Auteur: R. Haerkens
Online shopping and shopping value as influencers of consumers’ preferences
Online shopping has a great effect on retailing, and, with the rise of online shopping, consumers’ preferences and the way consumers shop changes. This research determines the effects of online shopping and shopping value on consumers’ preferences, and how these effects are affected by consumer characteristics. With the aid of an online questionnaire, which was distributed among an online panel, a stated choice experiment was conducted to quantify the consumers’ preferences. Next, the Multinomial Logit Model was applied to calculate the choice probabilities for different (online) shopping alternatives. These alternatives were described by different attributes. The research shows that online shopping is more utilitarian oriented. Furthermore, consumers’ preferences for shopping centers shift to a more hedonic oriented orientation. With this, consumers value extra facilities in the shopping centers, like hospitality, leisure, services, Wi-Fi and longer opening hours. Next, the research shows males shop online for both utilitarian and hedonic shopping goals, whereas, females shop online for mainly utilitarian shopping goals. The online shopping alternative poses as a solution for younger consumers. Furthermore, online shopping enhances the accessibility of hedonic shopping for rural consumers. The results of the research can be used by real estate managers, developers and investors, and (online) retailers.
Auteur: M. Poels
Declining regions, declining values?
Shrinking regions, which are regions that suffer from demographic decline, have several problems in the field of housing, as it could lead to the depreciation of properties and ultimately to vacancy. Housing associations have an important social role in these areas. To know the effect of the aspects of demographic decline on the value of the stock of a housing association in a shrinking region, the market values of social rented dwellings of a housing association in the province of Limburg are compared. In the province of Limburg are several shrinking regions located. To know the “pure” effect of the location on the market value, the market values are corrected for the features of the dwellings and compared between the different regions. From this analysis, it came forward that the corrected mean market values are significant lower in the shrinking regions in Limburg. After a closer study into the components that are needed to calculate the market value, it appeared that these regional differences in the market value are mainly caused by the value with vacant possession. The last step of the analysis was to check to what extent the regional differences in the market value could be explained in terms of the aspects of demographic decline. This analysis showed that the more a region suffers from demographic decline (i.e. the more aspects of demographic decline are applicable in that region), the lower the mean market value is.
Auteur: E. Wijnker
Modelling route choices and outlet visits in the downtown shopping area of Maastricht
It is of importance to gain insight in pedestrian behaviour in downtown shopping areas since, the size of pedestrian flows in pedestrianized shopping areas is an important indicator of turnover figures and real estate values in shopping areas. To better understand the shopping preferences and route choice behaviour of different population groups, models of pedestrian movement may be helpful in predicting likely consumer response to managerial and planning decisions. In general, most shopping areas in the Netherlands are completely pedestrianized. The pedestrian behaviour in inner cities is complex and hard to predict. However, many models have shown that pedestrian behaviour at least partially can be predicted.
The following problem statement is set to be answered in this study: What is the pedestrian behaviour in the downtown area of Maastricht and to what extent is there a difference in age categories, gender and the endpoint of the pedestrian in the route choice behaviour and the shops that are visited?
The literature study pointed out that personal characteristics, characteristics of the trip and environmental and infrastructure characteristics are of influence on the pedestrian behaviour in downtown shopping areas. Characteristics that may have an influence on the pedestrian behaviour in downtown shopping areas are taken into account in the questionnaire that is prepared for data collection.
The results showed that there are some differences regarding the pedestrian behaviour between the different gender groups. Secondly, the differences according to the age categories are small. Thirdly, the exit-point where pedestrians leave the downtown shopping centre appears to influence pedestrian behaviour in the downtown shopping area. In addition physical developments and social developments have their impact on the pedestrian flow and the outlets visited in the downtown shopping area of Maastricht. Since gaining insight in pedestrian behaviour is complex nonetheless very important it is of importance to collect more data and optimize the pedestrian model.
Pedestrians are flexible in their movements in terms of direction changes, which results in a large number of unique movements in pedestrianised areas. The complexity of pedestrian behaviour makes that the likely effects of changes cannot be assessed easily in advance. Previously, models have been developed to enable the prediction of pedestrian behaviour, and with that the likely effects of urban planning policy measures on pedestrian movements. Due to recent developments, resulting in changes in consumer behaviour and the retail branch, studying pedestrian behaviour is of importance in order to improve these models. This study aims to answer the research question “How can the behavior of pedestrians in the downtown shopping area of Eindhoven be measured and modelled in order to be able to predict the likely effects of urban planning policy measures on pedestrian flows?”. This in order to improve a model for the prediction of pedestrian behaviour, focussing on the horizontal displacement of pedestrians. Due to a lack of knowledge concerning the use of staircases, elevators and escalators in downtown shopping malls, research on the vertical movement behaviour of pedestrians in downtown shopping malls is included in this study as well. As found in the literature, each action performed by a pedestrian provides utility, which is aimed to be optimised. This utility maximization process includes the minimization of costs incurred while following another route than planned, avoiding other entities, or being forced to accelerate or decelerate. Dependent on the density, the interactions between pedestrians result in a certain number of manoeuvres to avoid collisions and stopping processes. Pedestrians judge this as the incurrence of costs due to the extra metres that are required to be walked. Thence, the distance pedestrians walk during a shopping trip turned out to be of great importance for their behaviour. Pedestrians tend to optimise their (sequence of) activities in order to minimise the walking distance of the shopping trip.
Auteur: W. Loomans
Obstacles to implement the WELL Building Standard
The WELL Building Standard is the first building certificate that focus explicitly on the health and well-being of the occupiers of a building. Companies increasingly realize that a healthy work environment can contribute to e.g. employee health, productivity, satisfaction and company image. Therefore, many companies show interest in WELL. However, the amount of WELL-certified buildings is severely limited.
Of course, this is partially due to the time it takes to WELL-certify a building (WELL only exists for four years). However, if we want to implement this healthy office concept on a large scale, we should lower the threshold and diminish the largest obstacles. Therefore, I have interviewed and surveyed different stakeholders (i.e. corporate real estate managers, asset managers, institutional investors, developers and consultants), which resulted in a list of twenty-five different obstacles. Furthermore, I used a pairwise comparison method to rank the obstacles and the following three obstacles are the most obstructive:
– High costs for registration and certification
– High costs for implementation
– Difficult to implement the features in existing buildings.
As shown, the largest two obstacles are related to costs, meaning that if the government wants to stimulate the amount of healthy buildings, it would be the most effective to focus on the financial side of WELL. Furthermore, the three largest obstacles are all related to WELL, and not to healthy concepts in general. This indicates that, if another healthy office concept would arise, it could be possible that potential customers will choose for the alternative.
Langer zelfstandig wonen met behulp van domotica
Het overheidsbeleid is erop gericht om ouderen zo lang mogelijk thuis te laten wonen. Traditionele verzorgingshuizen verdwijnen en in plaats daarvan moet de zorg thuis worden georganiseerd. Onderzoeken hebben aangetoond dat de meeste licht zorgbehoevende ouderen ook graag in hun eigen vertrouwde woning / woonomgeving oud willen worden. Desondanks is bij een toenemende zorgvraag de eigen woning vaak onvoldoende geschikt om dienst te doen als ‘verzorgingshuis’. Traditionele woningaanpassingen (traplift, verwijderen dorpels e.d.) kunnen tot zekere hoogte een oplossing zijn. Maar nieuwe oplossingen zijn noodzakelijk om de sterk toenemende groep licht zorgbehoevende ouderen te ondersteunen bij het zelfstandig wonen met een gedegen kwaliteit van leven en zorg op maat.