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This article aims to take a critical look at the proposed Common European Sales Law (CESL) and its field of application.

The article provides a comparative analysis of the scope of application of CESL with that of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (CISG). The approach is critical in nature in that it questions the regulation of business‐to‐business (B2B) transactions under CESL. It also takes a critical look at the CESL and its coverage of three areas of contracting – sale of goods, supply of digital content, and supply of services.

The article exposes some of the shortcomings of the CESL in relation to its field of application.

The CESL as proposed offers an optional regulation that complicates the law of transborder sales within the European Union (EU) and between EU member states and non‐EU states. The article recommends that CESL not extend its coverage to B2B transactions and leave transborder commercial transactions to the CISG. The article also suggests other changes to improve the CESL.

Further analysis is needed and more defined rules should be considered before CESL is enacted into law.

This article questions the wide scope of application of CESL. It further questions the rationality and practicality of the CESL's coverage of B2B transactions.

This study investigates both direct and moderation effects of two dimensions of contract control and information technology governance on platform participants' financial performance.

Using data collected from 384 platform participants from China's two largest digital platforms, hierarchical regression is used to validate the conceptual model and hypotheses.

The empirical results show that contract completeness and information technology governance independently improved financial performance, while contract enforcement had an inverted U-shaped effect on financial performance. Furthermore, information technology governance amplified the positive effect of contract completeness, but not of contract enforcement, on financial performance.

This study advances the literature on partnership control by showing the interactive role of information technology governance and contract control. It also enriches research on information technology usage by revealing how information technology governance benefits business partnerships. Finally, it extends transaction cost theory by demonstrating that different dimensions of contracts have different effects on governing interfirm relationships.

This paper aims to develop a novel theoretical technology acceptance model, namely, for predicting acceptance of the trending technology of intelligent contracts (iContracts) in construction, which aims to integrate the data from emerging cyber-physical systems being introduced to the sector through the industry 4.0 revolution. This model includes main dimensions and critical contributing factors to assess the readiness for the iContract concept within the construction contract environment.

Through an extensive literature review, the structure of a unique theoretical technology acceptance model for iContract implementation, within construction, was developed iContract acceptance model (iCAM). Relevant themes were assessed through the lens of the technology acceptance model framework and the four accepted dimensions of the technology readiness index (TRI) concept. The main components of the model were examined with selected practitioners, with relevant experience and understanding of the iContract concept, with thematic mapping of the discussions correlated back to 12 specific iContract contributing constructs of the four adapted TRI dimensions.

The paper contributes to the body of knowledge by proposing a novel iCAM for a trending technology based on the specific requirements of iContract adoption. The interviews show that while the desire to digitalise the contractual environment exists, the readiness of the sector for such a disruptive change is unknown.

The findings and proposed conceptual iCAM offers a lens for the further development of the iContract concept by assisting practitioners to forecast digital readiness of the contract process in construction.

This study offers a unique and theoretical framework, in an embryonic field, for predicting the success of iContract implementation within construction organisations through the digital, industry 4.0 and revolution.

Four years into a five-year contract with General Motors to be the exclusive website vendor to its U.S. network of more than 4,000 dealers, CDK Digital faced a crucial contract renewal at the end of 2012. The case follows Melissa McCann, director of strategic marketing, and Chris Reed, CMO, as they prepared for a critical meeting in July 2011: a presentation to the customer relationship management (CRM) subcommittee of the Chevrolet dealer council. Although GM dealers, like all auto dealers in the United States, were independent franchisees, GM saw the renewal of CDK Digital's exclusive contract as a collaborative decision between dealers and GM. According to Ed Vogt, GM's executive in charge of the renewal, if the dealer councils said no, the contract would not be renewed.

This case challenges students to use CDK's big data and analytics capabilities to address the inherent conflict between dealers and manufacturers: when marketing to potential customers, manufacturers wanted consistency across dealer websites to maximize sales of their targeted brands, while dealers wanted flexibility to sell what they had in inventory.

After analyzing the case, students will be able to:

• Demonstrate how big data and analytics can be used to solve channel conflict

• Explain how franchisors and franchisees have different perspectives on the value of data on retail operations

• Recognize benefits of big data and analytics beyond the obvious potential improvements to marketing and operational effectiveness

• Articulate the value of data analytics for channel management

• Appraise the benefits of real-time website customization

Demonstrate how big data and analytics can be used to solve channel conflict

Explain how franchisors and franchisees have different perspectives on the value of data on retail operations

Recognize benefits of big data and analytics beyond the obvious potential improvements to marketing and operational effectiveness

Articulate the value of data analytics for channel management

Appraise the benefits of real-time website customization

The application of smart contract can greatly reduce transaction costs and improve transaction efficiency. The existing smart contract are expensive, single application scenario and inefficient. This paper aims to propose a new smart contract model to solve these problems.

By investigating the research history, models and platforms, this paper summarizes the shortcomings of existing smart contracts. Based on the content and architecture of traditional contract, a smart contract model with wider application scope is designed.

In this paper, several models are used to describe the operation mechanism of smart contracts. To facilitate computer execution, a decomposition method is proposed, which divides smart contracts into several sub-contracts. Then, the advantages and deployment methods of smart contract are discussed. On this basis, a specific example is given to illustrate how the application of smart contract will change our life.

Smart contract is gradually applied to more fields. In this paper, the structure and operation mechanism of smart contract system in reality are given, which will be beneficial to the application of smart contract to more complex systems.

The digital medium has created new ways of contracting through web pages and smartphone apps. The websites and apps put numerous terms of contract. In some cases, the user is required to click on them, and other times, the user may or may not even notice the terms. Are the terms put by the sites and apps binding? The case explores the theme with the Uber Case, a judgement of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, on the application of the terms in the Uber app.

The purpose of this study is to identify the possible efficiency gains in using tokenization for the execution of public expenditure on governmental investments.

Through design science research methodology, the exploratory research produced a tokenized prototype in the blockchain, through the Ernst and Young OpsChain traceability solution, allowing automated processes in the stages of public expense. A focus group composed of auditors from the public sector evaluated the possibility of improving the quality of information available in the audited entities, where the tokens created represent and register the actions of public agents in the blockchain Polygon.

The consensus of the experts in the focus group indicated that the use of tokenization could improve the quality of the information, since the possibility of recording the activities of public agents in the metadata of the tokens at each stage of the execution of the expenditure allows the audited entities the advantages of the information recorded on the blockchain, according to the following ranking: first the immutability of audited data, followed by reliability, transparency, accessibility and efficiency of data structures.

This research makes an empirical contribution to the real use of tokenization in blockchain technology to the public sector through a value chain in which tokens were created and moved between the wallets of public agents to represent, register and track the operations regarding public expense execution.

Suppliers suffer losses when customers repudiate B2B order transactions in open account systems. Appropriate internal control measures should be implemented to address repudiation. According to the King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa (2002), the responsibility for internal control lies with the management of a company. This article aims to assist management in reducing the risk of repudiation to an acceptable level, by providing a framework of recommended internal control measures. The framework was compiled after considering: Requirements in the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act that make digital contracts valid. Existing control frameworks, control objectives and internal control measures addressed by COBIT® and AICPA/CICA’s Trust Services Principles and Criteria.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore blockchain technology and its potential implementation to hospitality and tourism firms’ wide range of business operations and transactions from a technological and functional point of view. This study’s central interest is to produce novel and rigorous in-depth-review analysis and foundations for a broad discussion and outlook on the potential applications of blockchain technology benefiting hospitality and tourism research, as well as the industry as a whole.

This study identifies and proposes several potential areas of the adoption and implementation of blockchain technology to the hospitality and tourism industry, including payment and cryptocurrencies, tracking and service customization, the disintermediation of hospitality and tourism, innovative loyalty programs, smart contracts, integrated property management systems, verified rating and review systems, collaborative initiatives and due diligence and smart tourism, each of which represents fertile avenues for future research.

This paper provides extensive critical discussions, reviews and answers to a fundamental question: “What critical functions of Blockchain mechanisms can be implemented to the existing core operational (i.e. booking and reservation systems, guest management, etc.) and business functions (i.e. loyalty/reward programs, agent transactions, etc.) of hospitality and tourism companies?”.

Future studies should specifically delve further into various angles of this “BizTech” environment based not only on business operations and competition but also on vendor and customer collaboration.

This study intends to serve as a guidance for future research, facilitate knowledge accumulation and create a new understanding and awareness in both practice and academia. One of the most important applications of blockchain in this industry would be that pertaining to direct booking, online reservation systems (i.e. airlines and online travel agencies) and check-in/out with digital identities. With industry-wide blockchain adoption, guests’ personal information can be digitally validated, saved and secured as previously established cryptographically secured codes verify one’s identity without disclosing essential personal information.

It is obvious that the hospitality and tourism industry needs urgent technological transformation, industrial innovations and new growth avenues such as the adoption of blockchain technology and systems to maintain its global market share in the future. Therefore, the implementation of blockchain systems can promote the formation of multi-center (i.e. guest operations and customer service), weakly intermediated (i.e. loyalty programs and/or review and rating systems) areas in this industry.

The purpose of this paper is to make suggestions of how to improve the legal standing of consumers of digital content products.

The analysis in this paper is based on desk research and comparative legal research, among others in the context of research performed in the context of a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and, in parts, on a study performed for the European Commission by Loos et al.

This paper demonstrates that the legal and technical complexities of digital content products and the resulting lack of a clear notion of which product characteristics are still reasonable and normal can result in uncertainty for consumers and businesses, or even a lower level of protection for digital content consumers, as compared to consumers of more conventional products. In order to improve the protection of digital content consumers, defaults for the main functionalities and characteristics of digital content products may be needed. The article describes possible routes to create such defaults and concludes with suggestions for the way forward.

The article suggests a new approach to improving the legal standing of digital consumers, one that takes into account the situation of digital consumers as well as the need for flexibility and room for innovation for digital content businesses. It is based on extensive legal and comparative research into the present legal framework and develops a new approach of conceptualizing the legal obstacles that digital consumers can be confronted with.