Determinants of Foreign Versus Domestic Real Estate Investment: Property Level Evidence from Listed Real Estate Investment Firms

We examine the determinants of foreign real estate investment relative to the domestic case using the portfolios of a large sample of publicly traded real estate investment companies; where foreign investment is defined as the property owner headquarters being located in a different country than a given asset. The cross-sectional results provide strong evidence that real estate firms are more likely to take a smaller stake in larger assets when investing abroad. The penchant for large assets holds when controlling for economic activity, real estate investment opportunities, depth and sophistication of the capital markets, investor protection and the legal framework, administrative burdens and regulatory limitations, and the socio-cultural and political environment at both the property nation and headquarter nation levels. In general, foreign ownership is less likely with industrial, office, retail, and self-storage properties. Capital market development is consistently negatively related to foreign investment.     

Impression management,myth creation and fabrication in private social and environmental reporting: Insights from Erving Goffman

This paper explores the nature of private social and environmental reporting (SER). From interviews with UK institutional investors, we show that both investors and investees employ Goffmanesque, staged impression management as a means of creating and disseminating a dual myth of social and environmental accountability. The interviewees’ utterances unveil private meetings imbued with theatrical verbal and physical impression management. Most of the time, the investors’ shared awareness of reality belongs to a Goffmanesque frame whereby they accept no intentionality, misrepresentation or fabrication, believing instead that the ‘performers’ (investees) are not intending to deceive them. A shared perception that social and environmental considerations are subordinated to financial issues renders private SER an empty encounter characterised as a relationship-building exercise with seldom any impact on investment decision-making. Investors spoke of occasional instances of fabrication but these were insufficient to break the frame of dual myth creation. They only identified a handful of instances where intentional misrepresentation had been significant enough to alter their reality and behaviour. Only in the most extreme cases of fabrication and lying did the staged meeting break frame and become a genuine occasion of accountability, where investors demanded greater transparency, further meetings and at the extreme, divested shares. We conclude that the frontstage, ritualistic impression management in private SER is inconsistent with backstage activities within financial institutions where private financial reporting is prioritised. The investors appeared to be in a double bind whereby they devoted resources to private SER but were simultaneously aware that these efforts may be at best subordinated, at worst ignored, rendering private SER a predominantly cosmetic, theatrical and empty exercise.     

Leadership Lessons of Triangular Desire from René Girard

René Girard examined famous novels depicting something he called displaced desire, in which a follower emulates someone believed to be exemplary. These relationships can become problematic, twisted, and even contagious, as people affect desires only because someone else exhibits them. This often results in inauthentic choices and rivalry, which Girard diagnoses. In the last section of the paper are some implications for the practice and study of leadership.     

INVESTMENT ANALYSIS FOR AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING: A CASE STUDY

Investment opportunities for electronics manufacturing can create many challenging components within the standard context of economic analysis theory. First, most of these operations are dependent on significant capital investment with short analysis periods due to technological obsolescence. These problems are compounded with the reality of short product lives and fluctuating consumer demands. Perhaps the most challenging environment for electronics manufacturing is that of automotive electronics. These facilities are typically faced with similar manufacturing issues common in all electronics production but have the added difficulty in meeting very stringent quality and reliability requirements in a globally competitive market. This case study investigates the challenges in evaluating investment options in electronics manufacturing and pays specific attention to those issues that are most common to the automotive electronics market. In addition, the analysis investigates various sensitivity issues related to these investment opportunities and investigates an alternative investment option for a flexible manufacturing process.     

Same-sex sexual behaviour: US frequency estimates from survey data with simultaneous misreporting and non-response

Survey-based research concerning sexual behaviour almost inevitably confronts the simultaneous problems of misreporting and non-response. These problems lead to disparities among estimates of the number and characteristics of those who engage in same-sex sexual behaviour. This paper proposes a statistical model to consistently estimate the frequency of same-sex sexual behaviour in the presence of non-ignorable misreporting and non-response. The model is fitted using 1991–2000 General Social Survey data. Frequency estimates corrected for simultaneous misreporting and non-response are reported. According to the model, 7.1% of US males and 4.1% of females – 15.8 million individuals – are not exclusively heterosexual. Allowing for misreporting and non-response increases the estimated same-sex frequency by more than four million. The model reveals new patterns between misreporting and non-response probabilities and standard demographic variables such as age and income.     

Consistency and asymptotic normality for equilibrium models with partially observed outcome variables

We derive conditions under which structural econometric models that rely on numerical computation of equilibria produce consistent and asymptotically normal parameter estimates. The conditions are weaker than those required for the application of the implicit function theory.     

A qualitative investigation into the donor lapsing experience

• Donor attrition is costing charities a fortune. Previous research has examined the relative importance of the antecedents to donor loyalty versus lapsing. This study qualitatively builds on this. It reports the results of workshops and interviews that took lapsers and donors back through their donor and lapser journeys. It drills down into and unpacks their experiences—inclusive of the (previously undocumented) lapsing experience itself. It reveals striking similarities between the cancellation of a direct debit and other more conventional purchase decisions. Most worryingly, it seems that most people stop supporting a given charity because they had never really had any loyalty to it in the first place. Charities are not meeting people's needs as donors. There is a distinct lack of understanding between charities and their donors, and donors are lapsing because charities give them little reason to stay. The authors conclude with practical recommendations for the management of attrition.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.