Influence of the global environment on capital flows in the London Office market

PurposeThe London office market is a major destination of international real estate capital and arguably the epicentre of international real estate investment over the past decade. However, the increase in global uncertainties in recent years due to socio-economic and political trends highlights the need for more insights into the behaviour of international real estate capital flows. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of the global and domestic environment on international real estate investment activities within the London office market over the period 2007–2017.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts an auto-regressive distributed lag approach using the real capital analytics (RCA) international real estate investment data. The RCA data analyses quarterly cross-border investment transactions within the central London office market for the period 2007–2017.FindingsThe study provides insights on the critical differences in the influence of the domestic and global environment on cross-border investment activities in this office market, specifically highlighting the significance of the influence of the global environment in the long run. In the short run, the influence of factors reflective of both the domestic and international environment are important indicating that international capital flows into the London office market is contextualised by the interaction of different factors.Originality/valueThe authors provide a holistic study of the influence of both the domestic and international environment on cross-border investment activities in the London office market, providing more insights on the behaviour of global real estate capital flows.

GLOBAL SOCIAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE AND URBANIZATION

The article, from the standpoint of sociological analysis, examines fundamental changes in the structure of society, the distribution of resources that go beyond the framework of constant processes. Global social transformations reflect deeper forms of change at the level of value systems and power structures. The author ofthearticleconsidersthemostnoticeableformsofchangesatthelevelofsocialroles, institutions, statushierarchies, reflectingdeepchanges. Thearticledealswiththeterm “transformation” from the standpoint of a deep, fundamental process of structural changes, fundamentally different from the previous one. New changes in the global socialreality are taking place under the influence ofthe coronavirus pandemic, challenges and threats that have penetrated into all spheres of human life. An analysis is made of the “stopping” of the diverse global world, which had been changing so rapidly and it was impossible to imagine that all countries, regardless of the level of development, disagreements, struggle, would be absorbed by only one thing - obscurity, alienation, closeness. Questions are raised, world politics has changed due to the processes that fill its content, but how has it changed at the conceptual level, have modern transformations hada profoundimpacton the structure and geographical distribution of the population? If the growth of the role of nation-states is claimed, then how has the role of supranational institutions been transformed? What place does urbanization occupy in the processes of demographic changes associated with modern transformations? Is it fair to say that the urbanization of rural space is challenging conventionalwisdom aboutwhat“rural”really means andwhat is still“rural” in many non-urban areas in wealthy societies? © 2022 by the Author(s).

Impacts and implications for the post-COVID city: the case of Toronto

Since the onset of COVID-19, scholars have questioned whether the pandemic will alter the fundamentals propelling the growth of global cities. Using a case study of Toronto, the paper examines and analyses changes impacting the city because of the pandemic, with a focus on work, mobility and housing. In assessing pandemic-related disruption, it outlines the experiences of the early phases of recovery and expectations of continued uncertainty. Moving through and beyond COVID-19, Toronto appears unlikely to move up the rankings of global cities. The city's status as a second-tier global city is an enduring competitive advantage, likely to persist post-COVID.

Connectivity and innovation activities in global cities: Local, global, and infrastructural perspectives

In this dissertation, I evaluate questions related to the role of connectivity in economic and innovation-related processes. Specifically, I utilize conceptual frameworks from the economic geography literature to study the relevance of internal, external, and infrastructural connectivity at a city level.In the first essay, I examine the role of intra-metropolitan connectivity of inventors and evaluate the quality of the associated innovation outputs. I focus on the fact that there exist meaningful demographic differences between people domiciled in city centers and the suburban areas and claim that these heterogeneities serve as sources of diversity and creativity. I suggest empirical evidence that the collaboration of inventors from the two different sub-regions is associated with higher quality innovation outcomes. I further study how firm heterogeneity moderates the effects of this intra-metropolitan connectivity. The findings suggest that local firms and small to mid-sized firms (SMEs) enjoy more benefits because foreign firms and large firms are exploiting their own global network. This paper provides both managerial and practical implications that a metropolitan area may improve its quality of innovation outputs by taking advantage of the urban-suburban connectivity among the inventors. In the second essay, I provide specific guidelines to city planners to evaluate the external connectivity of the associated city. Cities are industry hotspots, playing vital roles as centers of economic development. Each city has different location-specific advantages that can foster different core industries and firms, participating in diverse activities within a global value chain system. Given the increasing rate of globalization at the metro level, it has become paramount for cities to establish and develop economic partnerships with other cities to further growing their regional economies. However, few city planners have clear directions in choosing partner cities, and the decisions are rarely based on appropriate data analysis. Based on the Brookings Institution's Global City Initiative 2.0 project, and after enhancing it with additional data analyses, I introduce a set of step-by-step guidelines to city planners for finding global partner cities. To provide an actual case, I share our own anecdote regarding how Philadelphia chose potential partner cities in order to attract more FDI in its biopharmaceutical sector and foster innovation activities. I also present evidence that the inadequate ability of local firms to source knowledge from international markets associates with relatively weak economic performance. The comprehensive analyses of the city's role in the global value chain include from the upstream (Research and Development) and the midstream (FDI, imports, international joint ventures) to the downstream (exports). This case-based paper provides practical implications to city planners by providing ways of understanding the broad global value chain with which the city is involved.In the third essay, I assess the relationship between soft networks and hard networks of global cities. Public transportation systems (PTS) have been developed along with the associated metropolitan area. Scholars in urban studies have emphasized the important roles of PTS in connecting diverse people, regions, activities, and socio-economic consequences. In this paper, I examine the relationship between public transportation systems and the innovation network in four major U.S. cities in the northeast - New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. I graphically show that inventor locations, as well as their connectivity, are established along with the city's public transportation networks. I further stipulate that this relationship has been seriously undermined by the recent pandemic - COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Why skyscrapers after Covid-19?

Globalization's need for global cities with highly concentrated financial districts is discussed to explain how the Covid-19 pandemic will paradoxically only serve to make the world's leading global cities more essential, valuable, and demanding of skyscrapers than ever before. Financial and corporate service firms cannot only be digitally based because they also require face-to-face interaction, collaboration, and joint-production within themselves, and between one another, in the most connected global cities to effectively function as competitive businesses. However, after Covid-19 advanced service firms will only not practice remote working where and when they must; so that in-place face-to-face interactions with colleagues and clients will be overwhelmingly only concentrated in the skyscraper-laden financial districts of the world's leading global cities. The future of commercial and luxury residential skyscrapers in the world's leading global cities can be said to be secure because the impact of Covid-19 on enhancing the centrality of these few highly connected and super-wealthy cities in globalization is both understandable and predictable; skyscrapers elsewhere in the Global North or South will struggle to remain viable as firms increasingly decentralise the work of their staff away from city centre offices.

International connectedness and local disconnectedness: MNE strategy, city-regions and disruption.

Much of the rising international connectedness of city-regions has developed from MNEs replacing local connections with (superior) international ones. This often creates local disconnectedness that energizes the current populist backlash against MNE activities. We develop approaches to new IB theory, addressing the interdependencies of MNEs and city-regions that we propose as a crucial avenue for future research. We contrast two generic MNE strategies. The first is the traditional one: the 'global orchestration' of resources and markets. We argue that it exacerbates local disconnectedness. The second, that we call 'local spawning,' involves engaging with the local entrepreneurial eco-system to create and renew local connectedness, diffusing populist responses. Some MNEs are better able to implement a local spawning strategy, due to industry factors like innovation clock-speed, and firm characteristics like organizational path dependency. Finally, we distinguish between disconnection, which is an outcome of MNE strategy, and global disruptions, like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which are primarily stochastic events. Addressing disconnections requires MNEs to re-orient their strategies while dealing with disruptions requires undertaking risk mitigation. We present empirical evidence from city-regions around the world to illustrate our theory.

Une grande partie de la connectivité internationale croissante des villes-régions s'est développée à partir du remplacement par les EMN des connexions locales par des connexions internationales (supérieures). Cela crée souvent une déconnexion locale qui dynamise la réaction populiste actuelle contre les activités des EMN. Nous développons des approches de la nouvelle théorie en IB traitant des interdépendances des EMN et des villes-régions que nous proposons comme une voie cruciale pour la recherche future. Nous opposons deux stratégies génériques des EMN. La première est celle traditionnelle : «l'orchestration mondiale¼ des ressources et des marchés. Nous soutenons qu'elle exacerbe la déconnexion locale. La seconde, que nous appelons «ponte locale¼, implique de s'engager avec l'écosystème entrepreneurial local pour créer et renouveler la connectivité locale, en diffusant des réponses populistes. Certaines EMN sont mieux à même de mettre en œuvre une stratégie de ponte locale, en raison de facteurs sectoriels tels que la fréquence d'horloge de l'innovation et de caractéristiques d'entreprises telles que la dépendance au sentier organisationnel. Enfin, nous distinguons la déconnexion, qui résulte de la stratégie des EMN, et les perturbations mondiales, comme la pandémie de coronavirus (COVID-19), qui sont principalement des événements stochastiques. Pour remédier aux déconnexions, les EMN doivent réorienter leurs stratégies, tandis que pour faire face aux perturbations, il convient de réduire les risques. Nous présentons des preuves empiriques provenant de villes-régions du monde entier pour illustrer notre théorie.

Mucha de la creciente conexión internacional de las regiones urbanas se ha desarrollado de la sustitución de las empresas multinacionales (EMN) de las conexiones locales por las internacionales (superiores). Esto con frecuencia crea una desconexión local que energiza la actual reacción populista contra las actividades de las EMN. Desarrollamos enfoques para la nueva teoría de negocios internacionales que aborda las interdependencias de las EMN con las regiones urbanas que proponemos como una avenida crucial para la investigación futura. Contrastamos dos estrategias genéricas. La primera es la tradicional: la "orquestación global" de recursos y mercados. Argumentamos que esto exacerba la desconexión local. La segunda, es lo que nosotros llamamos "proliferación local" que implica involucrarse con el ecosistema empresarial local para crear y renovar la conexión local, difundiendo las respuestas populistas. Algunas de las EMN son más capaces de implementar la estrategia de proliferación local, debido a factores de la industria como la velocidad del reloj de la innovación, y las características de la empresa como la dependencia de la trayectoria organizacional. Finalmente, distinguimos entre la desconexión, la cual es u resultado de la estrategia de la EMN, y la disrupción global, como la pandemia del coronavirus (COVID-19), las cuales son principalmente eventos estocásticos. Abordar las desconexiones requiere que las EMN reorienten sus estrategias mientras se enfrentan a disrupciones requiere emprender mitigación de riesgo. Presentamos evidencia empírica de regiones urbanas alrededor del mundo para ilustrar nuestra teoría.

Grande parte da crescente conexão internacional entre cidades-regiões se desenvolveu a partir da substituição de conexões locais por internacionais (superiores) por parte de MNEs. Isso geralmente cria desconexão local que energiza a atual reação populista contra atividades de MNE. Desenvolvemos abordagens para a nova teoria de IB, abordando as interdependências entre MNEs e cidades-regiões que propomos como uma via crucial para pesquisas futuras. Nós contrastamos duas estratégias genéricas de MNEs. A primeira é a tradicional: a 'orquestração global' de recursos e mercados. Argumentamos que ela exacerba a desconexão local. A segunda, que chamamos de propagação local, envolve o engajamento com o ecossistema empreendedor local para criar e renovar a conexão local, difundindo respostas populistas. Algumas MNEs são mais capazes de implementar a estratégia de propagação local devido a fatores setoriais, como a velocidade do relógio da inovação, e características da empresa como dependência de caminho organizacional. Finalmente, distinguimos entre desconexão, que é um resultado da estratégia da MNE, e interrupções globais, como a pandemia de coronavírus (COVID-19), que são eventos predominantemente estocásticos. O enfrentamento de desconexões exige que MNEs reorientem suas estratégias enquanto solucionar interrupções exige ações de redução de riscos. Apresentamos evidências empíricas de cidades-regiões ao redor do mundo para ilustrar nossa teoria.