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- Palm, Peter
(författare)
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Closing the loop : The use of post occupancy evaluations in real-estate management
- 2008
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The real-estate sector has traditionally been thinking in terms of “bricks and mortar” focusing more on the buildings than on the tenants. A change of approach has, however, been detected since the mid 1990s. The tenant is now more in focus. This new situation puts higher requirements on both the individual real-estate manager’s and organization’s ability to determine the needs of the tenants. Evaluations and knowledge management can be a help in this process Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is one tool where the tenant’s perspective is in focus. The purpose of this thesis is to study the Swedish real-estate sector’s attitudes and experience of POE. Furthermore the purpose is to investigate how POE can be implemented in the organization and what barriers there are to implementation. This thesis presents three empirical studies of the real-estate sector and their use of POE. The first study is a survey sent to Swedish real-estate managers to determine their attitudes and experience of POE. This study was followed up by a more in-depth interview study to determine the attitudes regarding POE among the real-estate managers. The third study was also an interview study and it was carried out with individuals in leading positions in organizations in the real-estate sector. The aim of this study was to get a clearer view of possibilities for change and barriers to change within the real-estate sector The results show that there is an interest from the real-estate managers towards evaluations but that they rarely carry out evaluations. The main barrier detected is the lack of support from top management and this has resulted in a lack of incentives for realestate managers to work with POE. The reason for this lack of interest from the top management can be the culture of the real-estate sector, a culture which has sprung from the building sector. The conclusion is that problems will not be solved solely by implementing POE. The organisation must take care of the information, share it, learn from it and use it in the best way in current and future projects. This can only be done by implanting a knowledge management system. To enable this kind of change within the organisation the top management must underline the importance of this and at the same time give the organisation both the right tools to enable implementation and incentives to carry this out and follow it through. One way to show the importance of knowledge management, and at the same time create incentives and methods to follow up the development of the organisation is to integrate POE in the Balanced Scorecard. The conclusion is that if the top management doesn’t want the organisation to fall behind its competitors it must put knowledge management on the agenda. Sooner or later the competitors will implement evaluations and knowledge management in their organisations, and then it is only a question of time before they have built a better and stronger organisation, with better-qualified employees, that generates more efficient services and more satisfied customers.
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| 2. |
- Apanasevic, Tatjana, 1976-
(författare)
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Challenges Related to the Introduction of Innovative Services in the Market : Mobile Payment Services in the Swedish Retail Industry
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Mobile payment services are expected to be the next step of the electronic payment evolution. However, the level of penetration in European countries is lower than expected. The focus of most academic research has been in two main areas: (i) mobile payment adoption by consumers and (ii) technical aspects of the service. Consequently, a number of themes remain under-researched. In order to expand knowledge on reasons that affect the wider penetration of mobile payments, challenges related to the introduction of mobile payment services in the market have been explored in this thesis.More specifically, this research has addressed two problem areas: (i) why mobile payments have not been widely adopted by merchants; and (ii) what effects that the introduction of mobile payments has had on the business networks of the involved actors. As an example, we use the mobile payment services applied in the Swedish retail industry. The study is focused on the main groups of stakeholders – the mobile payment providers, the retailers, and the consumers.First, this study has helped to identify what different stakeholders expect of mobile payments and how these services correspond to their needs. In order to analyse the expectations of stakeholders, we have developed an analysis framework based on the theory of diffusion of innovations, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and the theory of network externalities. The analysis highlights the expectations of stakeholders and helps to understand what kind of mobile payment service merchants expect and are willing to adopt. One key finding is that existing mobile payment services for retailing could be further improved in order to ensure an enhanced purchasing process for consumers.Second, the research has explored the impact of mobile payment services on the business networks. In order to analyse the relationships and cooperation between business actors, and changes in business strategy and network structure, we used the approach proposed by the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group. The performed analysis illustrates the following changes in the structure of business networks for the traditional payment solutions (bank cards): (i) emergence of new business actors (i.e. independent mobile payment providers); (ii) new roles and activities of business actors; and (iii) exclusion of traditional business actors (i.e. banks) from the mobile payment systems.All these changes lead to increased complexity of relationships and increased level of interdependence between business actors within the networks. The following changes in the strategies of involved actors have been identified: (i) mobile payment providers seek to achieve a control over the business network; (ii) the retailers affect strategies of the mobile payment providers; (iii) the marketing strategies of business actors include cross-marketing in different sectors. All these changes result in additional value and enhanced quality of service for consumers.In order to analyse a complex and multidisciplinary area such as mobile payments, it is beneficial to use more than one analysis approach. A combination of different complementing methods helps to explore different aspects of the phenomenon and provides a more comprehensive overview of several research aspects.This work contributes to the academic research of mobile payment service adoption by merchants through proposing a theoretical analysis framework. More specifically, the research addresses a new area – expectations of retailers when new solutions are introduced. The framework consists of the following criteria and aspects: technological feasibility, economic benefits, lower service costs, added value of services, network externalities and the problem of critical mass, and finally, ease of use. This framework helps to identify what merchants can expect of mobile payment services.Another area of contribution is the analysis of the effect that mobile payments make on the actors and business networks of traditional payment services. The introduction of new services results in emergence of new business actors, a need to establish new relationships, and increased complexity of a business network. Moreover, in order to succeed, cooperation between all network actors is needed. As a result, business actors have to adjust their services and strategies according to needs of others.
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| 4. |
- Humavindu, Michael N., 1975-
(författare)
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Essays on public finance and environmental economics in Namibia
- 2007
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis comprises two papers exploring aspects of public finance and environmental economics in Namibia.Paper [I] estimates the shadow prices of capital, labour and foreign exchange for the Namibian economy. The results suggest that the shadow price of capital for Namibia is 8%. The economic costs of Namibian labour, as a share of financial costs, are 32% for urban semi- and unskilled labour, and 54% for rural semi- and unskilled labour. The economic cost of foreign labour as a share of financial costs is 59%. The estimated range for the shadow exchange rate factor is between 7% and 14% for the Namibian economy.Paper [II] studies the determinants of property prices in the township areas of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. The study reveals that properties located close to an environmental hazard, such as a garbage dump, sell at considerable discounts. On the other hand properties located near an environmentally favourable location, such as recreational open space, sell at a premium. These results provide evidence of the importance of environmental quality in lower income property markets in developing countries. It is therefore important for Namibian urban planners to incorporate environmental quality within the planning framework for lower income areas.
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| 8. |
- Westin, Jonas, 1980-
(författare)
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Welfare Effects of Transport Policies : an analysis of congestion pricing and infrastructure investments
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Interactions between the transport market and other distorted markets, such as the labor market, can have a large impact on the overall welfare effect of a road pricing policy or a congestion charge. Many road pricing studies therefore try to incorporate effects from other distorted markets in the analysis. A difficulty when assessing the welfare effect of a future transport policy is also that many factors and parameters needed for the analysis is uncertain. This thesis contains three papers all studying different methodological approaches to analyzing the welfare effects of transport policies. The first two papers analyze the welfare effect of congestion pricing in distorted economies. The main contribution of the first paper is to analyze how the welfare effect of a congestion charge in a distorted economy depends on what assumptions we make regarding the tax system in the initial no-toll situation. A critical assumption in many cost-benefit analyses of congestion charges is that the whole population has a single value of time. The second paper studies the effect of a congestion charge in a population of commuters with a continuously distributed value of time. The main contribution of the paper, compared to previous literature, is that it studies the welfare effect and distributional impact of a congestion charge in a population with endogenous labor supply and heterogeneous value of time where mode-choice self-selection plays an important role. The third paper studies the climate benefit of an investment in high speed rail by calculating the magnitude of annual traffic emission reduction required to compensate for the annualized embedded emissions from the construction of the line. To account for uncertainties in underlying assumptions, a Monte Carlo simulation framework is used in the analysis. The paper finds that to be able to balance the annualized emissions from the construction, traffic volumes of more than 10 million annual one-way trips are usually required, and most of the traffic diverted from other transport modes must come from aviation.
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| 9. |
- Bryngelsson, David, 1981
(författare)
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On Food Price Implications from Expanded Bioenergy Production
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Bioenergy has been put forward as a solution to energy security and at the same time to climate change. It is, however, dependent on productive agricultural land, which is a limited resource. Introduction of bioenergy on a large scale will thus compete with food production and natural forests for productive land, a competition expected to affect food prices.In this thesis I focus on poverty nourishment issues related to changing food prices and on the mechanisms of land-use competition and how they affect food prices. In the first paper we use two established indicators for poverty and sensitivity to food-price changes, to capture peoples' vulnerability to rising food-prices, in four Sub-Sahara African countries/regions. In contrast to previous studies, we include all food products instead of just one or a few main staples. We found that the vast majority of people are net consumers of food and that the inclusion of more than main staples increases their net position as consumers and thus vulnerability to high food prices. In paper two and three a conceptual and transparent partial equilibrium model of global land-use competition is developed, analyzed and applied. The model is to a large degree analytically explored and price differentials between crops are derived. The model is subjected to a detailed characterization of its mechanisms and parameters in which parameters that are critical to results and conclusions from the model are detected and their impacts depicted. We conclude that the total amount of productive agricultural area is of crucial importance to the price impacts from large-scale introduction of bioenergy. Yields of bioenergy crops are also important since they determine the amount of land required to produce the bioenergy.
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| 10. |
- Anop, Sviatlana, 1974-
(författare)
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Apartment price determinants : A comparison between Sweden and Germany
- 2015
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Similar development of economic fundamentals in Germany over the last two decades did not lead to the same dramatic house price increases as it is in Sweden. What can explain this house price stability over a long period? This thesis attempts to find the answer this question.The first paper in this thesis contains an extended literature review on the studies focused on the factors affecting house prices in the short and in the long run. Existing literature adopts a broad variation of approaches and reaches different conclusions attempting to answer the question about what are the key drivers of house prices. Conclusions often depend on the model specifications and econometric methods applied. Though there is a considerable agreement in real estate economics theory regarding the main factors that affect house prices (or so called “fundamental determinants”), it is hard to find a consistent definition regarding what factors can be considered as “fundamentals” and what factors belong to “non-fundamentals”. The dominating factors that are presented in the majority of the studies are income, population, interest rate, housing stock and unemployment. Studies done after the recent financial crisis put more attention on such factors as the behavior of the market participants, financing conditions and regulations. The characteristics of the bank lending and valuation policies as well as regulations on the rental market have received attention in the research literature, but the impact of these factors on house price dynamics is not measured and not well described. Therefore the other two papers in this thesis aim to provide a better insight in to the factors that create fluctuations in housing markets.The second paper investigates the effects of macroeconomic indicators such as population, income housing stock, mortgage interest rate on house prices. Estimation is done by applying panel data methodology on regional data for major cities in Germany and Sweden and by using yearly observations from 1995 to 2010. Results suggest that the long-run development of apartment prices in Sweden can be explained by changes in such factors as population, disposable income per capita, mortgage interest rate, housing stock, and prices per square meter in the previous period. The price for the previous period has the highest impact in comparison with other factors in Sweden. At the same time for Germany this is the only factor that is valid for long-term house price development. Estimates for fundamental factors such as population, disposable income, mortgage interest rate and housing stock appeared as not significant in house price development in the long run in Germany. A closer analysis has shown that the fundamental factors developed in a similar way in both countries during the analyzed period, though the house prices dynamic is very different. The conclusion is that fundamental factors cannot provide an explanation for the differences in house price developments in two countries and further analysis of institutional differences in the housing markets is done in the third paper.Third paper applies a comparative analysis approach and hypothetico-deductive method in order to examine the differences in the banking policies on mortgage financing and approaches to valuation of mortgage properties in Germany and Sweden. The results suggest that the extreme rise in Swedish house prices above the long-term trend was created by expanding bank lending policies that was supported by the general macroeconomic factors and regulation environment on the housing market. The main difference between countries in approaches to valuation for mortgage purposes is that in Germany that mortgage is based not on the market value as it is in Sweden, but on the long-run sustainable value, so called “fundamental” value. Mortgage lending value is determined in such a way that is also develops in the same tempo as fundamentals in the long-run and is not that procyclical as market value. Using a long-term sustainable value has a restrictive effect on the housing prices and in such a way stabilizes the market. One more factor that gives stability to the housing market in Germany is the well-functioning rental market. Third paper contributes to a better understanding of necessary conditions for the house prices to rise in the long run above the fundamentals level and suggests policy solutions that can reduce the risks of housing bubbles and increase financial stability.
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