily homebuilders progress into the 21st century, they have looked to integrate electronics and technology to simplify and enhance their businesses. The use of programs like Yardi and MRI for both property management and accounting have become the standard. Like Moore’s Law – the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit will double approximately every two years – the use of technology in multifamily properties must equal both the pace and demand of present and future tenants.

Spatial planning to the test of property rights in Switzerland : an innovative land management approach to coordinate spatial planning goals with property rights interests

In Switzerland, the land management regime is characterized by a liberal attitude towards the institution of property rights, which is guaranteed by the Constitution. Under the present Swiss constitutional arrangement, authorities (municipalities) are required to take into account landowners' interests when implementing their spatial planning policy. In other words, the institution of property rights cannot be restricted easily in order to implement zoning plans and planning projects. This situation causes many problems. One of them is the gap between the way land is really used by the landowners and the way land should be used based on zoning plans. In fact, zoning plans only describe how landowners should use their property. There is no sufficient provision for handling cases where the use is not in accordance with zoning plans. In particular, landowners may not be expropriated for a non-conforming use of the land. This situation often leads to the opening of new building areas in greenfields and urban sprawl, which is in contradiction with the goals set into the Federal Law on Spatial Planning. In order to identify legal strategies of intervention to solve the problem, our paper is structured into three main parts. Firstly, we make a short description of the Swiss land management regime. Then, we focus on an innovative land management approach designed to implement zoning plans in accordance with property rights. Finally, we present a case study that shows the usefulness of the presented land management approach in practice. We develop three main results. Firstly, the land management approach brings a mechanism to involve landowners in planning projects. Coordination principle between spatial planning goals and landowners' interests is the cornerstone of all the process. Secondly, the land use is improved both in terms of space and time. Finally, the institution of property rights is not challenged, since there is no expropriation and the market stays free.

Management of commercial property derived risks in the market context of the Russian Federation

The objective of the thesis is to examine the current state of risk management and to determine an appropriate risk management policy for commercial property derived risks in the Russian branch of a Finnish retail trade company. The employed research methodologies are comparative in-depth interviews and empirical value at risk analysis, including portfolio risk decomposition to determine the inter-currency characteristics. For a multinational retail trade company, the commercial property derived risks open up as a diverse combination of financial and non-financial risks with four distinctive interest groups. The research results indicate that geographical diversification across currency regimes provides diversification benefits. The Russian ruble is the most significant single risk component when considering the net investments outside the euro-zone. Decreasing the Russian ruble and Swedish krona exposures are the most effective methods to reduce translation derived risk. Exchange rate volatility varies over time according to idiosyncratic currency regime characteristics, and cost-effective risk management requires comprehensive analysis of the business environment. Profound and proactive risk management methods are found to be pivotal for companies with cross-border operations in order to succeed among international competitors.

Review of investment strategy, portfolio management, and scorecard based portfolio selection tool for direct property investments in Finland

The lack of research of private real estate is a well-known problem. Earlier studies have mostly concentrated on the USA or the UK. Therefore, this master thesis offers more information about the performance and risk associated with private real estate investments in Nordic countries, but especially in Finland. The structure of this master thesis is divided into two independent sections based on the research questions. In first section, database analysis is performed to assess risk-return ratio of direct real estate investment for Nordic countries. Risk-return ratios are also assessed for different property sectors and economic regions. Finally, review of diversification strategies based on property sectors and economic regions is performed. However, standard deviation itself is not usually sufficient method to evaluate riskiness of private real estate. There is demand for more explicit assessment of property risk. One solution is property risk scoring. In second section risk scorecard based tool is built to make different real estate comparable in terms of risk. In order to do this, nine real estate professionals were interviewed to enhance the structure of theory-based risk scorecard and to assess weights for different risk factors.

Fenced in: Common property struggles in the management of communal rangelands in central Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

This paper takes as its starting point the assertion that current rangeland management in the central Eastern Cape Province (former Ciskei) of South Africa, is characterised primarily by an ‘open access’ approach. Empirical material drawn from three case-study communities in the region is used to examine the main barriers to management of rangeland as a ‘commons’. The general inability to define and enforce rights to particular grazing resourses in the face of competing claims from ‘outsiders’, as well as inadequate local institutions responsible for rangeland management are highlighted as being of key importance. These are often exacerbated by lack of available grazing land, diffuse user groups and local political and ethnic divisions. Many of these problems have a strong legacy in historical apartheid policies such as forced resettlement and betterment planning. On this basis it is argued that policy should focus on facilitating the emergence of effective, local institutions for rangeland management. Given the limited grazing available to many communities in the region, a critical aspect of this will be finding ways to legitimise current patterns of extensive resource use, which traverse existing ‘community’ boundaries. However, this runs counter to recent legislation, which strongly links community management with legal ownership of land within strict boundaries often defined through fencing. Finding ways to overcome this apparent disjuncture between theory and policy will be vital for the effective management of common pool grazing resources in the region.