Office Firms Research Articles

Determinants of Client Acceptance Decisions and the Impact on the Reputation of Public Accounting Office Firms (KAPs) in Indonesia

Determinants of Client Acceptance Decisions and the Impact on the Reputation of Public Accounting Office Firms (KAPs) in Indonesia

Evaluating the effect of new working practices on office space usage in Hong Kong

PurposeMany organizations in Hong Kong have witnessed a reduction in average space usage due to high occupancy costs. New working practices (NWPs) are viewed as a reform tool to manage expensive real estate around the world. However, it is unclear whether NWPs influence office space usage in business organizations in Hong Kong. This study, therefore, aims to evaluate if the average space reduction in office firms is caused by the NWPs in the finance, insurance, real estate and business (FIREB) firms.Design/methodology/approachA total of 20 NWPs were initially derived from the extant literature. A questionnaire survey was conducted with listed FIREB firms in Hong Kong to assess the impact of the identified NWPs on space usage. The data collected from the questionnaire survey were analysed using descriptive, explorative factor analysis (EFA) and partial least squares-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to evaluate the effects of NWPs on average space usage.FindingsResults revealed that four major NWP factors influence average space usage. Three of these factors, namely, “flexible arrangement”, “multitasking knowledge workers” and “teamwork and communication”, influence space usage positively. Even though the effect of the fourth factor “training and networking” was significant, it does not reflect a positive influence on space usage. Business organizations can focus more on the implementation of NWPs to cushion the effects of the high cost of occupancy.Originality/valueThe research provides new knowledge to the limited literature on the effect of NWPs in FIREB firms and enriches the growing body of international literature on how today’s competitive global business organizations should revisit their workplace strategies to accommodate the rising agile workforce and NWPs. The findings offer new insights into the ongoing debate on the impact of information and communication technology-enabled NWPs on space usage. From the real estate perspective, the findings should inform policymaking towards the better planning ahead of office properties to accommodate NWPs, helping Hong Kong to remain competitive as a key financial centre.

The role of environmental innovation through the technological proximity in the implementation of the sustainable development

AbstractThis paper explores the relationship between a firm's knowledge sourcing strategy and green innovation. The data are taken from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development REGPAT database, February 2016, relative to the European Patent Office firms' patent applications published up to December 2015. The study contributes to the literature by focusing on the moderating role of integration between different activities related to environmental performance on the relationship between knowledge sources and green innovations. The results from 240 firms indicate a shift in the focus from internal knowledge to external knowledge when developing environmental innovations. Government policies promoting more knowledge complementarity and coordination between environmental fields will help to promote more knowledge transfer, allowing more sustainable development.

School spending and new construction

School districts that vote in favor of property tax levies may signal that they are education-oriented. Through Tiebout sorting and housing developer activity, new residents might move to such communities. New retail development may occur near these new residents, and office firms that rely on high-skilled residents might be drawn too. Using regression discontinuity we find school districts that renew property tax levies have a higher value of new construction than districts that do not renew these school expenditures. School tax levy renewal is responsible for 14% of new residential construction and 25% of new commercial construction.

Simulations of firm location decisions: Replicating office location choices in the Greater Toronto Area

Firm (employment) location influences the behaviour of individuals and households in the short and long term. This paper presents simulations conducted to test the ability of an office location model to replicate the actual choices of office firms in the Greater Toronto Area. It is found that including explicit search areas can significantly increase the ability of location models to replicate actual choices by office firms. In addition, simulation procedures themselves have an impact on the forecasting capabilities of the modelling system. Finally, despite the suggested improvements, the model system’s ability to replicate location decisions of specific firms is somewhat limited.

Matching office firms types and location characteristics: An exploratory analysis using Bayesian classifier networks

While most models of location decisions of firms are based on the principle of utility maximizing behavior, the present study assumes that location decisions are just part of business cycle models, in which location is considered along other business decisions. The business model results in a series of location requirements and these are matched against location characteristics. Given this theoretical perspective, the modeling challenge then becomes how to find the match between firm types and the set of location characteristics using observations of the spatial distribution of firms. In this paper, several Bayesian classifier networks are compared in terms of their performance, using a large data set collected for the Netherlands. Results demonstrate that by taking relationships between predictor variables into account the Bayesian classifiers can improve prediction accuracy compared to commonly used decision tree. From a substantive point of view, our results indicate that different sets of urban characteristics and accessibility requirements are relevant to different office types as reflected in the spatial distribution of these office firms.

How Office Firms Conduct Their Location Search Process?

Office location has important impact on urban form and the transportation system in urban areas. One of the ways to study office location decisions uses surveys of managers and owners of office firms regarding the firm location decision process. The following article presents an analysis of the results gathered in Survey of Office Location Decisions (SOLD)—a Web-based retrospective survey, designed to provide some insight into location decision making of office firms. The main conclusion of the article is that office firms participating in the survey (mainly small and medium sized offices) exhibit a satisficing rather than utility maximizing location decision making. In addition, the results indicate that agglomeration has only a minor role in location decisions by office firms.

Modeling Location Decisions of Office Firms

Firm location models constitute a significant element of integrated land use and transportation models because the behavior of individuals and households is influenced by employment location. This paper examines office firm location models, both for new and relocating firms, to identify ways to improve their estimation and application. The results of the paper suggest that introduction of anchor points, such as the firm current location and the owner household location, significantly improve the estimation of office location models. A generation procedure for choice sets is then shown to improve the model's ability to replicate the decision behavior of office firms and thus provides a way to increase efficiency in the application of the model.

Conceptual Model of Location of Small Office Firms

A conceptual model of location decisions of small office firms is presented. Most firm location models consider all firms in a region; this process usually enables market segmentation only according to the industry classification of a firm. This approach introduces a high level of heterogeneity into the modeling system, since firms’ attributes vary greatly in multiple dimensions. Moreover, most firm location models assume utility maximization behavior and use random utility models. In this conceptual model, an effort is made to reduce heterogeneity through focusing on the relatively homogeneous population of small office firms. Small office firms are also theorized to be satisficers rather than maximizers or optimizers; consequently, more adequate models for the phenomenon may incorporate rule-based approaches rather than random utility techniques. The conceptual model depicted constitutes a first step toward the validation of the proposition that firm location models should be more sensitive to market segmentations and that different methods of decision-making models need to be applied to firms from different parts of the economy.

Conceptual Model of Location of Small Office Firms

A conceptual model of location decisions of small office firms is presented. Most firm location models consider all firms in a region; this process usually enables market segmentation only according to the industry classification of a firm. This approach introduces a high level of heterogeneity into the modeling system, since firms' attributes vary greatly in multiple dimensions. Moreover, most firm location models assume utility maximization behavior and use random utility models. In this conceptual model, an effort is made to reduce heterogeneity through focusing on the relatively homogeneous population of small office firms. Small office firms are also theorized to be satisficers rather than maximizers or optimizers; consequently, more adequate models for the phenomenon may incorporate rule-based approaches rather than random utility techniques. The conceptual model depicted constitutes a first step toward the validation of the proposition that firm location models should be more sensitive to market se...

The Value of Access to Highways and Light Rail Transit: Evidence for Industrial and Office Firms

This research examines the importance of access to light rail transit and highway systems in estimating office and industrial property rents. The analysis improves our understanding of the role played by transport facilities in locational decisions for the firm. Hedonic price analysis is utilised on longitudinal data for 520 office properties and 500 industrial properties collected from the San Diego metropolitan area over the period from 1986 to 1995. Results indicate that access to highways is a significant factor in estimating office property rents in the San Diego area, while access to light rail systems is not significant for office properties. Industrial firms in the San Diego area are not paying rent premiums to locate near highways or light rail transit.

Post‐apartheid residential mobility patterns in two South African cities

Pre‐1994 apartheid laws had a marked impact on urban land use patterns in South Africa. A new government came into power in 1994 and the Group Areas Act had been abolished. The resultant integration of residential suburbs was initially slow, but is occurring at an increasing rate. In this paper, relocation patterns in Johannesburg and Pretoria are analysed. Analysis of the process indicates that the socio‐economic status and the affordability levels of the home‐buyer will drive the relocation process. Integration levels will initially be highest in low‐ and middle‐income residential areas. Shopping centres in certain areas had to change their products and tenant mix to cater for the specific needs of new black residents, while the increasing integration of residential areas will also have an impact on the location of office firms. Attention is drawn to certain similarities with the process of residential integration in the USA.

Spatial Variation in Office Rents within the Atlanta Region

Hedonic office rent models are estimated using data for Atlanta that span the years 1990-96. Controlling for typical building characteristics and lease terms, we find that variables measuring locational differences in wage rates, transport rates and proximity to concentrations of support services and office workers play an important role in explaining spatial variation in office rents. No evidence is found in support of the hypothesis that technological advances in telecommunications have diminished the role played by face-to-face agglomeration economies in determining the intra-metropolitan location of office firms.

Spatial reach of office firms: case study in the metropolitan cbd of tel aviv, israel

This paper, using the CBD of metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel, as a case study, discloses the spatial range of linkages of office firms, situated in newly built office towers. The linkages explored, from the results of a sample of 120 office firms, are those held by office firms with clients, suppliers of goods and services, and with other service firms as partners or as subcontractors. The magnitude of the linkages is revealed in the context of Israel's recent entry into the post‐industrial age and its rapid affiliation with the global economy, accompanied by functional restructuring of the service economy. It is also visible in the built environment of Tel Aviv, with large‐scale construction of over thirty Class A office tower buildings. Complex spatial interrelationships are found, extending from their immediate metropolitan environment toward the world's leading economic centres. Future avenues of research are explored.

Spatial Reach of Office Firms: Case Study in the Metropolitan CBD of Tel Aviv, Israel

Spatial Reach of Office Firms: Case Study in the Metropolitan CBD of Tel Aviv, Israel

EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF OFFICE RENT AND AGGLOMERATION ECONOMIES: A CASE STUDY OF TORONTO*

ABSTRACT. An equilibrium model of office location is applied and tested in the Toronto metropolitan area. The model focuses on the role of communication among firms which is the driving force behind the spatial agglomeration of office firms. The model calculates the equilibrium floor rent in each district, given the existing building stock. The performance of the model is tested in terms of the goodness of fit between observed and estimated office rent in each district. By using the model, we estimate the value of agglomeration economies which is defined as changes in productivities caused by increases in the number of office firms. It is shown that the agglomeration economies in the office sector are much larger than those in manufacturing, and the external effects of agglomeration are considerably large.

Telecommunication Technologies and Optimal Location of Office Firms.

This paper presents a model for optimal location of office firms in the circumstances that firms can communicate with each other not only face-to-face but also by telecommunications. We derive the conditions for optimal allocation and show that the decentralized market system fails to achieve the optimal location due to the external economies of agglomeration. Properties of the optimal location and the impacts of telecommunication technologies are investigated by means of numerical simulations.

Communication among firms, traffic congestion and office agglomeration

In this paper, we propose a model of office location which deals explicitly with the role of face-to-face contacts among firms. In the model, the frequency of contacts with other firms are endogenously determined. The trade-off between communication activity and routine work is described by introducing a time constraint on working hours. Through numerical simulations, the properties of office location are demonstrated. First, the impacts of changes in model parameters on the spatial distribution of office firms are analyzed. Second, by taking account of traffic congestion on the road network as an agglomeration diseconomy, various patterns of office distribution are described.

Impacts of Telecommunication Technology on Travel Demand, Location of Office Firms and City Size

It has been suggested that the development of telecommunication technology may affect the travel demand and the spatial distribution of urban activities.We formulate a behavioral model of office firm which describes the choice of mode for communication (between face-to-face contacts and telecommunication), intensity of communication and location.We analyze both short-run and long-run effects of the development of telecommunication technology which is represented by the decrease in the cost for the use of telecommunication facilities. It is shown that, by the decrease of telecommunication cost, the travel demand is either increased or decreased depending on the exogenous condition and location, the spatial distribution of firms is decentralized while city size is expanded.

Determinants of Location for General Purpose Office Firms within Medium Size Cities*

This study examines determinants of the downtown/non‐downtown location choice for general purpose rental office users. It presents a model of location choice which accounts for linkages, personnel commuting costs and location of market centroid. It fits the model to survey data on office space usage, distinguishing between market oriented and non‐market oriented firms.The study finds that market oriented firms are primarily sensitive to market location, while non‐market oriented firms are more sensitive to linkages and personnel commuting costs. It also finds that linkages play a limited role in the location decisions even for non‐market oriented offices because, in the medium size cities studied, few firms are linkage intensive.