The research purpose is to find out if signs of a real estate bubble are shown at the austrian real estate market right now. Lending rates are composed of different factors: the base rate is the price that the customer is willing to pay. The risk premium is given to compensate the lenders risk of full or partial failure of repayment. The inflation adjustment takes into account the impairment of money over the term of a loan. (...) The liquidity premium increases with extension of the term of the loan. The European Central Bank influences the interest rate policy by varying the interest for money saved there by the banks. At the moment there are used negative interest rates, i.e. penalty interest. The methodology used was that recently the ECB lowered the interest rates which might cause real estate bubbles and, subsequently, banks and economic crises may follow, if interest rates were to be increased again sooner or later. Therefor the author studied the amount of sales and the connection to the interest rates and the interest rate policy of the banks right now. Summarizing it can be seen that in Kittsee, an Austrian area with a lot of real estate sales, as an example, 565 real estate properties were sold in the years 2005 to 2015, the median prices increased in relation to the buyers residence in Austria or non- Austrians at about 375% to 490%, this might indicate signs of change on the market. (shrink)

According to the Economic Survey of India, 2012–2013, the real estate sector contributed 5.9 % of the India’s total Gross Domestic Product in the Financial Year 2011–2012, while remaining the second largest employment generator after agriculture in India. The urban population in India is projected to touch 600 million by 2030, from 377 million in 2011, thereby fuelling a housing shortage of around 26 million. However, the perception of Construction industry, like other sectors of the economy, is that (...) of creating “human habitat in a manner generally focussed on profitability without consideration of its long-term impacts.” Under such circumstances, Tata Housing Development Company Limited, a closely held Public Limited Company under 99.86 % subsidiary of Tata Sons, is the first Indian real estate company to have reported the triple bottom-line Global Reporting Initiative G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in its Sustainability Report FY 2013–2014. THDCL aims to volunteer its resources to the extent it can reasonably afford, to sustain the environment and to improve the quality of life of the people of the area in which it operates. This Situational Case Study, targeted towards management students and practitioners, and social and developmental workers in the areas of Corporate Governance, Strategic Management, Business Environment, Business Policy and Community Welfare, aims to identify the community engagement model of THDCL; analyse it in terms of its implementation and impact; and initiate discussion about the role of strategic partnerships under Corporate Social Responsibility in an emerging economy. This work may be used for developmental related workshops/training programmes for students and working professionals of innovation, CSR, sustainability, social and developmental sectors and shared, among others, in various Chambers of Commerce and Academic forums on the same. It is, however, not intended to serve as an endorsement, source of data or illustration of effective or ineffective management. Certain names and information could have been disguised for confidentiality. (shrink)

As a result of financial difficulties confronting American agriculture, public debate is focusing on longterm options for restoring economic stability and growth to the agricultural economy. Many believe that just as homeowners in small communities throughout the nation have been served by the development of a secondary market for residential mortgages sponsored by the federal government, farmers throughout the country would similarly benefit from the development of a secondary market for farm real estate mortgages. This paper (...) discusses issues relating to the development of a secondary market for agricultural real estate loans. The concept of a secondary market for agriculture is of considerable interest to Congress, as evidenced by recent enactment of the Agricultural Credit Act of 1987 which established the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (“Farmer Mac”) to create a secondary market for farm real estate loans. The first section discusses the general nature of secondary markets and their purposes, with particular attention given to the secondary market for home mortgages because it served as a model for a secondary market for farm loans. Section two discusses basic differences between agriculture and housing, and section three provides a brief discussion of federal credit subsidies designed to help meet social and economic goals by influencing the allocation of credit to particular sectors of the economy such as housing and agriculture. Potential benefits and costs associated with the development of a secondary market for agriculture are discussed in section four. (shrink)

Although much has been written globally about the key issues of corporate governance in REITs, there are not enough studies inspired by the systematic literature review method. This study reviews the literature on corporate governance in real estate investment trusts (REITs) published after 2004 and addresses three interrelated research questions. We examined 77 peer-reviewed journal articles using a systematic literature review approach. We found that there has been a rise in studies since 2010, with a brief decrease in (...) 2015 and 2017 before increasing again in 2016. Moreover, the vast majority of the studies were published in the areas of economics/econometrics/finance and business/management/accounting. In addition, most of the papers are single-country studies, and the minority are multi-country. The majority of the papers are focused on the USA and Asia. Similarly, the majority of these analyses concentrate on developed countries and ignore emerging and frontier markets.Keywordscorporate governance, real estate investment trusts, REITs, systematic literature review, SLR. (shrink)

This article uses sociological role theory to help understand ethical challenges faced by Norwegian real estate agents. The article begins with an introductory case, and then briefly examines the strengths and limitations of using legal definitions and rules for understanding real estate agency and real estate agent ethics. It goes on to argue that the ethical challenges of real estate agency can be described and understood as a system of conflicting roles with (...) associated rights and duties, in particular sales agent, intermediary and adviser sub-roles. The arguments are developed using exploratory findings from a survey of Norwegian real estate agents and from several focus groups. The article then suggests the use of various intranet tools as a kind of action research aimed at putting ethics on the real estate agents' agenda, working to develop a collective conscience and collective selfcriticism among the agents, and, in doing so, building bridges between academic research and the practical working world of the agents. (shrink)

As an object in which property rights can be invested, land is a peculiar hybrid structure that comprehends both spatial and non-spatial aspects. Even in its purely spatial aspect land is treated differently from culture to culture, thus for example in the degree to which property rights in land are held to relate to vague or precisely delineated parcels and to portions of space above and below the surface of the earth. When we examine the non-spatial aspects of landed property, (...) however, the dimensions of variability across cultures are multiplied tremendously. The goal is to provide a general framework for comparison of different socio-legal ontologies of land. The relevance of this project turns on the fact that without land (or real estate) it is difficult (perhaps impossible) to obtain credit; without credit it is difficult for nations to develop. Thus, if land is treated in a radically different way from one nation to another, this will surely exert an effect upon the development of nations. (shrink)

In the modern scientific literature, there are many reports about the successful application of neural network technologies for solving complex applied problems, in particular, for modeling the urban real estate market. There are neural network models that can perform mass assessment of real estate objects taking into account their construction and operational characteristics. However, these models are static because they do not take into account the changing economic situation over time. Therefore, they quickly become outdated and (...) need frequent updates. In addition, if they are designed for a specific city, they are not suitable for other cities. On the other hand, there are several dynamic models taking into account the overall state of the economy and designed to predict and study the overall price situation in real estate markets. Such dynamic models are not intended for mass real estate appraisals. The aim of this article is to develop a methodology and create a complex model that has the properties of both static and dynamic models. Moreover, our comprehensive model should be suitable for evaluating real estate in many cities at once. This aim is achieved since our model is based on a neural network trained on examples considering both construction and operational characteristics, as well as geographical and environmental characteristics, along with time-changing macroeconomic parameters that describe the economic state of a specific region, country, and the world. A set of examples for training and testing the neural network were formed on the basis of statistical data of real estate markets in a number of Russian cities for the period from 2006 to 2020. Thus, many examples included the data relating to the periods of the economic calm for Russia, along with the periods of crisis, recovery, and growth of the Russian and global economy. Due to this, the model remains relevant with the changes of the international economic situation and it takes into account the specifics of regions. The model proved to be suitable for solving the following tasks: industrial economic analysis, company strategic and operational management, analytical and consulting support of investment, and construction activities of professional market participants. The model can also be used by government agencies authorized to conduct public cadastral assessment for calculating property taxes. (shrink)

This paper examines the collective fraudulent behaviors taking place during the residential real estate bubble in the United States from 2002 to 2006 and the influence of others’ choices on decision making leading to a herd mentality. The antecedents of collective fraud are discussed in terms of the sociological theory behind human herding and the fraudulent behaviors during the real estate bubble are examined. Using archival witness testimony as a primary basis for analysis, this paper argues (...) that without widespread collective fraud, the bubble may not have developed and the herd mentality may have dissipated without the consequences of financial disaster. The aim of an analysis of this nature is to offer a plausible explanation of some of the preconditions to the event under study. (shrink)

Institutional investors and corporations increasingly recognize that extra-financial determinants of business performance can both create value and uncover significant risks within a business or investment portfolio. For companies that invest in, develop, own, or operate commercial real estate assets, this awareness of extrafinancial impacts has led to a significant interest in what has been called "responsible property investment (RPI)". Within the field of RPI, green real estate — real estate investment and management that seeks (...) to reduce the environmental impacts of building construction and operations — has begun to receive attention. This attention has been extended over the past decade to community property development projects, where both social and environmental considerations related not only to the building, but also the project site and surrounding community are integrated into management and investment decisions. Some examples of these projects include affordable and workforce housing, urban revitalization and brownfield redevelopment. More social-focussed issues such as labour and workplace considerations are also key components of responsible property investing, yet to date labour issues have received little attention in the RPI literature and workplace considerations are reflected indirectly through environmental considerations in the green building literature. This paper explores responsible real estate investment in Canada by taking an integrated approach in examining both environmental and social factors and their potential impact on such investments. A series of semi-structured interviews are conducted with key stakeholders in Canada to gain insight into how using environmental and social factors may influence long-term risk and financial returns in real estate investment in Canada with particular emphasis on institutional investors engaged in these practices. Data is used to analyse the impact that ESG considerations have on financial performance of these assets. Jantzi-Sustainalytics ESG ratings are used along with the stock price changes of fourteen real estate companies and REITs to interrogate this question. (shrink)

This article proposes and empirically tests a theoretical framework incorporating Reidenbach and Robin’s (J Bus Ethics 10(4):273–284, 1991 ) conceptual model of corporate moral development. The framework is used to examine the relation between governance and business ethics, as proxied by diversity management (DM), and financial reporting quality, as proxied by the magnitude of earnings management (EM). The level of DM and governance quality are measured in accordance with the ratings of Jantzi Research (JR), a leading provider of social (...) and governance research for institutional investors. This DM score is part of an index developed by JR that investment managers use to integrate DM criteria into their investment decisions. As expected, a negative relation between corporate DM development and financial reporting quality is found while controlling for other factors known in the literatures on governance and accounting choices to affect earnings quality. Despite some caveats presented in conclusion, this study contributes to the ethics, governance, and financial reporting literatures by studying the dynamics between governance and ethics in the prevention of EM. (shrink)

Este artículo examina el significado del desarrollo humano integral propugnado por Benedicto XVI en Caritas in veritate, destacando su continuidad con Populorum progressio y, en general, con el magisterio social precedente. Tras dar razón del vínculo existente entre la economía, la ética y la antropología, el autor trata de espigar las principales orientaciones ético-económicas que han sido propuestas en esa última encíclica social con vistas a un tal desarrollo, articulándolas a partir de dos concepciones antropológicas de honda raigambre en la (...) doctrina social de la Iglesia, a saber, la dignidad humana y el personalismo comunitario.Comenta, finalmente, la relevancia económica de la antropología cristiana y su potencial crítico frente al homo oeconomicus, así como la capacidad de interlocución con diversas corrientes de pensamiento contemporáneas que dicha antropología proporciona a la doctrina social de la Iglesia.This article examines the meaning of the human, complete development defended by Benedict XVI in Caritas in veritate, emphasizing its continuity with Populorum progessio and with the previous social teaching in general. After stating the existing link between economy, ethics and anthropology, the author tries to select the main ethic-economic orientations proposed in that last social encyclical in relation to a such development, and structures them beginning with two anthropological conceptions deep-rooted in the social doctrine of the church, that is, human dignity and personalism of the community. Finally, the article comments on the economic importance of Christian anthropology and its critical potential against the homo oeconomicus, as well as the capacity of being an interlocutor with several contemporary trends of thought that anthropology provides the social doctrine of the church with. (shrink)

Jacques Rancière, it seems to me, is right: politics are rare. Democratic political action makes manifest the part that has no part—not as a protest against the policing order but its rejection through the affirmation of the equality of speaking beings. How can such an affirmation be supported? How can it endure? Perhaps affirming this democratic commitment can find, through the notion of assemblages, an ally, a space encouraging its manifestation and eluding capture by that which speaks in its name (...) and allots it its place. But what notion of assemblages will best serve this democratic commitment? Manual DeLanda’s theoretical development of the notion first... (shrink)

I argue in this paper that the attempt by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in Empire and Multitude to “theorize empire” should be read both against the backdrop of speculative philosophy of history and as a development of the conception of a “principle of intelligibility” as this is discussed in Michel Foucault’s recently published courses at the Collège de France. I also argue that Foucault’s work in these courses can be read as implicitly providing what I call “prolegomena to (...) any future speculative philosophy of history.” I define the latter as concerned with the intelligibility of the historical process considered as a whole. I further suggest, through a brief discussion of the classical figures of Kant, Hegel, and Marx, that the basic features of speculative philosophy of history concern the articulation of both the telos and dynamics of history. My claim is that Hardt and Negri provide an account of the telos and dynamics of history that respects the strictures imposed on speculative philosophy of history by Foucault’s work, and thus can be considered as providing a post-Foucauldian speculative philosophy of history. In doing so, they provide a challenge to other “theoretical” attempts to account for our changing world. (shrink)

The expression, “Realizing Reason in History,” has at least two senses, both of which Hegel tries to bring out in his philosophy of history. The first suggests that there is reason in history. That is, the task of the philosopher is to show how reason has developed itself through history. The second sense suggests that, not only does history show us that reason has developed over time, but the task of history is precisely to develop or realize reason in time. (...) There is reason in history because that is what history brings about. Thus, the “realization” of reason in history is both something that is recognized and something that must be done. This “realization” is accomplished, willy-nilly, through the doings and sufferings of concrete human beings. Hegel wants to show that history is not a cold, anonymous process which simply sweeps up human lives and never looks back. Indeed, his philosophy of history is primarily concerned with the concrete doings and sufferings of human beings, and wishes to rescue from meaninglessness all those ephemeral human lives which populate the historical process. That, according to Hegel, is what the philosophy of history is all about. (shrink)

Movies can serve valuable didactic purposes teaching clinical ethics to medical students. However, using film sequences as means to develop critical thinking is not a straightforward task. There is a significant gap in the literature regarding how to analyse the ethical content embedded in these clips systematically, in a way that facilitates the students’ transition from anecdotal reflections to abstract thinking. This article offers a pedagogical proposal to approach the ethical analysis of film sequences in a systematic fashion. This structured (...) stepwise method encourages students to identify the main ethical problem of a selected scene and to reflect on the theoretical principles involved, emphasizing the application of these norms and values in a contextually situated analysis. We believe this method in film studies both reinforces the students’ comprehension of the theoretical framework of an ethical topic, and casts light on its pertinence and limitations under the circumstances of the scene, thus proving a constructive tool to strengthen the bridge between the theoretical teaching of clinical ethics and clinical practice. (shrink)

Narrator Ron Howard tells us that Arrested Development is the “story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.” The cult-classic follows Michael Bluth – the middle son of an inept, philandering, corrupt real-estate developer, George Bluth Sr., who is arrested for white-collar crimes. Constantly faced with crises created by his eccentric family, Michael does his best to preserve the family business, put out fires, (...) and serve as a role model for his teenage son, George Michael. The Bluths’ misadventures raise the question, what, if anything, do adult children owe their parents? This chapter explores the relationships between the members of the Bluth family and argues that Arrested Development makes the case that, insofar as adult children “owe” their parents anything, such an obligation is grounded in a sense of friendship – a voluntarily entered relation that can be terminated at any time. As a result, Arrested Development challenges the often-unquestioned assumption that children owe their parents special consideration simply in virtue of the parent-child relationship. (shrink)

Narrator Ron Howard tells us that Arrested Development is the “story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together.” The cult classic follows Michael Bluth – the middle son of an inept, philandering, corrupt real estate developer, George Bluth Sr., who is arrested for white-collar crimes. Constantly faced with crises created by his eccentric family, Michael does his best to preserve the family business, put (...) out fires, and serve as a role model for his teenage son, George Michael. The Bluths’ misadventures raise the question, what, if anything, do adult children owe their parents? This chapter explores the relationships between the members of the Bluth family and argues that Arrested Development makes the case that, insofar as adult children “owe” their parents anything, such an obligation is grounded in a sense of friendship – a voluntarily entered relation that can be terminated at any time. As a result, Arrested Development challenges the often-unquestioned assumption that children owe their parents special consideration simply in virtue of the parent-child relationship. (shrink)

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in children and adolescents. People who have this disorder are characterized by presenting difficulties in the processes of sustained attention, being very active, and having poor control of their impulses. Despite the high prevalence of this disorder and the existence of various tests used for its diagnosis, few data are available regarding the usefulness and diagnostic validity of these tools. Given the difficulties that these subjects present in executive functions, (...) the aim of this study was to evaluate whether the Neuropsychological Assessment of Executive Functions battery for Children allows to establish specific profiles of executive performance for people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. The sample was made up of 197 participants of both sexes, aged between 6 and 12 years age. A nonexperimental design was followed, using a comparative descriptive study method. The results indicated that the scales of phonological fluency, color path, rings, and interference are the most associated with the diagnosis of ADHD, providing data on inhibition, mental flexibility, sustained and selective attention, planning, verbal fluency, and working memory, among others. The practical implication of these results is in line with providing support in the clinical diagnosis that is carried out in children’s mental health units. In addition, the ENFEN tool can be valued as a suitable psychometric instrument in the psychoeducational field, helping professionals in a school environment to be more aware of the areas of cognitive development in which a student diagnosed with ADHD will have more difficulties and, in doing so, providing more adjusted and effective psychopedagogical measures when it comes to supporting students in their adaptation to the school environment. (shrink)

New developments in genetics could affect a variety of real property rights. Mortgage lenders, mortgage insurers, real estate sellers, senior living centers, retirement communities, or other parties in residential real estate transactions begin requiring predictive genetic information as part of the application process. One likely use would be by retirement communities to learn an individual's genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease. The federal Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination based on disability, but it is not clear that (...) it would apply to genetic risk assessments. Only California law explicitly applies to this situation and there have been no reported cases. (shrink)

Undocumented and undomiciled, Gustavo Jiménez had been in the United States for several years. He knew his leg wasn’t right when it began to swell and redden. After the cellulitis spread to his bloodstream, he was found unconscious on the street and admitted to the intensive care unit. He improved quickly and was soon able to tell a social worker his name and that he had family in Quito. Then his health took a turn for the worse, and he developed (...) multisystem organ failure. His doctors believed his prognosis grave and further care futile. They wanted to invoke a provision under their state’s law that allows, at the discretion of at least two physicians, for the withdrawal of life‐sustaining therapy for isolated and decisionally incapacitated patients, but the social worker had ethical concerns about the doctors’ desire to make such a momentous decision without family input. She asked for a “time‐out to locate his family,” but one of the doctors asserted, “His family isn’t here, and you’ll never find them. Besides we need the bed. The ER is full of patients we can help.” What is owed a patient and family in such a situation? (shrink)

Suppose you own a garden-variety object such as a hat or a shirt. Your property right then follows the ageold saw according to which possession is nine-tenths of the law. That is, your possession of a shirt constitutes a strong presumption in favor of your ownership of the shirt. In the case of land, however, this is not the case. Here possession is not only not a strong presumption in favor of ownership; it is not even clear what possession is. (...) Possessing a thing like a hat or a shirt is a rather straightforward affair: the person wearing the hat or shirt possesses the shirt or the hat. But what is possession in the case of land? This essay seeks to provide an answer to this question in the form of an ontology of landed property. (shrink)

This case study chronicles the entrepreneurial and real estate investment activities of a recent Ph.D. graduate in business administration. The protagonist learns that clear focus is necessary for entrepreneurial success and that trust does not mix with entrepreneurship and negotiation. Ethics are sometimes problematic for entrepreneurs.

The article discusses selected findings from two Norwegian studies among real‐estate agents and real‐estate students, and their relevance for real‐estate education in professional ethics. The survey data‐set indicates that the industry morality of real‐estate agents is more peer‐group oriented, less individualistic and more intersubjective than in other comparable Norwegian industries. The qualitative material shows how respondents perceive and discuss three professional role conflict scenarios in a rule‐ or consequence‐focused pattern. The findings are (...) followed by several suggestions relating to conflict handling approaches and professional ethics training among future and present real‐estate agents. (shrink)

This study evaluates responses to the Real Estate Ethical Code. Voice Stress Analysis (VSA) is used to evaluate the responses of real estate sales people to ethically-based questions. The process and the responses given enabled the authors to gain insight into pressure-causing ethical situations and to explore new uses of VSA. Some respondents were stressed while following the ethical code guidelines. Others showed no stress about breaking the formal code. The study reaffirms that the presence of (...) formal ethical guidelines does not assure that the rules will be willingly followed. (shrink)

This study investigated several basic research questions suggesting a positive relationship between education and cognitive moral development. More specifically, these research questions examined the relationship between government mandated ethics education and cognitive moral development by testing the efficacy of a compulsory ethics intervention. Kohlberg's (1969, 1984) Cognitive Moral Development Theory was applied to test the efficacy of compulsory ethics education on the moral development of real estate salespeople used comparative statistical measures of ethical reasoning (...) ability.The results of this research, while somewhat counterintuitive, suggest that the value of compulsory ethics education as an intervention to improve the moral reasoning of real estate salespeople is highly questionable. However, the results of the study do provide new insights into the relationship between ethics education and cognitive moral development. (shrink)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After completing this chapter, you will be able to: Provide a definition of ethics. Explain traditional sources for motivating ethical ...

The thesis that an analysis of property rights is essential to an adequate analysis of the state is a mainstay of political philosophy. The contours of the type of government a society has are shaped by the system regulating the property rights prevailing in that society. Views of this sort are widespread. They range from Locke to Nozick and encompass pretty much everything else in between. Defenders of this sort of view accord to property rights supreme importance. A state that (...) does not sufficiently respect property rights is likely to be a totalitarian state, and will also be likely to fail to respect rights of other sorts. (shrink)

Firms’ real estate choices significantly affect their sustainability, due to real estate’s impact on the natural environment. This paper investigates the ecological responsiveness of firms in specific industries by analyzing the decisions these firms make in occupying office space. We analyze the decisions of more than 11,000 tenants to choose office space in green buildings or in, otherwise comparable, conventional buildings nearby. Controlling for building quality and location, we find that corporations in the oil and banking (...) industries, as well as non-profit organizations, are among the most prominent green tenants. Furthermore, measures of an industry’s human capital intensity are positively related to the propensity to lease green office space. These empirical findings confirm the theoretical framework on economic advantage and institutional pressure as important determinants for the ecological responsiveness of firms. (shrink)

La découverte d’un nouveau mois à Ténos et l’identification d’un graveur à Paros conduisent à formuler de nouvelles hypothèses sur le problème des sûretés réelles en droit grec. L’examen du registre de Ténos (IG XII 5, 872) en vue de sa réédition a fait apparaître une erreur de découpage entre les actes 17 et 18 chez les éditeurs antérieurs, qui n’ont pas reconnu le nom d’un mois, Èrès[iôn], équivalent du mois délien Arèsiôn attesté depuis peu à Andros, l’île voisine. En (...) faisant disparaître une clause obscure de ce document, cette découverte invite à réexaminer le fonctionnement d’un gage hypothécaire d’un type particulier, l’apotimèma dotal, auquel l’un des actes du registre fait allusion. Ce point acquis, on aborde ce qui fait par contraste la spécificité de la vente avec faculté de rachat (prasis épi lysei) : à Ténos comme à Athènes, elle se caractérise par un transfert de propriété immédiat au profit du créancier, au moyen d’un acte de vente complété le cas échéant par un contrat de location. Le rapprochement entre une borne récemment découverte à Paros (SEG 54, 794) et une célèbre loi sur les archives, gravée par le même lapicide, permet en dernier lieu de préciser la relation entre la prasis épi lysei et les pratiques d’archivage public à l’époque hellénistique. (shrink)

This study proposed and examined a conceptual framework on the influence of real estate brokers’ personalities, psychological empowerment, social capital, and knowledge sharing on their innovation performance, and used moral hazard as a moderating variable. We used structural equation modeling for data analysis and estimation. The participants were real estate brokers in Kaohsiung City. A total of 1,000 questionnaires were administered to 100 branch offices of real estate companies, 571 of which were later recovered (...) from 80 branch offices. After removing 52 for being invalid, we were left with 519 valid questionnaires, indicating a 51.9% recovery rate. The empirical results suggest that the real estate brokers’ personalities and psychological empowerment positively and significantly influence social capital; personality and psychological empowerment also positively and significantly influence their innovation performance; and social capital significantly influences knowledge sharing, which in turn positively and significantly influences the brokers’ innovation performance. In environments with higher levels of moral hazard, the influence of social capital on the brokers’ knowledge sharing is significantly diminished. (shrink)

This paper investigates the extent to which institutional investors may have influenced independent real estate appraisals during the financial crisis. A conceptual model of the determinants of client influence on real estate appraisals is proposed. It is suggested that the extent of clients’ ability and willingness to bias appraisal outputs is contingent upon market and regulatory environments, the salience of the appraisal to the client, financial incentives for the appraiser to respond to client pressure, organisational culture, (...) the level of moral reasoning of both individual clients and appraisers, client knowledge and the degree of appraisal uncertainty. The potential of client influence to bias ostensibly independent real estate appraisals is examined using the opportunity afforded by the market downturn commencing in 2007 in the UK. During the market turbulence at the end of 2007, the motivations of different types of owners to bias appraisals diverged clearly and temporarily provided a unique opportunity to assess potential appraisal bias. We use appraisal-based performance data for individual real estate assets to test whether there were significant ownership effects on performance during this period. The results support the hypothesis that real estate appraisals in this period reflected the differing needs of clients. (shrink)

Several recent articles in the field of ethics and business have raised questions concerning the viability of professional ethical codes. Are such codes serious, effective tools for promoting and enforcing an ethical standard of behavior? Or do the codes more closely resemble clever, elaborate public-relation ploys? The purpose of this paper is to analyze the content, role and efficacy of one such ethical code, namely, The Code of Ethics of the National Association of Realtors. The paper examines the ethical principles (...) embodied, implicitly or explicitly, in this Code; it tests these principles for coherence, comprehensiveness, clarity and enforce-ability. Furthermore, it seeks to determine whether this Code articulates standards of ethical conduct that are higher than those already required by law and whether the Code successfully translates a general ethical vision down to concrete, everyday real estate practice. (shrink)

This article adopts an ecological view of cognition to analyze the role of the environment in scaffolding metaphorical experience. Using ethnographic material collected from two real estate showrooms in China, we describe how each showroom setting is equipped with to-be-phenomenologically-experienced objects designed to stimulate desirable sensorimotor experiences and altered bodily states during the guided showroom tours. By analyzing the qualities of such settings and identifying the processes through which visitors become environmentally coupled—including active and passive touch in highly (...) organized auditory, olfactory, and gustatory environs—we demonstrate how the showrooms constitute an affordance space for enacting metaphoricity through doubleness in experience. Implications for conceptual metaphor theory relating to the nature of environments and bodies are discussed. (shrink)

Members of licensed occupations benefit from legal standards that limit entry into their professions. Is it ethical for these professionals to give political support to these standards? I examined the case of real estate brokers and found that their educational requirements raise average commissions by one quarter of a percentage point, costing consumers $5.4 billion per year without improving the quality of brokerage services. The case raises interesting ethical issues which are difficult to resolve.

Corporate social responsibility involvement and disclosure has been becoming increasingly popular among US public firms, including those that qualify as real estate investment trusts. This paper aims to discover the relationship between CSR involvement and potential determinants such as growth opportunities, profitability, visibility, and agency costs. Types of CSR involvement are assessed in terms of environmental, community, and governance disclosures and are quantified using word count from the company’s voluntary disclosure. Our results support the hypothesis that CSR has (...) a strategic element and that REITs have greater CSR involvement when they have greater growth and investment opportunities. When the type of disclosure is broken into subcategories, the results show that not all dimensions of CSR are alike: environmental, community, and governance CSR disclosures appear to be motivated by different sets of incentives and reasons. (shrink)

This paper establishes a model on the upstream and downstream relationship among private enterprises, provincial and local officials, and the central government in the real estate market using the population ecology theory of mutual relations among individual species from the perspective of business ecosystem. A dynamic model is introduced and the complex dynamical behaviors of such a predator-prey model are investigated by means of numerical simulation. The local stability conditions and complex dynamics are investigated, and the existence of (...) chaos is discussed in the sense of Marotto theorem; bifurcation diagrams, Lyapunov exponents, sensitivity analysis for initial values, and time history figure of the system are mapped out and discussed. This shows that there are two routes to complicated dynamics, one of which is the cascade of flip bifurcations resulting in periodic cycles, and the other one is Neimark-Sacker bifurcation which produces attractive invariant closed curves. We arrive at conclusions that the phenomenon of chaos is harmful to private enterprises, and unstable behavior is often unfavorable. Thus, linear feedback control is applied to drive the model to a stable state when the system exhibits chaotic behaviors, achieving the goal of eliminating the negative effects to a large extent. (shrink)

Community standards, ethical norms, and perceptions of fairness often serve as constraints on pure profit maximizing behavior. Consider the following examples: Most hardware stores refrain from raising prices on snow shovels after a major snow storm, even where short term profits might be increased. Most employers do not lower wages for existing employees, even as unemployment in the area increases. Automobile dealerships rarely raise sticker prices to cope with the long waiting periods for a popular model. Each of these anomalies (...) is consistent with the proposition that firms increase profits subject to fairness constraints.This paper examines perceptions of fairness in the residential real estate industry and explores how community standards affect economic decision-making. The residential real estate industry is unique. One party to the transaction (the landlord) frames decisions as pure business decisions. The other party to the transaction (the tenant) frames decisions more broadly. While a tenant's choice of apartments is in part viewed as a business decision, tenants consider a broad spectrum of non-business issues, as well. (shrink)

In this paper, we propose a new predator-prey nonlinear dynamic evolutionary model of real estate enterprises considering the large, medium, and small real estate enterprises for three different prey teams. A 5D predator-prey nonlinear dynamic evolutionary system in the real estate market is established, where the large, medium, and small real estate enterprises correspond to three differential equations, provincial and local officials, and the central government correspond to the other two differential equations. (...) Nonlinear dynamic analysis on a 5D predator-prey evolutionary system in the real estate market, containing the analysis of equilibrium points and stabilities, is made. The corresponding discrete system is simulated, and the simulation results about Lyapunov spectrum, bifurcation diagram, sequence diagram, and phase diagram are given. Compared with the work of Yang et al. in which all real estate enterprises corresponded to one differential equation, in our proposed model, the large, medium, and small real estate enterprises correspond to three differential equations which is more accordant with the specific circumstance of real estate companies. (shrink)