Purpose
Hybrid working is becoming commonplace, but scientific research on employee preferences for hybrid-working arrangements is still scarce. The current study investigated knowledge-worker preferences for hybrid-working scenarios, considering the relative importance of hybrid-working aspects and differences among knowledge workers associated with differences in preferences.

Design/methodology/approach
The study was conducted in a large governmental organization in the Netherlands. Attributes and levels for the choice-based experiment were developed in an iterative process involving several groups of stakeholders. A survey containing sociodemographic and work-related measures and a choice-based experiment was completed by 263 policy officers.

Findings
Conjoint analyses showed that the most important attribute was the “Distribution of days” (i.e. the percentage of time at home versus the office). Four employee segments were identified: home workers, hybrid fixed, hybrid flex and office workers, each with a different pattern of preferences. The segments differed on age/tenure, task interdependence, household composition (young children or not) and motives for coming to the office.

Research limitations/implications
The study reveals that differences in preferences are associated with different combinations of demographic and work characteristics rather than one specific characteristic. Findings align with theories on work–life balance, (family) life-cycle stages and needs-supply fit.

Practical implications
Study findings support managerial decision-making on which hybrid-working scenario(s) to implement, considering the preferences of different groups of employees.

Originality/value
The study contributes to the literature on hybrid working and represents a novel application of conjoint analysis.

Value drives actions in our modern day economy. In their turn, these actions are the pillars for how well societal transitions are achieved in the long run. In the past decade, we’ve seen governments heavily funding and subsidizing transitions in action to better achieve desperately needed societal targets. Examples are the prevention of climate change, climate transition, and a decrease in resource consumption. However, these significant initiatives are not nearly close to being self-reliant. And with the current retraction of a lot of funds and subsidies on the horizon, the achievement of these transitions has gotten in serious jeopardy. The authors of this abstract posit that these funds and subsidies have not been able to make a significant step forward to successful transitions, mostly because the efforts still focus and rely on the monetary values and motivations and ignore the rest.. It is argued that the introduction of value beyond monetary terms and a way to determine this value is needed. In response, this abstract is intended as the ontological start for developing a summer school, which is part of a recently granted Marie Curie Doctoral Network programme, called QuiVal, where the concept of value is revisited using quantum theory. The summer school under development marks the doctoral network's first educational notes. The aim of the summer school therefore is to stimulate conceptual creativity and critical thinking on the concept of value and offer first clues on how value can be reimagined in practical fields of application surrounding the real estate sector. As preliminary examples to the content of these lecture notes, the authors aim to discuss the implications on value from the position of quantum finance versus classical finance, the potential of these implications to unlock perceptive capability for hard-to-measure value (e.g. social and environmental values) and how it can open up various dimensions of potential value measurements that are important to the multiple transitions in our built environment. To this background summer school, QuiVal aspires to broaden the recognition of non-financial values in industry, government, and research unlocking more sustainable approaches to real estate. For example, by developing models and tools for (non-financial) value measurements we could support decision-making and demonstrate the attractiveness of social and environmental projects better through the research by the doctoral network.

Purpose
PropTech has shown important implications for real estate; however, it remains a poorly understood phenomenon in both academia and practice. This paper aims to advance the understanding of PropTech by disentangling what the real estate sector needs from technology and, in parallel, observing closely the activities of PropTech businesses in two different countries.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a mixed-method approach relying on qualitative data collected through interviews with PropTech players and real estate operators, and quantitative data collected through multiple sources on the Finnish and Italian PropTech ecosystems. The analysis is exploratory and descriptive.

Findings
This study underscores the potential benefits that digital technologies, introduced by PropTech, can add to the real estate sector: data integration; decisions informed from data; balance of new and old approaches to problem-solving; change in vision; adaptability of technologies and business models; and new professional profiles. These benefits are obtained when technology enables innovation from cross-pollination of different sectors. This becomes evident through the analysis of NACE activities, which demonstrates that innovation not only depends on interactions between property and technology, but the phenomenon covers a much broader spectrum of activities and industries.

Originality/value
Our exploratory analysis brings up new evidence that not only the real estate sector and property sector are affected by PropTech but the phenomenon covers a much broader spectrum of activities and industries. This paper contributes to the debate on technology innovations and value chain in the real estate and construction sector, while adding a cross-country perspective.

The concept of value has been central to economic thought for centuries; the idea of what makes something valuable shapes how we exchange, produce, invest, and measure well-being. Neoclassical traditions have dominated the contemporary economic framework, privileging financial value as the primary metric of worth. This emphasis on quantifiability, reinforced by positivist methodologies, has marginalised broader considerations of multiple values and incommensurability. Real estate valuation perfectly embodies and exemplifies these tensions. This disjuncture between theory and practice reflects a broader issue within economics: the persistence of an overly narrow understanding of value. In response to these challenges–ranging from sustainability commitments to shifting societal priorities–we turn to a historical narrative of value theories to examine how foundational assumptions about value shape economic thought, resource allocation, and societal priorities. Recent studies point to a growing dissatisfaction with existing valuation models along with a shifting value paradigm: one that increasingly recognises multiple forms of values, the limits of commensurability, and the influence of social and ecological considerations on the practice of appraisal.