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In the absence of slavery, worker and employer enter into an enforceable contractual agreement whereby the former is regularly paid by the latter. The systematic non‐payment of wages in Russia is the most tangible manifestation of the absence of the rule of law in that country and represents a potent obstacle to the development of effective trade unionism. However, the wage issue has to be set in the context of the wider malaise of non‐payment which exists, and for which central government must bear primary responsibility. This paper explores the dilemmas which this situation presents to the union movement and seeks to address the questions of what can and should the unions do about the situation? Because of the depth of the crisis inflicted on the economy by “shock therapy”, the answers are not to be found in the bankruptcy courts. While not abrogating their union functions, the trade unions must seek the satisfaction of realisable political demands.

Since its inception, mobile payment is rapidly gaining popularity over the years, and starting to replace traditional modes of payment. The usage of mobile payments has further escalated following various precautionary measures (i.e. social distancing) in curbing the transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, most of the elderlies are still sceptical about the usage of mobile payment services. The current study was set to investigate the impact of functional, psychological and risk barriers that resulted in elderlies' resistance towards using such services. The impact of stickiness to cash was also examined as a moderator on the investigated relationships.

Online survey questionnaires were used to collect the responses from 400 elderly consumers at the age of 60 and above. Data analysis was then performed using the SPSS and AMOS statistical software packages.

Findings obtained acknowledged the significance of functional (i.e. perceived complexity, perceived incompatibility and perceived cost), psychological (i.e. lack of trust, inertia, and technological anxiety) and risk (i.e. privacy risk, security risk, financial risk and operational risk) barriers in influencing resistance towards mobile payment services among the elderlies. Consequently, resistance would influence their attitude and non-adoption intention; with attitude as the mediator between resistance and non-adoption intention. Finally, moderation analysis also confirmed the moderating effect of stickiness to cash towards elevating the correlation between resistance and non-adoption intention.

This study is one of the very few studies that explored the minimally investigated territory on the consequential importance of mobile payment usage among the elderlies, specifically, through extending the literature on the impact of functional, psychological and risk barriers towards the individuals' resistance. Besides, this study also successfully contributed to existing body of knowledge by highlighting the mediating role of attitude and moderating role of stickiness to cash in the interrelationships between resistance, attitude and non-adoption intention.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the rates of receipt of welfare for immigrants and natives in Ireland, to see if the outcome is consistent with the operation of a policy which was designed to limit immigrant access to welfare.

The authors use micro‐data from the Irish component European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions for 2008, also published data on the numbers of people claiming unemployment related payments in Ireland. Descriptive statistics and results from probit regressions are presented.

The analysis generally shows that in the years preceding the recession, immigrants were less likely to be in receipt of welfare payments, whether one looks at adjusted or unadjusted data. The recession, and the consequent job losses among immigrants, gave rise to a possible surge in the numbers of immigrants receiving welfare benefits. While this seemed to happen at the outset of the recession, the more recent trends in the numbers receiving payments would suggest that the numbers of non‐nationals stabilised, even as the number of nationals claiming payments continued to rise.

As the data used do not give an indication of the length of time an immigrant has been in Ireland, the authors are unable to assess whether the observed patterns change with length of stay.

The results suggest that Ireland's policy of limiting access to welfare for immigrants has been successful in its primary goal.

No other papers have considered the issue of immigrant welfare receipt in Ireland in the context of the massive migratory inflow after EU expansion in 2004.

This paper aims to present a comparative evaluation of the determinants affecting the likelihood of dividend payouts by Islamic and conventional banks in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

The authors used the dynamic panel logit model to test dividend life-cycle theory by analyzing the determinants affecting the likelihood of dividend payouts by GCC banks. Moreover, the authors used multinomial logistic regressions to extend the results where the dependent variable is a nominal variable equal to 1 for non-payment of dividends, 2 for lower dividend payments and 3 for higher dividend payments.

The authors report a finding consistent with the life-cycle theory of dividends where a higher proportion of retained-earnings-to-contribution mix implies a greater likelihood of dividend payments, apart from conventional characteristics such as profitability, size and growth. However, the authors find marked differences in the magnitude and significance of the life-cycle characteristics explaining the likelihood of dividend payouts for Islamic and conventional banks. The authors also find that Islamic banks are smaller and less profitable relative to conventional banks but have higher growth rates, which helps to explain why the proportion of dividend non-payments is higher for Islamic banks than for conventional banks. The results also indicate that the higher default rates and business risk associated with GCC banks reduces their propensity to pay dividends.

The topic of dividends remains an important puzzle in the field of modern finance. The findings have significant implications for a variety of stakeholders in both Islamic and conventional banks in GCC countries, including investors, depositors, analysts, managers, regulators and stock exchanges.

This paper aims to contribute to the literature by drawing on life-cycle theory as a basis for comparing the determinants affecting the likelihood of dividend payouts by Islamic and conventional banks in the GCC countries.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a proposal for a Dual Scheme model of statutory adjudication for the Australian building and construction industry.

The paper deals with the security of payment problem in the Australian construction industry and the legislative response to that problem in New South Wales and elsewhere more generally. The paper highlights deficiencies in current adjudication schemes in Australia and proposes a revised methodology of adjudication by means of the proposed Dual Scheme model. The Dual Scheme is explained in detail and examples are given showing how the Dual Scheme would work in practice.

The Dual Scheme of adjudication allows for adjudication of “progress claims” (just as they are adjudicated now under the “Defined Scheme”), but also provides for separately adjudicated “money claims” in a similar way to that done under the “Non‐specific Scheme”. Both parties to a construction contract can take advantage of adjudication under a Non‐specific Scheme whilst simultaneously maintaining the relative time and cost benefits of the Defined Scheme in dealing with progress payment claims. Implementation of the proposed Dual Scheme would require new legislation.

The Dual Scheme is not a proposal to merely amalgamate two existing models of adjudication in Australia. Rather, it is a Dual Scheme incorporating the philosophy of two disparate systems of adjudication framed in a companionable form. It is hoped that the Dual Scheme may act as a common starting point for eventual agreement between the various interested groups as to what a national scheme of statutory adjudication in Australia will resemble in the future. The Dual Scheme proposal may be of interest in other jurisdictions where statutory adjudication for the construction industry has been introduced or is being contemplated.

Subcontractor payments typically come through the contractor, though there can be exceptions to this, and their timing and quantum can be affected by the upstream payment practices of the owner to the contractor, as well as the payment practices of the contractor. The purpose of this paper is to study the linked effect of late and incomplete payments of both the owner and contractor on what the subcontractor receives.

The paper's analysis develops on an existing Markov chain formulation of owner payments. The probability of getting payment from an owner or contractor is represented as a function of time since claim submission. Such functions are established through goodness of fit tests using actual project data. The downstream progression of payment from owner to contractor to subcontractor is treated as a collection of series and parallel systems, for which the likelihood of payment is assessed.

A model that enables subcontractors to calculate the likelihood of getting their claims paid, based on owner and contractor historical payment practices, is developed. Subcontractors are able to calculate the conditional and unconditional probabilities of their claims being paid at any time after claim submission. The model may be used with historical payment records, or with identified typical owner and contractor payment types.

The paper presents a practical method by which a subcontractor is able to calculate age‐dependent probabilities of outstanding claim amounts being paid. Such information feeds into the subcontractor's tendering practices before entering a new project, and in the subcontractor's contract administration practices in terms of pursuing claims.

The modelling of the owner‐contractor‐subcontractor payment linkage is original. No similar modelling exists in the literature.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, Inc. is a challenge to conventional antitrust analysis. Conventional civil antitrust cases are decided by a preponderance of the evidence. This means that conduct challenged under the rule of reason is only condemned if the conduct resulted in more competitive harm in the actual world than a world without the alleged violation. Under conventional analysis, the intent of the parties also plays only a supporting role in determining whether the conduct was anticompetitive. A holder of a valid patent has a right to exclude others practicing the patented technology. And, the patent holder is not assumed to have market power because it expended resources in maintaining exclusionary rights. Actavis creates doubts about these propositions in circumstances beyond the “reverse” payment settlement of a patent suit that may have delayed an alleged infringer market entry. This chapter explores whether applying Actavis logic to antitrust litigation can result in condemnation of practices where there is little chance of an anticompetitive effect, where the patent holder likely has a valid and infringed patent, where there is little reason to believe that the patent holder has market power, and where only one party, or no parties, to an agreement have an anticompetitive intent. This chapter also investigates whether Actavis creates new problems with standing analysis, damages calculations, and the balancing of efficiencies against anticompetitive effects. Nevertheless, the lower courts have begun to extend the logic of Actavis. This is apparent in the condemnation of no-Authorized-generic settlements.

This research aims to develop a blockchain smart contract–enabled framework to resolve power imbalance problems in construction payment.

This research adopts a design science research method to develop the blockchain smart contract–enabled framework. The authors then develop a prototype system. Finally, the authors evaluate its performance in solving power imbalance-induced payment problems.

The results show that the prototype system can resolve power imbalance problems in construction payment by allowing project participants to make transparent and decentralized decisions that are self-enforceable by blockchain smart contracts.

This study provides theoretical explanations for how blockchain smart contracts can resolve power imbalances in construction payment; based on that, it proposes a novel blockchain smart contract–enabled method to rebalance the power of stakeholders in construction payment. Thus, it contributes to the body of knowledge on blockchain technology and construction payment.

This study moves beyond a conceptual framework and develops a practical blockchain smart contract system for resolving power imbalances in construction payment, strengthening construction project members' confidence in using blockchain technology.

The proposed blockchain smart contract–enabled solution helps mitigate negative social impacts associated with late payment and non-payment. Furthermore, the research maximizes trust among participants in payment processes to inspire collaborative culture in the construction industry.

This paper introduces a novel blockchain smart contract integrated method, allowing project stakeholders to resolve power imbalance problems in construction payment through decentralized decision-making.

Despite the fact that citrus industry is growing in Pakistan where production is dominated by small-scale citrus growers, no research has been done to evaluate and analyse the marketing channel choice decision-making process of these citrus growers. The purpose of this paper is to review the existing factors affecting decision making of small-size citrus growers in citrus supply chain in Pakistan and also measures and analyses the factors that affect the marketing channel decisions of these small size growers.

A multivariate decision analysis technique, conjoint analysis, was used to analyse and evaluate the major factors affecting marketing channel choice decisions of small-size citrus growers.

It was concluded that among nine very important factors, six factors played a major role in the marketing channel choice decision making. Only three factors namely, “price”, “time of complete fruit picking” and “number of fruit pickings” were considered highly important factors and reflected that citrus growers not only want to secure his payments but also to save their orchards for next season(s).

The research would provide valuable information about citrus grower’s marketing decision-making process and thus would contribute to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of citrus industry in Pakistan.

This analysis would suggest them to make rational decisions and help choosing them the most appropriate combination of different levels of different factors which would increase their profits. This study identifies the most relevant factors and their levels which citrus growers and pre-harvest contractors preferred in citrus marketing channel choice decision making, thus, server as a guideline for the buyer’s to deal with them accordingly. This would improve the efficiency and reduce the transaction cost along the citrus supply chain in Pakistan.

Delayed payments have been long standing, pressing issue in construction projects, especially in Government-funded construction projects. The root causes and the consequences of delayed payments must be identified before implementing strategies to mitigate the consequences of such delayed payments. However, these causes and consequences and the parties responsible for managing the delayed payments have not been identified so far. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the management of payment delays in Government-funded construction projects.

The study used a mixed approach comprising four case studies and a questionnaire survey. The empirical data collected from the case studies and the questionnaire survey were analysed using manual content analysis and mean rating, respectively.

The study identified the most significant causes and the most significant consequences of delayed payments that occur in Government-funded construction projects. It also revealed the strategies that clients, consultants, contractors and other parties can adopt to mitigate the adverse consequences of such delayed payments.

This study identified the most significant causes of delayed payments in Government-funded construction projects, the most significant consequences of such delayed payments and the most suitable strategies the clients, consultants and contractors can adopt to mitigate the consequences of such delayed payments. Thus, this study supports streamlining the management of payment delays in Government construction projects and identifies the roles that different parties must play in managing payment delays in Government building projects, which is an under-researched area.