Search results

This research aims to focus on what has happened in light of the Greece legal crisis in terms of international contracts and what legal situations have arisen.

This research focuses on what has happened in light of the Greek legal crisis in terms of international contracts and what legal situations have arisen. The overall situation in relation to international contracts and risk mitigation is discussed to analyze the efforts that have been made. The state of affairs in the country with regard to facilitating financial trade and enabling Greeks to send payments abroad or at the rate they need to is also explored.

The effects of financial crisis on international trade contracts as they relate to commercial businesses without taking into consideration the wider contractual obligations that Greece, as a country, have already defaulted on. The crux of the current crisis is the fact that Greece did not stick to the commitments it made to the European Union when it joined the eurozone and took on euro as their currency, replacing the drachma. It is important to understand that due to the scope of the economic crisis in the Greece, it is not simply the other contractual party’s creditworthiness and trustworthiness that are at issue, it is their ability to keep any promises in whatever climate arises in their country.

The study is based on the financial crisis in Greek. Further research is needed to investigate the applicability of the findings in different contexts.

The study findings are believed to be valuable for international commercial contracts with regard to the Greek debt crisis in discussing the financial legal situation, facilitating trade and enabling Greeks to send payments abroad or at the rate they need. The study contributes to a better understanding of international commercial contract system.

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the business streamlining (BS) model proposed in 2017.

This study/paper develops and validates the qualitatively generated BS model, a conceptual model of service sourcing relationships, by testing it quantitatively. A survey was sent to chief exective officers, chief purchasing officers or facility managers in 764 private or public companies in Sweden with an annual turnover exceeding € 10m. The categories were tested and analyzed by means of factor analysis.

The BS model for managing service sourcing processes was confirmed to be significant overall, meaning that it is applicable irrespective of service sourcing context. The efficiency pursuing (EP) was found to have an interlinking role that calls for a revision of the BS model. Furthermore, the four categories tended to load pairwise.

Although this cross-sectional study confirms the relevance of the BS model for managing service-sourcing processes, further studies should examine both the relative significance of its categories in different service-sourcing contexts and why the four main categories tend to pair.

The results support that the model is flexible and adaptable to a wide range of service-sourcing circumstances. Irrespective of the relative complexity of facility management (FM) sourcing processes, the categories can be adapted to fit the service sourcing context. Thus, it can be used as a tool to analyze and facilitate strategic decision-making.

The paper validates that the BS model can represent the dynamics of different service-sourcing processes, regardless of the complexity of the context.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate, at the industry level, the modes of governance used by multinational companies in the UK petrochemical industry to outsource maintenance activities to engineering contractors. The study focusses on a form of novel governance structure called an Employer Panel (EP).

The study applies an inductive case study method to investigate the contractor governance mechanisms in 19 out of the 20 major petrochemical instillations located in the UK. Data included interviews, documentary and secondary evidence gathered from the cases and also industry bodies.

The study uncovered three distinct types of governance mode: market, managing contractor, and EP of contractors. The latter relies on the governance process of “mandated collaboration” to coordinate.

The main limitation is the focus on a particular industry, albeit an important one. The research implications include extending the empirical research into other sectors which use on-site contracted maintenance such as ship and aircraft manufacturing.

The EP structure with its mandated collaboration process is of value to managers of contractual relationships as it gives insights into coordinative process and it may provide an alternative model for managing outsourcing relationships.

The mandated collaborative process requires clients to engage its contractors in longer term relationships, thus increasing corporate social responsibility and providing wider job security for contractor employees.

The EP mode, as far as can be ascertained, has not been addressed in the literature before.

This paper explores the potential application of public value management theory to the practice of UK healthcare procurement. By conducting a literature review, key elements of public value theory and practice that can be applied to healthcare procurement are identified together with mechanisms that can be used in procurement to protect public values and enhance the creation of public value. These are formed into a Public Value Healthcare Procurement Framework which represents a fresh normative approach to healthcare procurement by focussing on a broader, societal view of value; by providing a blue print for procurement leaders centred around Moore's vision of “exploring” and “moral” public managers; and by promoting a public service ethos amongst all providers including the private sector.

The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) introduced in the UK in 1992 has provided the framework for the completion of a large number of capital projects managed by public sector bodies. The objectives of the PFI included the promotion of greater efficiency and cost control in the management of large‐scale projects, the transfer of risks to the sector or organisation best able to manage them and the use of management skills available in different sectors of the economy to improve the effectiveness of publicly funded projects. Success and failure cases of the PFI discussed in this paper give some implications to policy‐makers in emerging economies in various areas including risk management, cost of capital measurement and transfer of risks. Overall, there is a need for a greater focus on long term budgets in making decisions about PFI and other methods of public service provision. The question of long term planning is likely to be more complicated in emerging economies with rapid growth rates. For many emerging economies, PFI is a new premise with fundamental differences from conventional public finance, not only in principles, but also in the contract process, risk consideration and decision making.

Despite mounting evidence that job insecurity triggers counterproductive work behavior (CWB), the underlying mechanism within the association in hybrid employment remains unknown. This study aims to investigate turnover intention as a mediator in the association between job insecurity and CWB, as well as the differences between permanent and contract workers concerning the effect of job insecurity on employees’ CWB.

Dyadic data were collected from 213 workers (103 contract and 110 permanent workers) and their supervisors, who were employed in one of the three branches of a Chinese state-owned enterprise, respectively, located in Hunan, Shenyang and Xinjiang.

This study found that job insecurity was positively related to CWB, in which turnover intention acted as a partial mediator. Employment status acted as a moderator between job insecurity and CWB.

First, this study extends the theoretical knowledge concerning how job insecurity activates CWB by identifying turnover intention as a mediating mechanism. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the mediating role of turnover intention in terms of job insecurity and CWB. Second, this research expands the understanding of the relation between job insecurity and CWB by investigating this link in the case of contract workers versus permanent workers. Finally, this paper aims to provide an understanding of why contract workers and permanent workers may differ in their reactions to job insecurity.

Many universities are in the process of changing their learning management systems to Moodle yet there is limited empirical research available on the impact of this change. The purpose of this paper is to explore the results of an initial pilot, which was conducted as the first stage of implementing Moodle at an Australian university.

The pilot study involved an online survey and a focus group with unit convenors teaching Open University Australia (OUA) units in Moodle.

The aim was to essentially test Moodle and eliminate any technological issues prior to the university-wide roll-out the following year. It was envisaged that this pilot would contribute to building capability and knowledge amongst staff members; however, it was unanticipated that this would be jeopardised by a wider and ongoing issue in higher education; namely, the casualisation of the academic workforce. The paper maps the accumulated knowledge of these unit convenors and how this knowledge is “walking out the door”.

The paper argues that an environment of insecure employment is a barrier to change management.

Commissioning is integral to the Government's change agenda for public services with its crosscutting aims of keeping people well, improving overall health and reducing inequalities. Commissioning for mental health ‐ rather than merely for the treatment of people with mental health problems ‐ should be a defined and clear‐cut aspect of health and social care planning and investment. However, it remains a significant challenge for a number of reasons.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe how calculations are used in the early phase of strategic capital investment projects (SCIPs) in the mining context and thereby create an understanding of what calculations do in these situations.

The authors conducted a case study based on interviews with project managers, controllers and top-level managers, as well as documents and observations.

The empirical evidence provides key insights into the different uses of calculations in the early phase of SCIPs in the mining industry. The authors found evidence that calculations in the early phase of SCIPs are used to generate ideas, support learning and discussions, evaluate decisions and act as a mediating device.

The paper is based on a single organization, and therefore, the findings of the paper are limited to theoretical generalization.

The study has practical implications directed toward top management, controllers and project managers working with SCIPs. This study suggests that calculations in the early phase are used to unite and create a shared view in the early phase rather than to present rational answers to different investment decision. Calculations can also be used to direct attention toward important areas, sort out and prioritize among ideas, communicate a shared view and function as a template. Thus, calculations are essential in the early phase as they help to transform activities into actions.

This paper contributes to the accounting literature in which it has been emphasized that we still know little of strategic capital budgeting processes, with insights into the multiple uses of calculations in the early phase of SCIPs. We also argue that calculations act as mediating devices in the early phase of SCIPs as they provide a common frame of reference and a basis for action.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on indigenous contractors in a developing economy with a view to enhancing their performance.

The study used a purposive sampling technique to select 37 indigenous contractors with ongoing construction contracts in Osun State, Nigeria who provided data for the study. A structured interview protocol was used to elicit the required information from the interviewees and frequency, percentage and content analysis were used for data analysis.

The results showed that the critical impact of COVID-19 on indigenous contractors in a developing economy is: time overrun, loss of profit and creation of dispute. Further results showed that other impacts are a disruption in supply of labour, locally sourced materials are with additional cost, the additional cost of implementing COVID-19 protocols, difficulty in sourcing imported materials and absence of new jobs with the corresponding retrenchment of workers.

The study recommended special palliatives for the indigenous contractors from the government so as to cushion the impact of the pandemic on them, thereby enhance their survival and performance. A special arbitration panel is set up in each state of the federation to look at disputes arising from the aftermath of the pandemic, this is with a view to adequately compensate indigenous contractors with genuine and properly compiled claims. inferring from the findings of the study, it suffices to say that the severity of the impact of the pandemic is very high on indigenous contractors in developing economies, as such a better preparedness strategy could lessen the impact of such pandemic in the future.

The study is an attempt to unearth the impact of COVID-19 on indigenous contractors with ongoing construction contracts in a developing economy. The study will be of value to construction stakeholders in providing the information needed to devise strategies to minimise the impact of a pandemic on indigenous contractors in future projects thereby enhance their performance.