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The Australian REIT (A‐REIT) market has undergone significant change over the past ten years with a shift from passive investment strategies to more active investment strategies in an attempt to deliver higher return performance. However, this has dramatically changed the risk characteristics of A‐REITs. Essentially, the sector has become more risky. Factors contributing to the increasing risk profile include: rising gearing levels; greater offshore exposure; evolving management structure towards stapled trusts, and growing market concentration. This paper aims to address these issues.

In an attempt to gauge the impact of the changing risk characteristics over time the paper employs two formal risk measures: time‐varying beta and news impact curves. Both measures indicate that the sector has become more risky. Indeed, it could be argued that the pronounced fall in A‐REIT prices during late 2007 reflects a re‐rating of risk on the upside. The post credit crisis financial climate warrants a review of investment strategies; in particular, growth style investments that may be carrying a high level of embedded risk and opaque income streams.

Current market sentiment suggests that investors have become more risk averse, and as such, will refocus on A‐REITs that cater for defensive style investments. Such vehicles will have low to moderate gearing levels, hold quality property assets in their portfolio, limited off‐shore exposure, and employ sound management practices.

The heightened risk‐averse environment presents opportunities for new investment products that provide partial exposure to direct property investment as a way to mitigate excessive equity market volatility.

This paper supports the call for using a separate research stream for long-term recovery vs disaster relief in humanitarian studies. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the thematic shift towards service operations during this developmental phase and explores the role of social entrepreneurial organizations. It builds from the literature on service operations management and social entrepreneurship to promote theory in humanitarian operations management.

This exploratory study uses literature concepts and field data from multiple development case studies of social entrepreneurial organizations and social enterprises in Africa and the Middle East to analyze service operations.

Clear contributions to the role of social entrepreneurship in providing humanitarian and development services were identified and categorized according to service operations management stages.

This paper has important practical implications. The positioning of social entrepreneurial organizations as humanitarian service providers would open opportunities for new collaborations between donors and social organizations. Mainstream NGOs dominate the scene of servicing local communities; leaving aside social entrepreneurial organizations with substantial room for innovation that they might bring to the sector. In addition, social entrepreneurial organizations’ ability to build business models and design sustainability and scalability aspects for their operations may bring long-term development to impoverished communities. Global NGOs as well as government actors who carry out the first three stages of humanitarian operations could plan on working with (or even help creating) social entrepreneurial organizations to help with long-term recovery.

This study examines the implications of two bodies of literature; service operations management and social entrepreneurship on humanitarian operations management research. It concludes with a conceptual framework emphasizing the contributions of social entrepreneurship in planning, development, delivery, and distribution of services in the long-term recovery humanitarian and development operations.

In 2017, US federal agencies awarded over $86 billion in contracts to small businesses owned by members of under-represented groups (minorities, women, service-disabled veterans, and certified businesses located in economically distressed areas). The vast scale and scope of public procurement coupled with policies for supporting small disadvantaged businesses may drive federal agencies toward greater inclusiveness in awarding contracts, which may shape broader societal patterns of economic participation and social equity. However, the level of inclusiveness varies considerably across different federal agencies. The authors posit that differences in three key organizational mechanisms associated with federal agencies’ decision-making processes – administrative discretion, workplace discrimination, and legislative oversight – influence an agency’s level of inclusiveness in awarding contracts. They test these ideas using the annual small business procurement activities of 41 federal agencies, large and small, from 2002 to 2011. The authors find empirical evidence for economically significant effects of discretion, discrimination, and oversight on an agency’s inclusiveness in awarding contracts and discuss the scholarly, managerial, and policy implications.

This study aims to extend existing research on impact measurement (IM) in social enterprises (SEs) by capturing, comparing and contrasting perceptions of IM in SEs in Australia and India.

A qualitative methodology was used to study five cases each in India and Australia. The SEs were identified using snowball and theoretical sampling, and grounded theory was applied to analyze the data.

Emerging perceptions of IM in both countries are described according to the development of the SE, its perceived impact and IM methods and challenges. Primary differences between India and Australia lie in perceptions of impact and IM, and related tools and processes. Similarities include understanding the importance of IM and the challenges faced. Signaling theory is used to depict how some SEs use IM to signal quality to their stakeholders and how information asymmetry can be reduced by measuring and reporting on IM.

There is limited representation from developed and developing countries, and the snowball and theoretical sampling approaches used to identify SEs have limitations, including limited representation of SEs.

There is presently no standardized method of IM due to common challenges and perceived barriers. It is, therefore, important for SEs to work toward developing their own comprehensive IM methodology that is ingrained in strategy, applied on a regular basis and used to measure collective impact to increase sense of ownership and acceptability for employees and partners.

The paper brings the social entrepreneurs’ perspectives on measuring social impact while comparing these perspectives in one developing and one developed country.

This paper aims to provide a quantitative picture of the extent to which Irish universities are male-dominated at senior management, professoriate and governance levels; to locate this pattern in an international context; and, drawing on qualitative data from a purposive sample of Irish university senior managers, to explore the limits and possibilities of change.

The quantitative data at senior management level draw on a largely web-based study, supplemented by interview data from a purposive sample of 40 people (85 per cent response rate) in senior management positions in all seven universities funded by the state – including those at Dean to Presidential level, men and women, and academics and non-academics. The interview schedule used in the qualitative study was devised by the eight-country Women in Higher Education Management Network (WHEM).

Irish universities are very male-dominated at senior management, professoriate and governance levels. The qualitative data suggest that the limits to change are an organisational culture that is homosocial and conformist, where women and their attitudes and priorities are seen as “the problem”. Yet there was a striking level of endorsement of various discourses suggesting that having women in senior management makes a difference.

The failure of the Higher Educational Authority to collect data on the gender of those in senior management in Irish universities has necessitated the use of the web. This is an effective pragmatic response, but obviously not as satisfactory as official data.

It has been widely recognised that diversity in management teams is positively associated with innovation. In this context the absence of such diversity in the senior management teams in Irish universities raises concerns in the context of the challenges facing Irish society in general and the university sector in particular. The references to the organisational culture as conformist and homosocial raise fundamental questions about the universities ' ability to use the skills of their staff to move the institution forward.

The paper is the first specific study of senior management in Irish universities. It echoes and specifies the nature of the organisational culture – but also highlights the existence of legitimating discourses endorsed by senior managers.

The potential of current awareness services (CAS) for oncology nurses is considered with special reference to the spectrum of WWW CAS that are available, their benefits and problems, and how these can be linked to the dynamic health environments in which oncology nurses may find themselves. The intention with the article is to show the need for exploring the value of WWW CAS for dynamic professional fields such as oncology nursing, and to offer a point of departure for research on their information behaviour. The WWW CAS that were identified might be used to get oncology nurses interested in using such services, as well as in participating in research on their information behaviour.

A literature study on the nature and value of CAS is combined with a cursory analysis of the literature of oncology nursing to provide insight into the professional demands that oncology nurses need to cope with, and the potential value of CAS for oncology nurses. Based on this a selection of WWW CAS suitable for oncology nurses is identified. Insight into the potential of WWW CAS for oncology nurses and the CAS that are available are combined with what can be learned from studies on information‐seeking behaviour to offer some suggestions on how the need for oncology nurses to use CAS available via the WWW can be further explored. In general the suggestions to explore the use of CAS would also apply to other professional fields.

It seems as if oncology nurses can benefit substantially from WWW CAS. To successfully implement such CAS, extensive research on the information‐seeking behaviour, information use and information communication of oncology nurses is, however, necessary. The article could be used as an instrument to gain oncology nurses' interest in WWW CAS, and willingness to participate in further research on their information needs and information behaviour.

Oncology nurses' interest in CAS can be stimulated, and the article can be used as point of departure for further research. The article can also offer new opportunities for library and information (LIS) professionals to offer CAS in the health and other professional sectors, by reconsidering how one can use CAS available via the WWW.

No reports on CAS for oncology nurses could be traced, and there are also very few reports on the information needs and information behaviour of oncology nurses. The article hopes to pave the way for renewed interest in using CAS in demanding professional environments, and especially the health sciences, as well as to stimulate interest in research in information‐seeking behaviour in the health sciences.