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Errors or negligence are inherent parts of professional services, thus necessitating the adoption of professional indemnity insurance (PII) as a risk management tool to protect professional interest. This paper sought to examine the adoption of PII among Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in Oyo State, Nigeria.

The quantitative research methodology was adopted, and primary data were collected via questionnaires distributed to 84 purposively selected Estate Surveyors and Valuers (ESVs) who are mostly principal partners or branch managers in the study area. Sixty-three questionnaires representing 75.0% were returned and found useable. Data collected were analysed with the aid of descriptive statistics of percentages and relative importance index (RII).

The study found that the influence of foreign investors as well as the requirements of PII by the professional body as a basis for annual license renewal were responsible for higher level of awareness among the practitioners. However, about average of the firms had adopted PII with few taking professional insurance policy of as low as ₦500,000 per annum. The study recommends that NIESV/ESVARBON should sensitize, monitor and enforce the adoption of PII by ESVs as a means to increase public confidence and credibility of valuers while rendering professional services to clients.

The current study was limited in coverage to Ibadan thus necessitating a study with wider area of coverage of national status.

The study has major implications on real estate education and practice in Nigeria. There is an urgent need for the professional body to devise means of enforcing compliance with the adoption of PII so as to be able to get the confidence of their teeming clients for subsequent patronage.

The paper is one among the scanty studies that provides a useful guide to real estate practitioners in developing countries towards adopting PII to shield the company from unnecessary negative exposure and financial loss.

Quality failures in the design and construction process can entail significant delays and costs. Databases of building defects have proven to be useful for drawing conclusions on underlying causes of building defects and for identifying potential improvement actions to reduce the occurrence of building defects.

The database comprising 27,074 cases from a Belgian insurance company was studied, and it was found that moisture problems account for 48% of all building defects, and stability problems 23%. To better analyse the geographical variability, the data were enriched with demographical, geographical and climatological factors of the municipality the concerned buildings were located in. This combined information was used to determine underlying external factors that impact the probability that specific types of building defects occur.

The analysis of the data shows that external factors do indeed have a statistically significant impact. The factor with the highest impact is the number of walls the building has in common with its neighbours. The most significant climatological factor is the wind speed.

A better understanding of the frequency of building defects and factors that contribute to the likelihood are important variables to consider in quality control and prevention.

Timber waste from construction is downcycled into non-structural products, incinerated for energy generation or disposed of in landfills. Existing literature highlights that the use of reprocessed timber for structural purposes is limited. Therefore, this study aims to focus on identifying factors limiting reprocessed structural timber (RST) uptake amongst construction professionals in Australia.

Current literature shows that the use of reprocessed materials (RMs) depends on user-specific personal factors and broader contextual factors. Therefore, data collection and analysis were based on the attitude-behaviour-context (ABC) theory, which affirms this relationship between personal and contextual factors in determining pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs). A qualitative research approach was adopted, considering limitations with industry expertise and the need for developing an in-depth understanding of limiting factors. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted amongst construction professionals experienced in using reprocessed materials, while the thematic analysis technique was used to analyse interview findings.

Personal factors that limit the uptake of RST include negative cost and quality perceptions, risk appetite, the tendency to maintain the status-quo, limited decision-making capability and lack of skills and expertise, while contextual factors include higher prices, poor and uncertain quality, limitations with information availability, under-developed supply and drawbacks in the regulatory environment.

The current study is amongst the first to explore the uptake of reprocessed timber for structural uses in Australia. The findings can be utilised to create a stronger demand for RST by directly addressing personal and contextual factors that constrain construction professionals from using RST.

This paper aims to describe the development of the ethical values disclosure index (EVDi) for Malaysian companies using the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 and isomorphism perspectives.

This paper reports an inclusive examination of international and national guidelines in relation to the code of ethics and ethical values in making the disclosure.

The final 10 categories and 40 items under review have been developed in an instrument, the proposed EVDi, for measuring the commitment undertaken by companies in communicating ethical values information to stakeholders.

The EVDi may fulfil the function of good governance to inculcate ethical work culture throughout companies.

Effective ethical values in communication may reduce the likelihood of illegal activities and cost of acting unethically in organisations.

The value of this paper is its approach of using the isomorphism concept from the institutional theory to address the SDG 16 by developing the EVDi. The new index incorporates core elements of moral values adapted mainly from the professional bodies that regulate the accounting profession and other related organisations. The index is an initiative used to measure companies' commitment to promoting ethical values through disclosure. The efforts to measure the level of commitment supporting the SDG 16 promote effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels.

Research with vulnerable groups is crucial to get their input into public policy design that will directly impact on them. However, there are many methodological and ethical challenges involved in encouraging participation from groups with a wide range of intellectual, cognitive and physical capacities while ensuring that the rights and well-being of participants are protected. Rather than exploring ethical theories, this chapter is a case study describing the practical ethical considerations that were involved in designing and holding a series of focus groups with adult health and social care service users from vulnerable cohorts. It is based on a series of focus groups which the Institute of Public Health (IPH) held with specified cohorts as part of a policy development process on adult safeguarding for the Department of Health (DOH) in Ireland. The four cohorts were people with intellectual disability, cognitive impairments, significant mental health challenges and nursing home residents. This chapter does not describe the findings of the focus groups but outlines the ethical and methodological considerations that arose in designing and conducting this research, and the practical ethical safeguards employed to mitigate risk and comply with Irish and EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation governing health research. It outlines the ethical issues around protecting confidentiality and using incentives to encourage participation, how individuals' capacity to give informed consent was maximized, the risk-assessment and mitigation procedures used to prevent harms arising and the measures put in place to provide follow-up emotional support to participants.

This research investigated the impacts of COVID-19 on construction enterprises and good practices adopted by the enterprises in reducing COVID-19 risks. The Sendai Framework (TSF) is widely accepted as a strategic roadmap to reduce disaster risks throughout the life cycle of a disaster. As such, with the aim of enhancing the resilience of Australian construction enterprises, the identified good practices were mapped with TSF priorities to consolidate COVID-19 risk reduction practices that can be adopted by Australian construction enterprises.

Case study research approach was used, and three case studies were conducted with small, medium and large construction enterprises. Small, medium and large enterprises were selected based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics classification of the business size. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with three executive members from the three enterprises. Data were analysed using content analysis.

The study found that construction enterprises faced demand and supply side impacts. Infrastructure projects, funded by public sector clients and larger enterprises were least affected. Investments and demand for residential and other building projects were reduced by private sector clients, affecting small and medium enterprises. Findings also show that the construction enterprises adopted good practices in identifying, managing, investing on resilience and recovery that align with TSF priorities. All three enterprises agreed on some common good practices on risk identification, risk management and effective recovery. Different views were shared on investments related to disaster resilience.

This study contributes to mitigate the COVID-19 impacts on construction enterprises and subsequent economic and social impacts.

This research found how Australian construction enterprises survived during COVID-19. The study adopted TSF to construction and COVID-19 context while consolidating COVID-19 risk reduction practices.

This study aims to identify the propensity for clients (legal and natural persons) to adopt peer-to-peer (P2P) short-term insurance policies as opposed to traditional and/or centralized short-term.

In this paper data was collected through a survey of 102 sampled short-term insurance clients using convenience sampling. The TAM2 questionnaire was adapted to evaluate the intention to adopt a P2P insurance policy.

The findings of this study shed light on the factors influencing the adoption and (dis)continuation of short-term insurance products, both traditional and digital, among South African consumers. The results demonstrate that perceived usefulness, ease of use, trust, risk perception and subjective norm play crucial roles in individuals' intention to use or (dis)continue the use of these insurance products.

The study's findings provide actionable insights for practitioners in the short-term insurance sector, with a focus on marketers and e-commerce professionals. These insights emphasize the need to prioritize user-friendly design and trust-building measures in the development of P2P insurance systems. Additionally, practitioners should consider harnessing the power of social influence and carefully balancing innovative features with familiarity in their marketing efforts. These strategies are poised to enhance the adoption and competitive positioning of P2P insurance solutions amidst the evolving landscape of digital transformation.

This study makes a substantial contribution by employing the technology acceptance model (TAM) in a novel and unconventional manner. It not only explicates the intricate dynamics governing the adoption and discontinuation of short-term insurance products, encompassing both conventional and digital alternatives, within the South African consumer milieu but also extends its purview to infer the reasons behind the limited widespread adoption of the digital counterpart, despite its superior value proposition compared to the traditional offering. The findings elucidate the critical determinants shaping individuals' decisions in this dynamic market segment. This research enhances the global discourse on insurance adoption with a unique South African perspective and furnishes insurers and marketers with empirically grounded insights to optimize their strategies and cultivate substantive connections with their target demographic.

Behavioral economics poses a challenge for the welfare evaluation of choices, particularly those that involve risk. It demands that we recognize that the descriptive account of behavior toward those choices might not be the ones we were all taught, and still teach, and that subjective risk perceptions might not accord with expert assessments of probabilities. In addition to these challenges, we are faced with the need to jettison naive notions of revealed preferences, according to which every choice by a subject expresses her objective function, as behavioral evidence forces us to confront pervasive inconsistencies and noise in a typical individual’s choice data. A principled account of errant choice must be built into models used for identification and estimation. These challenges demand close attention to the methodological claims often used to justify policy interventions. They also require, we argue, closer attention by economists to relevant contributions from cognitive science. We propose that a quantitative application of the “intentional stance” of Dennett provides a coherent, attractive and general approach to behavioral welfare economics.

This paper develops a conceptual framework that is applicable in various compensation settings vis-a-vis relevant legal frameworks, compensation processes and practices, compensation outcomes and adequacy of resultant compensation by using a common evaluative framework, to address the lack of such a conceptual framework in the compensation literature. Also, by developing a new conceptual framework, this paper provides a platform and an analytical tool for anchoring and analysing future research on compensation for expropriation of various property rights.

This conceptual paper is based on original thought and review of literature on compensation for expropriation.

A critical analysis of existing literature on compensation for expropriation of customary properties reveals that most studies are inadequately informed by relevant compensation theories and that each study uses its own tailor-made analytical framework. This entails that there is no general conceptual framework for anchoring new studies in compensation and aid in extrapolating their results to similar populations and contexts.

This paper makes novel contribution to knowledge by developing a new conceptual framework for analysing compensation for expropriation of customary property rights, which is not there currently. Essentially, by developing the new conceptual framework, this paper provides a basis for anchoring new research works in compensation and their analyses, thereby making a further contribution to knowledge.

The paper’s purpose is to consider, using a transaction cost economics (TCE) framework, the mechanisms used by space agencies to encourage private investment in the commercial spaceflight sector.

The authors conducted a content analysis of 554 pages of news articles, relating to issues pertaining to partnerships between national government-based space agencies and private space travel providers, published over a 20-year period. Leximancer was used to initially screen the data and then the authors manually analysed the content to identify themes.

The data analysis revealed three themes, relating to: the uncertainty of space travel; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) stimulating innovation in the private sector; and risk, insurance and regulation. These themes informed by TCE reveal the “hierarchical” organisational forms used to achieve human spaceflight and then the “hybrids”, insurance and regulations used to stimulate private sector investment and innovation.

This paper contributes to the accounting literature by answering the calls of Alewine (2020) and Tucker and Alewine (2022a, b) for more research into accounting in the space context. Specifically, the paper contributes by identifying mechanisms used by NASA to stimulate private investment in the space travel sector, as well as issues that have affected the implementation of these mechanisms. The paper also contributes to the literature by, based on the analysis, identifying a series of reflections designed to stimulate further management accounting research in the space context.