Jessica Karhu, Ari Laitala, Heidi Falkenbach and Anna‐Liisa Sarasoja
The purpose of this paper is to find out the green preferences of corporate occupiers in relation to their occupied offices. The study aims to focus on the preferences of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to find out the green preferences of corporate occupiers in relation to their occupied offices. The study aims to focus on the preferences of the end‐users at the organisational level. It also aims to study the relative importance of these preferences against one another and to seek the differences between respondent groups.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey is a case study approach concentrating on the situation in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (Finland) in the summer of 2009. The survey was conducted as an internet‐based questionnaire with e‐mail invitations. The importance of nine given green attributes of the office buildings were ranked on a five‐point Likert scale. A total of 90 responses were analysed.
Findings
The results show that location achieved the highest importance, even though it was rated in terms of the environmental sense only. The energy efficiency of a building was ranked second. The indicative results suggest that industry sector and the position of the respondent effect the importance of the preferences.
Research limitations/implications
The Helsinki Metropolitan Area was the focus of the study, but it is believed that the results can be generalised to other office market areas in Finland.
Practical implications
The findings will benefit the management of occupying organisations, real estate investors and marketers who may now deepen their understanding of the preferences of corporate occupiers. The results may be useful to organisations promoting green buildings.
Originality/value
The mainstream sustainability research in the real estate sector has focused on green buildings in the area of new construction, and economical and technical approaches. This study concentrates on end‐users' considerations at the organisational level and green preferences in the existing office stock.
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Palaniappan Sellappan and Kavitha Shanmugam
Environmental dynamics affect all sectors, and retailing is no exception. Scholarships reveal that, in such turbulent times, entrepreneurial characteristics are essential for…
Abstract
Purpose
Environmental dynamics affect all sectors, and retailing is no exception. Scholarships reveal that, in such turbulent times, entrepreneurial characteristics are essential for business. In academic research, entrepreneurial characteristics like entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and entrepreneurial competence (EC) are seldom evaluated for retailers. This study aims to decode the impact of small retailers’ EO and EC on firm business performance (BP). It also traces the mediation effect of EC in the relationship between EO and BP.
Design/methodology/approach
The study executed among 740 small retailers is a pioneering work to trace EO’s efficacy via EC on the retailer’s BP. The present research is a primal work in the Indian context. This work redesigns the EC scale to suit the retail context and evaluate its mediation role in the EO and BP relationship.
Findings
Examining the mediation model through structural equation modelling (SEM) adds empirical evidence to entrepreneurial value creation (EVC) theory and throws light on the indispensable qualities required for small business retailers. The outcomes of the SEM model portray that there is an association between the EO, EC and BP.
Research limitations/implications
This study, though carried out methodically, it is constrained by the ensuing intricacies. The investigation was limited to the small- and medium-retailers engaged in retailing with a floor space from 500 to 5,000 square feet. All three constructs used in the study are measured using the self-reported perceptual scale, which infuses the subjectivity in the data. Exploring the EO and EC of widely dispersed retailers, examining the entrepreneurial character of large-format independent retailers and evaluating financial performance measures through retailers will add value to the study in future.
Originality/value
The study verified the central role of EC in the intangible resource-reward relationship. Among the five pillars of EVC theory, the role of intention and external finance are not considered in this work. The present work explored the EO and EC of existing retailers, and hence intention is excluded. The study concentrates on small retailers, and the role of external financing is not explored. Mishra and Zachary (2014b) opined that the EVC process should be studied in different context and listed out several prepositions. Considering the role of intention and external financing and studying several prepositions spelt out in the theory in varying contexts will throw more lights on the EVC process.