| 1. |
- Ahlenius, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
Exploring Motivational Factors Among High Performing Real Estate Brokers: The Swedish Case
- 2021
-
In: Journal of Real Estate Practice and Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1521-4842 .- 1930-8914. ; 23:1, s. 20-37
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this exploratory case study is to analyze the role of relational motivation for high-performing real estate brokers in Sweden. The concept of relational motivation, or relatedness, is explored through both affective and calculative commitment. The data in this study come from in-depth interviews with real estate brokers. The results show that the brokers are committed to their clients, in an affective and a calculative way. All of the participants expressed signs of being emotionally involved in their customer relations, often in terms of genuine interest in, and caring for, their clients. The existence of relatedness toward customers in a brokerage context contributes to the discussion on what motivates high-performing real estate brokers. By viewing relatedness as a trigger to engage in more customer relationships, the intrinsic motivation can be seen as a strong antecedent to individual performance.
|
|
| 2. |
- Ahlenius, Martin, et al.
(author)
-
The occupational life cycle of real estate brokers: a cohort study
- 2022
-
In: Journal of European Real Estate Research. - : Emerald. - 1753-9269 .- 1753-9277. ; 15:3, s. 351-367
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the occupational life cycle of Swedish real estate brokers. Design/methodology/approach Voluntary turnover among real estate brokers could lead to occupational turnover and/or employee turnover and has been described as problematic by both practitioners and researchers alike. Most previous studies focusing on this issue have explored connections between real estate brokers' personality, economic and market conditions and turnover. Employee turnover involves shifting jobs within the profession (real estate brokerage), whereas occupational turnover concerns movement to a job not related to the real estate brokerage profession. Both perspectives on turnover are however lacking data about the average time spent as a broker. This study fills this gap by exploring real estate brokers' life cycle through data analysis using a cohort study consisting of a sample of 5,304 real estate brokers registered and/or deregistered over a ten-year period from 2010 to 2019. Findings The analysis show that the decline is almost linear, resulting in 50% of the newly registered real estate brokers remain in the occupation eight years after registration. These findings are not in line with previous assumptions as the real estate brokers' life cycle is substantially longer. The results also reveal that there are differences in life cycles due to gender and year of registration. Originality/value The analysis of longitudinal, aggregated data on the life cycle of real estate brokers is highly relevant as it serves as a point of reference for future longitudinal studies analyzing the motives for leaving the occupation.
|
|
| 3. |
- Engström, Rickard, 1972-
(author)
-
Den oberoende mellanmannen : En studie av fastighetsmäklarprofessionen och begreppet ”god fastighetsmäklarsed” i teori och praktik
- 2022
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Den svenska fastighetsmäklaren intar en roll som oberoende mellanman medomsorgsplikt mot både köpare och säljare, vilket skiljer sig från hurfastighetsmäklaryrket är organiserat på de flesta andra håll i världen. Därav är densvenska modellen värd att studera och analysera. I Sverige regleras yrket i lag.Utövarnas regelefterlevnad kontrolleras av Fastighetsmäklarinspektionen (FMI). Ettviktigt begrepp är ”god fastighetsmäklarsed”. Vad som bedöms vara ”godfastighetsmäklarsed” bestäms genom praxis från FMI och förvaltningsdomstolarna.En disciplinpåföljd från FMI kan bestå av erinran, varning eller återkallelse avregistrering, vilket medför ett yrkesförbud. En disciplinpåföljd kan överklagas tillförvaltningsdomstolarna.Denna avhandling består av en sammanhållande kappa och fyra artiklar sombeskriver fyra olika studier som gjorts för att bättre förstå förutsättningarna för deindivider som verkar som fastighetsmäklare på den svenska bostadsmarknaden. Detövergripande syftet är att beskriva och analysera fastighetsmäklares yrkesroll i ensvensk kontext och speciellt deras roll som oberoende mellanman. Med utgångspunkti tre forskningsfrågor används både kvalitativa och kvantitativa metoder för att samlain och analysera primära och sekundära data. Resultaten visar att verksamma svenskafastighetsmäklare balanserar de utmaningar som kan rymmas inom rollen somoberoende mellanman, men det finns också vissa gränsdragningsproblem avseende”god fastighetsmäklarsed”.FMI utdelar disciplinpåföljder till fastighetsmäklare vid regelöverträdelser. Att ivardagen förhålla sig till regelverk och praxis är svårare för vissa kategorierfastighetsmäklare: yngre fastighetsmäklare får oftare än äldre påföljden erinran, äldrefår oftare än yngre påföljden varning, och fastighetsmäklare verksamma i storstad fåroftare påföljden varning jämfört med fastighetsmäklare på landsbygden.Fastighetsmäklaryrket och professionsutvecklingen studeras i en jämförande studiemellan Australien (Victoria) och Sverige. De svenska branschorganisationerna –Mäklarsamfundet och Fastighetsmäklarförbundet (FMF) – är delaktiga i professionsutvecklingen,bland annat som huvudmän för Fastighetsmarknadens Reklamationsnämnd(FRN) som agerar enligt lagen (2015:671) om alternativ tvistlösning ikonsumentförhållanden. Avhandlingen ger vidare förslag till utveckling av såvälytterligare forskning som av praktiken.
|
|
| 4. |
- Engström, Rickard, 1972-, et al.
(author)
-
Professionalization of the real estate agent occupation : A comparative study of Australia and Sweden
- 2023
-
In: Property Management. - : Emerald. - 0263-7472 .- 1758-731X. ; 41:1, s. 60-83
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze and compare the level of professionalization of the real estate broker's occupation in Victoria, Australia, and Sweden. As previous studies have indicated that the real estate agent occupation in both regions is experiencing low levels of trust, an analysis of the level of professionalization is warranted. Design/methodology/approach: The data used in the analysis in this paper have been gathered from a number of different high-quality sources. In Sweden, information has been obtained from the Swedish Real Estate Agents Inspectorate, the Association of Swedish Real Estate Agents and the Swedish Real Estate Agents Association, and Real Estate Statistics. For the Victorian case, information has been obtained from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, which is the leading professional body in organizing real estate agents. Furthermore, information has also been sourced from the Business Licensing Authority as well as Consumer Affairs Victoria. The focus of the analysis has been on the institutional changes of the real estate profession, including the education required to become an agent, the legislation and supervision of real estate agents and the role of the professional bodies that organize the real estate agents. 10; Findings: The analysis shows that both the real estate brokerage market in Victoria and Sweden could be characterized as mature. Using the definition of a profession from Millerson (1964), the authors conclude that the brokerage industry has a number of the characteristics of a profession such as a long albeit interdisciplinary education, strong professional bodies, code of conduct and some level of self-regulation. Research limitations/implications: This research examines two countries, both considered mature in their house market process. Findings may be very different if the research methodology was applied to house markets that do not exhibit the same level of regulatory control. Practical implications: Even though the real estate occupation can be considered as a semi-profession, there is still room for improvement when it comes to how consumers perceive the trustworthiness of real estate agents. Therefore, the professional bodies ought to strive to find ways on increasing the status and trustworthiness of the profession. These could include increasing the transparency as well as continuing education for its members. Social implications: Users of real estate services need to have confidence in the skills and expertise of real estate agents they engage. The magnitude of the monies associated with real estate transactions should cause users to seek out agents who are proficient in what they do, and to this end, the professionalism of agents is critical to the provision of accurate and informative information to guide users toward positive and beneficial outcomes. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes and compares the development of the real estate profession in Victoria and Sweden, using theories from the study of professions.
|
|
| 5. |
- Ahlenius, Martin
(author)
-
The impact of motivation and person-job fit on employee turnover among Swedish real estate brokers: A mixed method approach
- 2022
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Residential real estate is a vital part of the economy, and homes are important for individuals for both financial and emotional reasons. Residential homes change owners for numerous reasons, and there is a need for these transactions to be secure and efficient from both the economic and individual perspective. The general idea of residential real estate brokerage is to facilitate these transactions securely and efficiently. Real estate brokerage has therefore captured both media as well as scholarly interest. Some scholars even argue that brokerage is a relevant research and literature field of its own. Like other occupations within sales, the brokerage industry suffers from problems connected to recruiting and retaining employees, as put forth by several spokespersons within the industry and scholars alike. Prior studies argue that there is a need for further studies that describe the occupational life cycle of brokers and employee turnover antecedents, such as intrinsic motivation. Hence, the overarching purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze occupational turnover and its antecedents among Swedish real estate brokers. This thesis sprung out of a firsthand occupational experience of Swedish brokerage, curiosity, and an abductive stance toward knowledge creation. It is primarily explorative, and the embedded articles consist of different types of methodologic approaches and therefore also different ways of gathering data such as interviews, surveys, and registered data. All data solely involves Swedish real estate brokers. Results of the four articles show that the occupational life cycle of brokers is significantly longer than expected and that Swedish brokers display high levels of work-related intrinsic motivation, occasionally rooted in affective commitment towards customers and gained trust from sellers. Furthermore, being driven by gained trust and customer relations has a positive effect on person-job fit which in turn reduces turnover intentions. A majority of the results within the four articles are not in line with prior studies, which is interesting and prompts speculation. The service landscape of brokerage, and particularly Swedish brokerage due to the broker’s intermediary role and personal responsibility for the entire transaction, arguably drives intrinsic motivation and reduces turnover. This is enhanced by the high educational threshold for becoming a broker in Sweden. This thesis contributes to the literature field of brokerage by providing insights about what motivates brokers and the theoretical field of person-job fit by suggesting ways of improving the operationalization and the validity of person-job fit.
|
|
| 6. |
- Connell-Variy, Theodore, et al.
(author)
-
Housing Markets and Resource Sector Fluctuations : A Cross-Border Comparative Analysis
- 2021
-
In: Sustainability. - : MDPI. - 2071-1050. ; 13:16
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent research has sought to better understand resource and housing market cycles longitudinally and define clear phases in order to understand interactions between the two over time. This is a necessary step forward in housing market knowledge for this under researched area, particularly in an economically unique context. This paper expands knowledge by undertaking a comparative study of town housing markets in Queensland's coal mining Bowen Basin and Sweden's northern municipalities-specifically Gallivare and Kiruna-where a long history of iron ore mining exists. This paper analyses these housing markets using longitudinal data spanning two decades, which includes two resources cycles in two geographically disparate locations. The results indicate that the housing market in Queensland, Australia, is far more volatile than the housing market in the Swedish municipalities. The regional housing market in Sweden's municipalities tend to be less dependent on resource price and output from mines than their Australian counterparts. Part of the explanation for this is that the Swedish towns examined are less of the traditional mining town known from previous studies, and more a town with mining. Developing and improving understanding of markets over the duration of a cycle is important. Particular value is apparent in the comparison and contrasting of two separate resource regions encompassing resource reliant communities in two different countries. Importantly, the linkage of research regions through resource relationships leads to groundbreaking research which will have practical benefit to multiple economies, housing markets and for policy-makers alike.
|
|
| 7. |
- Ho, Cynthia Sin Tian, 1994-
(author)
-
Accessibility to bank branches and entrepreneurial dynamics : New firm formation and capital structure of SMEs in Sweden amidst a changing banking landscape
- 2021
-
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The overall objective of this thesis is to develop a better understanding of the impact of accessibility to bank branches on new firm formation and on the capital structure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Sweden. In this thesis, the accessibility to bank branches is measured by two proxies that are weighted by two different types of population—the labour population and the firm population. By weighing the distance by the population, the accessibility to bank branch measures account for the distribution of the population within the municipality. Furthermore, spatial effects are included in the models in Chapters 2, 3, and 4 to account for the possibility that entrepreneurs in a municipality may travel to obtain financial services from the banks in neighbouring municipalities. The analysis in Chapter 2 provides no evidence that the relationship between the distance to banks and new firm formation varies spatially. This means that the accessibility to bank branches has a negative association with new firm formation, regardless of the location. The findings in Chapter 3 show that an increase in the weighted mean distance to the nearest bank branches negatively affects new firm formation. The findings in Chapter 4 also show that the effects of the accessibility to the bank branches’ proxy weighted by the labour population have a negative effect on new firm formation in the ‘education, health, and others’ industry, while the effects of the accessibility to bank branches’ proxy weighted by the firm population have a negative effect on new firm formation in capital- intensive industries, such as manufacturing, transport and communications, and education, health, and others industries. The final chapter focuses on the impact of the accessibility to bank branches on the capital structure of SMEs. The findings show that an increase in the distance to the bank branch has a significant negative impact on the total and short-term leverage of SMEs. Overall, the results of this thesis are relevant to various stakeholders, such as policy-makers, in making finance more accessible to current and prospective entrepreneurs. For example, the lack of accessibility to government loans and grants, especially in rural regions, is making some regions vulnerable to becoming bank deserts. The existing infrastructures in a municipality, such as the supermarket, can also help to take over some services the closed bank branches previously provided, such as cash deposits and short-term loans.
|
|
| 8. |
- Ho, Cynthia Sin Tian, 1994-
(author)
-
The Effect of Bank Branch Closure on New Firm Formation: The Swedish Case
- 2020
-
In: The annals of regional science. - : Springer Nature. - 0570-1864 .- 1432-0592. ; 65:2, s. 319-350
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this paper, the effect of local bank branch closures on new firm formation in Sweden is analysed using a panel database that captures the geographical locations of all Swedish bank branches in 2007 and 2013. The previous research has shown that the further a firm is located away from the bank, the higher the monitoring costs will be for the banks. Furthermore, an increase in the distance to the banks will also increase information asymmetry because of the banks’ eroded ability to collect and analyse soft information. Due to the high risks associated with the lack of information and uncertainty, banks might not be as willing to extend credits to a distant firm compared to a nearby firm. Using spatial econometric analysis at a municipal level, it is shown that bank proximity to firms, unemployment rate, industry structures, income growth, change in housing price and percentage of immigrants are vital for new firm formation in Sweden. From the spatial Durbin model with fixed effects, an increase in the weighted distance to the nearest bank branches is shown to affect new firm formation negatively.
|
|
| 9. |
- Kulkov, Ignat, et al.
(author)
-
Navigating uncharted waters : Designing business models for virtual and augmented reality companies in the medical industry
- 2021
-
In: Journal of engineering and technology management. - : Elsevier BV. - 0923-4748 .- 1879-1719. ; 59
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- New technologies are at the heart of industry transformation. Virtual and augmented reality companies provide fundamentally new ways of communication, treatment, education, and specialist training within the medical industry. However, business models for new ventures that target the medical industry have received scant attention within academic research. Using a multiple case study approach, we analyze how virtual and augmented reality firms create value for their customers in the medical industry. In all, we have studied eight companies that offer different types of solutions for their target segments. The results of the analysis are four design elements consisting of twelve positions and three design themes that define the similarities and differences between the business models for the companies. We contribute to existing research within the field by analyzing business models of the investigated companies using a design approach, classifying the virtual and augmented reality companies, and analyzing the role of new technology in the development of the medical industry.
|
|
| 10. |
- Kulkov, Ignat, et al.
(author)
-
The importance of financial resources and ownership of intellectual property rights for university spin-offs : the cases of Finland and Sweden
- 2020
-
In: Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. - : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 1462-6004 .- 1758-7840. ; 27:7, s. 1125-1147
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Purpose: This paper focuses on medical device university spin-offs (USOs), taking into account the peculiarities of financial and nonfinancial support and intellectual property rights (IPRs). The authors declare that these parameters play a significant role in business development at the early stages. Design/methodology/approach: This empirical data consist of individual and group interviews in Finland and Sweden, which are later inductively analyzed. Findings: The results show that public financial support contributes to the formation and start of sales stages in small countries and local markets. However, at the validation stage, approaches for supporting entrepreneurship in the field of medical devices may differ. The ownership of IPRs assists in the development of entrepreneurship in the region due to the transfer of research results and researchers to the industry and increases the number of spin-offs and the cooperation of universities with business. Originality/value: This contribution is in the identification of the key parameters for the formation, support and development of the USOs from the point of view of the availability of financial resources and the ownership of IPRs.
|
|
