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The aim of this article is to provide solutions to protect the weaker party in management and distribution contracts, especially in the field of franchising.

The paper is based on a review of literature, legislation and practices concerning management and franchise contracts. The regulation of this field at a national level consists of laws that are both private and mandatory in nature. Certain questions are raised concerning the obligatory nature of regulations when applied to the management of international franchise contracts.

This article studies the question of whether the imperative application of laws to international contract management is appropriate. These contracts are concluded through the form of adhesion contracts, which have been prewritten by the dominant party and by which the adherent, the distributor, the franchisee or the agent, are placed in a weaker legal position. Considering the absence of international tuitive rules, this article suggests a way to guarantee the protection of parties in a weaker position.

This research provides entrepreneurs, managers and other members of the business community with legal tools and mechanisms for the protection of the franchisee's position.

This approach may well be helpful in finding solutions to legal issues that are of great importance in the negotiation of service contracts, as a way to overcome the difficulty of finding solid arguments to extend the rules that protect consumers and workers in service agreements.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the concept of unfair commercial practices in advertising and marketing law.

The differences addressed in the paper relate to the role or tasks of consumer law in regulating the marketplace.

A comparison of the UK, German and Nordic approaches reveal interesting differences at least in nuances in the approach to omission of information as an unfair commercial practice.

The paper provides useful analysis of the deeper understandings behind unfair commercial practices law.

Investigates the differences in protocols between arbitral tribunals and courts, with particular emphasis on US, Greek and English law. Gives examples of each country and its way of using the law in specific circumstances, and shows the variations therein. Sums up that arbitration is much the better way to gok as it avoids delays and expenses, plus the vexation/frustration of normal litigation. Concludes that the US and Greek constitutions and common law tradition in England appear to allow involved parties to choose their own judge, who can thus be an arbitrator. Discusses e‐commerce and speculates on this for the future.

The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of the main challenges of the contracting process and project contracts in the context of project business characterized by a high level of complexity and uncertainty. The authors argue that understanding contracting as a flexible process and as a business tool will contribute to creating more value in projects which are implemented in constantly changing circumstances or which require gradual and iterative development.

This is a conceptual paper with illustrative examples from the software industry.

A prevailing approach for both managing contracts and the contracting process focuses on careful planning and drafting of contracts that protect each party in the case of conflicts and disagreements. The underlying assumption is that all activities can be planned and documented in a formal contract. According to this approach, the contracting process is seen only as a bargaining negotiation and the project contract as a detailed agreement of the responsibilities and safeguarding clauses to protect one’s position in the event of conflicts and failures. However, in the context of project business characterized by complexity and uncertainty, there is a need for flexible project contracts. The authors suggest that there are two fundamentally different approaches to implementing flexibility in both the contracting process and the project contract: postponing the decision until there is adequate information for decision making or making decisions that allow flexible adaptation to changes during the project lifecycle.

The authors suggest that organizations in project business should pay closer attention to how contracts are formed and how flexibility is introduced to projects. Organizations are encouraged to see contracts as a business tool, not as rigid documents which are taken into use in case something goes wrong.

This paper contributes to the understanding of how to adapt the contracting process to overcome challenges related to uncertainty, especially during the early phases of the project lifecycle. The authors provide a novel perspective on contracting as a process that extends over the lifecycle of a project and on the project contract as an agreement between parties formed during the contracting process. This perspective includes formal contract documents as well as various other documents, oral communication, commitments, actions and incidents.

Employment law recognised the value of whistleblowing with the enactment of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, protecting a ‘worker’ against dismissal and victimisation. Whistleblowers are particularly vulnerable in the gig economy as they may fall outside the statutory definition of ‘worker’ for the purposes of the whistleblowing legislation. This makes a study of whistleblowing in the gig economy pertinent. This chapter explores the statutory definition of ‘worker’ with regard to the current whistleblowing provisions and considers the barriers it presents for gig workers. Judicial interpretation of the definition is examined through an analysis of recent case law that shows much inconsistency and a conflict of judicial approach. The resulting blurred boundaries of the legal term leave a gig worker uncertain as to the level of their protection for blowing the whistle. The need for reform to protect individuals in a wide range of working relationships is clear. It is argued that the new EU Whistleblowing Directive, in protecting ‘work-related activity’, provides better protection for all whistleblowers. The role of human rights in extending the status of work is also advanced. Finally, the implications of developments in this area for key stakeholders in the gig economy are considered highlighting the importance of creative new approaches to give voice to all workers.

This work proposes to test the C‐40 deontological code of collective orientation specifically for franchise associations. The literature review revealed a lack of studies about this type of codes.

This code adopts a semi‐normative approach in trying to standardize what form a deontological code of a franchise association should take. The study has been developed from an international perspective, making easier its spread and generalization. Furthermore, a novel methodology in this area has been applied to test the code: “The Experton Theory”.

As a consequence, from the review of ethical and deontological codes from franchise associations of 46 countries, some associations' statutes and the laws about franchising in some countries, 29 topics were identified. Additionally, 11 more have been added to these contents, making 40 items which conform with what should be integrated into whatever franchising deontological code.

The main limitations of this work refer to the proposition and validation of some questions included in the C‐40 code. Specifically, some of them show opinion divergences of the experts' answers over 25 percent.

The proposed code might be used as a background for franchise associations at an international level. It encourages the increase of ethical and business contents in the existing codes and, therefore, the improvement of the relationships among franchisers, franchisees and the rest of the stakeholders.

This study is focused on a scarcely treated topic in the literature: deontological codes in franchising. In addition, it has been developed from an international perspective, making its spread and generalization easier.

This paper aims to measure the extent of effects of insurance fraud on the financial performance of insurance companies in Ghana. It also examines the causes and stringent measures that can be used to fight against insurance fraud.

Primary and secondary data obtained from 39 insurers in Ghana are used in this paper. A multiple regression model is used to determine the relationship between financial performance and insurance fraud variables.

The results from the model indicate that statistically insurance fraud has a significant negative effect on the annual return on assets (financial performance) of insurers in Ghana. Also, weak internal controls, poor remuneration of employees, falsified documents, deliberate acts of policyholders to profit from the insurance contract and inadequate training for independent brokers are found to be the major causes of insurance fraud in Ghana. To deter insurance fraud, effective internal fraud policy, rigorous assessment of insurance policies and claims, adequate training for independent brokers on insurance fraud and modern information technology tools are paramount in fighting this menace in Ghana.

These findings are to have substantial impact on the techniques insurance companies will develop to fight insurance fraud and the policies that will be developed by governments and national insurance regulatory bodies to fight this menace.

The main value of this paper is the determination of the key variables that constitute insurance fraud and their impacts on the annual financial performance of insurance companies in Ghana.