Contextualized property market models vs. Generalized mass appraisals: An innovative approach

The present research takes into account the current and widespread need for rational valuation methodologies, able to correctly interpret the available market data. An innovative automated valuation model has been simultaneously implemented to three Italian study samples, each one constituted by two-hundred residential units sold in the years 2016-2017. The ability to generate a "unique" functional form for the three different territorial contexts considered, in which the relationships between the influencing factors and the selling prices are specified by different multiplicative coefficients that appropriately represent the market phenomena of each case study analyzed, is the main contribution of the proposed methodology. The method can provide support for private operators in the assessment of the territorial investment conveniences and for the public entities in the decisional phases regarding future tax and urban planning policies

Real estate appraisals with Bayesian approach and Markov Chain Hybrid Monte Carlo Method: An application to a central urban area of Naples

This paper experiments an artificial neural networks model with Bayesian approach on a small real estate sample. The output distribution has been calculated operating a numerical integration on the weights space with the Markov Chain Hybrid Monte Carlo Method (MCHMCM). On the same real estate sample, MCHMCM has been compared with a neural networks model (NNs), traditional multiple regression analysis (MRA) and the Penalized Spline Semiparametric Method (PSSM). All four methods have been developed for testing the forecasting capacity and reliability of MCHMCM in the real estate field. The Markov Chain Hybrid Monte Carlo Method has proved to be the best model with an absolute average percentage error of 6.61%

Sustainable Real Estate: Management, Assessment and Innovations

Production and consumption activities have determined a weakness of the sustainable real estate economy. The main problems are the subordination of public decision making, which is subjected to pressure from big companies; inefficient appraisal procedures; excessive use of financial leverage in investment projects; the atypical nature of markets; income positions in urban transformations; and the financialization of real estate markets, with widespread negative effects. A delicate role in these complex problems is assigned to real estate appraisal activities, called to make value judgments on real estate goods and investment projects, the prices of which are often formed in atypical real estate markets, giving ever greater importance to sustainable development and transformation issues. This Special Issue is dedicated to developing and disseminating knowledge and innovations related to most recent real estate evaluation methodologies applied in the fields of architecture and civil, building, environmental, and territorial engineering. Suitable works include studies on econometric models, sustainable building management, building costs, risk management and real estate appraisal, mass appraisal methods applied to real estate properties, urban and land economics, transport economics, the application of economics and financial techniques to real estate markets, the economic valuation of real estate investment projects, the economic effects of building transformations or projects on the environment, and sustainable real estate

A geographic knowledge discovery approach to property valuation

This thesis involves an investigation of how knowledge discovery can be applied in the area Geographic Information Science. In particular, its application in the area of property valuation in order to reveal how different spatial entities and their interactions affect the price of the properties is explored. This approach is entirely data driven and does not require previous knowledge of the area applied. To demonstrate this process, a prototype system has been designed and implemented. It employs association rule mining and associative classification algorithms to uncover any existing inter-relationships and perform the valuation. Various algorithms that perform the above tasks have been proposed in the literature. The algorithm developed in this work is based on the Apriori algorithm. It has been however, extended with an implementation of a ‘Best Rule’ classification scheme based on the Classification Based on Associations (CBA) algorithm. For the modelling of geographic relationships a graph-theoretic approach has been employed. Graphs have been widely used as modelling tools within the geography domain, primarily for the investigation of network-type systems. In the current context, the graph reflects topological and metric relationships between the spatial entities depicting general spatial arrangements. An efficient graph search algorithm has been developed, based on the Djikstra shortest path algorithm that enables the investigation of relationships between spatial entities beyond first degree connectivity. A case study with data from three central London boroughs has been performed to validate the methodology and algorithms, and demonstrate its effectiveness for computer aided property valuation. In addition, through the case study, the influence of location in the value of properties in those boroughs has been examined. The results are encouraging as they demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology and algorithms, provided that the data is appropriately pre processed and is of high quality

Building a Strong Undergraduate Research Culture in African Universities

Africa had a late start in the race to setting up and obtaining universities with research quality fundamentals. According to Mamdani [5], the first colonial universities were few and far between: Makerere in East Africa, Ibadan and Legon in West Africa. This last place in the race, compared to other continents, has had tremendous implications in the development plans for the continent. For Africa, the race has been difficult from a late start to an insurmountable litany of problems that include difficulty in equipment acquisition, lack of capacity, limited research and development resources and lack of investments in local universities. In fact most of these universities are very recent with many less than 50 years in business except a few. To help reduce the labor costs incurred by the colonial masters of shipping Europeans to Africa to do mere clerical jobs, they started training ―workshops‖ calling them technical or business colleges. According to Mamdani, meeting colonial needs was to be achieved while avoiding the ―Indian disease‖ in Africa -- that is, the development of an educated middle class, a group most likely to carry the virus of nationalism. Upon independence, most of these ―workshops‖ were turned into national ―universities‖, but with no clear role in national development. These national ―universities‖ were catering for children of the new African political elites. Through the seventies and eighties, most African universities were still without development agendas and were still doing business as usual. Meanwhile, governments strapped with lack of money saw no need of putting more scarce resources into big white elephants. By mid-eighties, even the UN and IMF were calling for a limit on funding African universities. In today‘s African university, the traditional curiosity driven research model has been replaced by a market-driven model dominated by a consultancy culture according to Mamdani (Mamdani, Mail and Guardian Online). The prevailing research culture as intellectual life in universities has been reduced to bare-bones classroom activity, seminars and workshops have migrated to hotels and workshop attendance going with transport allowances and per diems (Mamdani, Mail and Guardian Online). There is need to remedy this situation and that is the focus of this paper

Geo-Information Technology and Its Applications

Geo-information technology has been playing an ever more important role in environmental monitoring, land resource quantification and mapping, geo-disaster damage and risk assessment, urban planning and smart city development. This book focuses on the fundamental and applied research in these domains, aiming to promote exchanges and communications, share the research outcomes of scientists worldwide and to put these achievements better social use. This Special Issue collects fourteen high-quality research papers and is expected to provide a useful reference and technical support for graduate students, scientists, civil engineers and experts of governments to valorize scientific research

LO SPIN-OFF UNIVERSITARIO “URBAN LAB S.R.L.” STRUMENTI E METODI PER LE TRASFORMAZIONI URBANE IN PPP

The LaborEst has made available in to the territory, the enormous expertise and the scientific production with the intention of encourage and achieve virtuous processes for the territorial development, since its establishment. This action was carried out, always, by the involvement of local authorities, by trade associations and other stakeholders, working in the Calabria area, and more specifically, in the Metropolitan Area of the Strait. In this scenario, among other initiatives, starts the spin-off UrbanLab s.r.l, an initiative in the area of construction services companies to develop methods and models to support the sustainability research and the feasibility of urban transformation projects. These methods and models can be implemented in public-private partnership, offering an innovative service characterized by an economic-estimate service, computerised systems and related to feasibility and pre-feasibility studies.  DOI: http://dx.medra.org/10.19254/LaborEst.09.1

Understanding consumers’ ethical decision-making process : assessment of antecedents and consequences of consumer’s explicit and implicit perception and behavior towards ethical consumption

Soziale und ökologische Anliegen erfahren bei allen Austauschprozessen eine immer höhere Relevanz. Auch beim Konsum achten immer mehr Menschen auf die ökologische und soziale Verträglichkeit der konsumierten Produkte und Marken und wollen mit ihren Konsumentscheidungen ein Zeichen gegen unethisches Handeln setzen. Dadurch bietet der Konsum heutzutage ein Mittel, mit dem Konsumenten ihre ethischen Vorstellungen vertreten und repräsentieren können. Während Konsumenten jedoch in einigen Handlungsbereichen bewusst entsprechend ihren ethischen Vorstellungen nach handeln, geraten in anderen Handlungsbereichen die selbigen ethischen Grundsätze in den Hintergrund und erfahren kaum oder teilweise keine Relevanz bei der Konsumentscheidung. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob es den ethischen Konsumenten überhaupt gibt. Zahlreiche Unternehmen passen sich den ethischen Grundsätzen und Vorstellungen der Konsumenten an und versuchen Ihre Angebote an diese Vorstellungen auszurichten. Da scheinbar allein die ausgesprochenen ethischen Vorstellungen der Konsumenten kein ausreichendes Merkmal sind, um entsprechende Handlungen zu tätigen, ist ein ausgeprägteres Verständnis ethischer Konsumentscheidungen und ihrer Determinanten erforderlich. Diesem Ziel widmet sich die vorliegende Dissertation. Im ersten Modul, welches aus drei Forschungsartikeln besteht, werden zunächst Treiber und Folgen des ethischen Konsums identifiziert und Ihre Beziehung zueinander diskutiert. Hierbei werden insbesondere psychographische Merkmale der Konsumenten erörtert, sowie produkt-, marken- und kontextabhängige Faktoren adressiert. Zudem wird hier ein Bezug zwischen dem Luxuskonsum und dem ethischen Konsum hergestellt. Das zweite Modul besteht aus insgesamt zwei Forschungsbeiträgen und setzt sich mit der Förderung nachhaltigen Konsums auseinander. Hierbei wird insbesondere auf die Gestaltung von Kommunikationsmaßnahmen und Kanälen eingegangen, wobei das Offline- sowie das Online-Umfeld einbezogen wird. Letzteres in Form eines Online Shops für fair gehandelten Kaffee. Da Menschen Informationen über explizite und implizite Prozesse verarbeiten und Entscheidungen oftmals unbewusst getroffen werden, werden Methoden der neuroökonomischen Forschung in Modul 2 integriert, um eben diese unbewussten Prozesse zu erfassen und so die ganzheitliche Wirkung der Maßnahmen erfassen zu können. Die Ergebnisse der verschiedenen Forschungsartikel veranschaulichen die Vielfältigkeit der Faktoren, denen ethische Konsumhandlungen unterliegen. Sämtliche Treiber müssen, je nach Anwendungskontext, in die Erklärung des ethischen Konsumentenverhaltens einbezogen werden. Die Erkenntnisse liefern für kommerzielle sowie nicht-kommerzielle Unternehmen (Non-Profit-Organisationen) wertvolle praktische Implikationen, um ihre Zielgruppe besser zu verstehen und um ihre Produkte und Kommunikationsmaßnahmen effizient gestalten und wirksam umzusetzen zu können. Für zukünftige Forschungsrichtungen liefert die Dissertation mehrere potenzielle Ansätze. Besonders zu verfolgen sind jene, die eine ganzheitlichere Erklärung ethischen Konsums anstreben und mögliche Barrieren auf Seiten der Konsumenten adressieren. Hierbei kann die Einbindung modernen Methoden der Neuroökonomie einen erheblichen Beitrag zur Erklärung des Entscheidungsprozesses bieten