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This paper aims to explore the dynamic context of the sharing economy in the transportation sector. This paper looks into the development of government regulations on the growing business of transportation network companies in Indonesia, the Philippines (represented as middle-income countries) and Taiwan (high-income country). How do government regulations and policies respond to the growing online-enabled transportation service (OETS) in Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan?

This study is qualitative-comparative research. Data on the transportation sector of each country have been gathered from reputable online sources.

Authors found evidence that the policy responses made by the Governments of Indonesia, Philippines and Taiwan to the sharing economy in the transportation sector are incremental and trial-error based policies.

This paper has not addressed the policy issues’ relationship between driver and platform companies.

The future of the relationship between sharing firms and local governments suggests that the focus should be on stronger consumer protections, deeper economic redistribution and achievement of other policy aims (Rauch and Schleicher, 2015).

This is a comparative study on different levels of economy, particularly between low- or middle-income and high-income country.

Private certification systems (PCS) have emerged as governance tools for sustainable development, regulating social and environmental standards through global supply chains. PCS are seen as essentially private and market-driven, but governments have engaged with them in various ways. There are also substantial differences in the institutional design of PCS with regard to the standard-setting process, ex-ante conformity assessment and ex-post verification procedures. Consequently, what determines the institutional design of PCS has attracted growing attention. This article argues that governments, through public regulation, influence the design of PCS, which in turn affects their effectiveness. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

First, a review of academic literature, policy and legal documents presents how PCS have become institutionalized in government policy, focusing on sustainable public procurement (SPP) regulation. Second, the authors explore the link between effectiveness and the institutional design of PCS by empirically assessing the variations between institutional parameters conducive to effectiveness. Data from the Ecolabel Index database were used to assess the presence or absence of four institutional design parameters related to the rule-making and monitoring mechanisms of PCS.

Public procurement regulations are important drivers influencing the institutional design of PCS. The buying power and market share of government spending is a potential tool for policy-makers not only to stimulate the adoption of PCS, but also for shaping their design and effectiveness. However, the impact of such policies is highly dependent upon the market-share of public procurement within a given sector. In addition to public procurement frameworks, other factors drive the institutional evolution of PCS.

The article connects two themes within the study of non-state market regulation; the growing interaction of governments with PCS, and the institutional variety and development of these systems.

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the interactive conflicts between business and governmental authorities in the regulatory process of an emerging business model: sharing economy. Focusing on bike sharing system, the study also investigates the conflict-handling strategy of bike sharing companies and government regulation.

An evolutionary game model is introduced to illustrate the interactive conflict between bike sharing companies and government regulation, combined with system dynamics (SD) to simulate the evolutionary conflict-handling strategies between the two players.

The dynamic strategies of the two players are observed, and under five conditions the conflict outcomes are evolutionary stable states. Simulations show that each party sacrifices part of its interest and adjust its strategy according to that of the other, indicating the conflict-handling strategy as a compromising mode. Furthermore, the strategies of bike sharing companies are sensitive to additional operation and maintenance costs for producing low-quality bicycles and costs of positive regulation, which provides theoretical guidance for regulatory authorities.

The station-less bike sharing come up in China recently, and it is an important research field of entrepreneurship. Owing to the uniqueness and novelty of the phenomenon, conflicts and challenges exist during the regulation process. Thus, the study practically contributes to the conflict-handling strategies of businesses and government under the context of sharing economy. Methodologically, as a novel issue with less available data to carry out empirical research, this study combines evolutionary game theory with SD to shed light on the complex interactions between businesses and government. The research method can be applied to other entrepreneurial studies.

International humanitarian law (IHL) is struggling to catch up with military technological development. The international community is increasingly alarmed at the prospect of lethal autonomous weapon systems (LAWS) operating without a human interface. The international community’s concern with autonomous enabling technology in weapon systems is whether weapon systems with the ability to identify, select, and attack military targets with little to no human control can comply with existing IHL rules and be morally and ethically acceptable.

This chapter explores an expanded concept of social licence to operate (SLO) to regulate the development of LAWS. The authors believe that it is more efficacious to take a preventative and precautious approach by holding the developers accountable to IHL during the gestation period instead of following a post facto approach. The authors argue that the process involved in issuing or revoking an SLO for the developers of LAWS is already beginning to emerge in IHL. The SLO is only effective during the developmental cycle and would continue as soft law form in regulating the use of LAWS until a more concrete, treaty-based response emerges. In this sense, the SLO can be seen as a catalyst towards a concerted international response to regulate the development, deployment, and use of LAWS.

Laws, regulations, and policies, including specific intergovernmental visa agreements, exert significant influences on people’s mobility and cross-border travels. Such forces are powerful in shaping the emerging Asian tourism market. This chapter provides a critical review and analysis of the laws and regulations that have shaped Chinese outbound tourism. It first reviews the evolution of China’s policies and government attitude toward outbound tourism. The three tourism administration regulations promulgated by the State Council are then reviewed and their implications for outbound tourism are discussed. The Tourism Law enacted in 2013 is reviewed and discussed separately due to its significance and supreme power in China’s legal system. Finally, the chapter discusses the impact of intergovernmental visa facilitation arrangements on Chinese outbound tourism.

The authors propose a strategic-balance approach to local content laws in which less developed economies in sub-Sahara Africa can develop investment incentive policies for attracting multinationals and direct foreign investment but, at the same time, have a structured and operational framework for the enforcement of local content laws. The purpose of the paper is to identify the elements involved in the equation: the incentives, the potential spillovers and the criteria for evaluation.

The approach involves a review of the literature and the operational details and limitations of local content laws in sub-Sahara Africa.

The paper develops a conceptual model for a holistic understanding and management of this dilemma by policymakers and development practitioners to maximize the benefits of natural resources to less developed countries in sub-Sahara Africa towards the fight against poverty and underdevelopment.

This paper provides the opportunity to influence policy direction in relation to the adoption of investment incentive policies and programs and the enforcement of local content policy guidelines and regulations in sub-Sahara Africa.

Multinational companies (MNCs) operating in less developed and emerging economies in sub-Sahara Africa should consider how their economic and corporate social responsibility activities can help develop the capabilities of the local workforce through training and development activities; develop domestic firms’ capabilities via enterprise development programs; and develop local firm’s absorptive capacities through knowledge transfers and innovation systems to support development activities.

Policymakers in less developed and emerging economies in sub-Sahara Africa need to strike a balance in adopting investment incentives policies towards attracting foreign investments and the enforcement of local content regulations to make sure they derive the maximum benefits from their strategic resources. It is important for policymakers to understand that the mere attraction of MNCs into an economy does not explicitly guarantee domestic job creation; rather, it depends on how MNCs respond to local content policy regulations through their business strategies. Linking investment incentives with local content policy regulations at a critical point could potentially support and strengthen industrial development in sub-Sahara Africa.

This paper is among the first to examine the challenges of both attracting foreign direct investment and enforcing local content laws and regulations in sub-Sahara Africa. This paper contributes to the understanding of this dilemma and how less developed economies can manage such a crucial and important issue using our proposed strategic-balance approach. The contribution of local content laws and the design and adoption of investment incentives policies and programs to attract foreign investment to promoting sustainable domestic growth and development must depend on the balance between the enforcement of local content policy guidelines and the provision of such investment incentive packages to attracting foreign investment.

The paper examines how product innovation in the UK banking industry has been affected and is likely to be affected by changes in regulation and in government policy. It considers the issues faced by banks in pursuing a market‐oriented approach in this environment.

The rapidly changing regulatory environment in the UK is described and analysed, primarily in the context of the market for mortgage products and medium‐ to long‐term savings products. The paper describes the main events of the last 20 years and analyse their immediate impacts. The paper examines the most recent changes, identify the direction of policy change and consider the implications.

Empirical evidence suggests that the development of mortgage and pensions products has been closely linked to changes in regulation and government policy. This has resulted in an adverse impact on the brand values and reputations of banks. An analysis of the most recent events identifies two different regulatory approaches which banks now have to manage.

A review of the literature shows that very little detailed research has been carried out into the impact of regulation and government policy on banks and financial services companies.

With this lack of systematic research and analysis, and in the absence of a theoretical framework, it is difficult for banks, regulators and government to make informed decisions.

The paper highlights and analyses an increasingly important issue which has not been addressed in any detail in the literature. The paper puts forward an agenda of research questions and propositions for further research.

This chapter discusses the opportunity of Islamic project financing implementation for public infrastructure development in Indonesia.

This chapter, firstly, reviewed existing literature on Islamic finance to explore the applicability of Islamic financing in infrastructure development. Interviews were conducted as the first stage of Delphi method approach. This was then followed by reviewing Indonesia’s government policies and regulations in infrastructure industry and Islamic financing.

This chapter enlightens the implementation of Islamic financing on infrastructure project financing in Indonesia. The findings indicate that the government policies and regulations on both infrastructure investment and Islamic financing support the implementation of Islamic project financing, whereas, an improvement is still needed in order to overarch infrastructure business and Islamic financing investment.

Financing framework development for Indonesia infrastructure projects.

The result reported comprises the preliminary study of Islamic project paper written based on published research papers and interviews. Furthermore, the data collected for the study are limited to the case of Indonesian infrastructure projects.

Islamic financing in Indonesia infrastructure projects development has not been optimally implemented. Therefore, this chapter serves as a catalyst to explore alternative financial scheme such as Islamic financing for infrastructure development.

This chapter highlights possibilities and obstacles in applying Islamic scheme to infrastructure project financing. This provides a framework to analyse the steps to implement Islamic financing successfully in infrastructure development.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate on governance, accountability, transparency and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the mining sector of a developing country context. It examines the reporting practices of the two largest transnational gold-mining companies in Tanzania in order to draw attention to the role played by local government regulations and advocacy and campaigning by nationally organised non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with respect to promoting corporate social reporting practices.

The paper takes a political economy perspective to consider the serious implications of the neo-liberal ideologies of the global capitalist economy, as manifested in Tanzania’s regulatory framework and in NGO activism, for the corporate disclosure, accountability and responsibility of transnational companies (TNCs). A qualitative field case study methodology is adopted to locate the largely unfamiliar issues of CSR in the Tanzanian mining sector within a more familiar literature on social accounting. Data for the case study were obtained from interviews and from analysis of documents such as annual reports, social responsibility reports, newspapers, NGO reports and other publicly available documents.

Analysis of interviews, press clips and NGO reports draws attention to social and environmental problems in the Tanzanian mining sector, which are arguably linked to the manifestation of the broader crisis of neo-liberal agendas. While these issues have serious impacts on local populations in the mining areas, they often remain invisible in mining companies’ social disclosures. Increasing evidence of social and environmental ills raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the regulatory frameworks, as well as the roles played by NGOs and other pressure groups in Tanzania.

By empowering local NGOs through educational, capacity building, technological and other support, NGOs’ advocacy, campaigning and networking with other civil society groups can play a pivotal role in encouraging corporations, especially TNCs, to adopt more socially and environmentally responsible business practices and to adhere to international and local standards, which in turn may help to improve the lives of many poor people living in developing countries in general, and Tanzania in particular.

This paper contributes insights from gold-mining activities in Tanzania to the existing literature on CSR in the mining sector. It also contributes to political economy theory by locating CSR reporting within the socio-political and regulatory context in which mining operations take place in Tanzania. It is argued that, for CSR reporting to be effective, robust regulations and enforcement and stronger political pressure must be put in place.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the public policy perspective of corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa. There has been an increase in the number of countries adopting a national policy for CSR practice, particularly in the Western society. Despite the growing awareness about the role of government in CSR promotion, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa are yet to evolve policies that could help promote CSR in the region. As drivers of CSR, governments hold resources, like access to regulated parts of society that makes the inclusion of CSR opportunities relevant to strategic and operational management. From the extant literature, the role of government in defining and shaping the field of CSR is gaining wider acceptability.

Using a qualitative research approach, this paper examines the current status of CSR implementation, particularly from the public policy perspective in selected Sub-Saharan African countries. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with policymakers and policy implementers. The study adopted a thematic analysis and developed a rigorous phenomenological design to reveal the insights to CSR policy-making.

The findings established that the status of CSR implementation in Sub-Saharan Africa is influenced by absence of national CSR policy, CSR being mainstreamed in government constitution and CSR being a company initiative action to comply with international code of business conduct.

The results of this study could have policy implications for both executive and MPs of national governments for CSR regulatory policies.

In most developing countries, including Sub-Saharan African countries, the aforementioned institutional conditions are often an exception. There are both no legal and regulatory frameworks for Multinational Corporation activities and their socio-ecological impact, or such regulations may exist but are not adequately enforced (Rwabizambuga, 2007). This situation, unfortunately, has created a huge reporting gap between what organisations do and what they report regarding CSR. Hence, this original study adds to the body of knowledge for this region by revealing the central issues around the phenomenon.