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The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that safeguard or hinder the proper use of derivatives, with evidence from active users and controllers of derivatives.

An online panel of 420 users and controllers of derivatives responded to a self‐report questionnaire that was purposely designed for the present study. Exploratory factor analysis was used to guide scale construction and the resulting factor scores were examined overall and across four demographic variables (gender, experience, education, position held with firm).

Factor analysis provided support for the five hypothesised dimensions of proper derivative usage: Risk management controls; Misuse; Expertise; Perception; and Benefits. Summary statistics of the factor scores revealed that the respondents agree that: they are giving proper attention to risk management controls; factors such as greed, politics, inappropriate standards and inadequate controls encourage misuse; they are capable of dealing with derivatives even in complex situations; derivatives are valuable financial instruments; and they are aware of the benefits derivatives provide to firms, when properly handled. However, some respondents reported contrasting views while the respondents' education, position held and experience with derivatives produced a significant impact on the factor scores. The implications of the findings are discussed.

This study provides a better understanding and assessment of five factors that affect the proper use of derivatives and addresses practical recommendations aimed at ensuring that the true values and qualities of the derivative instrument are not obscured.

The paper aims to discuss the amended provisions relating to protection of minority shareholders (PMS) in the newly amended Chinese Company Law and evaluate whether it adequately protects the interests of minority shareholders.

In total, 26 cases will be examined by discussing the characteristics of the relevant parties involved, specifically plaintiffs, defendants, their lawyers, judges and also the grounds of complaint. A comparison will be made between the cases decided by following the first Company Law (1994) and the cases decided in accordance with the newly amended Company Law (2006).

The findings indicate that the amended Company Law has removed certain drawbacks in PMS present in the first Company Law (1994) but the New Company Law can protect interests of minority shareholders only to a certain extent. Further amendments are still needed.

This is one of the first studies to actually examine the implementation of PMS‐related provisions in the newly amended Company Law.

The purpose of this paper is to answer a specific research question: How have EU and US regulators translated the idea of central clearing into law?

A meticulous legal research is carried out. First, the pre‐crisis regulatory regime for credit default swap (CDS) is reviewed, from a securities law angle as well as from a comparative Euro‐American perspective. Next, the regulatory processes leading to the adoption of the central clearing regulations are discussed. Thereafter, a material comparative analysis is made of the provisions related to central clearing in the EU and US regulatory initiatives. Finally, the paper is concluded with an evaluation of both legislations in the light of all previous analyses.

The research first shows that central clearing regulations rely on a series of presumptions, both concerning the gravity of counterparty risk threats and the necessity of central clearing. Additionally, the EU and US clearing regulations are similar with regard to the broad innovations they introduce, i.e. the mandatory central clearing of a variety of over‐the‐counter derivatives and counterparty risk management requirements for central clearing institutions and for non‐cleared swaps. However, the specific content of the provisions often differs. Furthermore, both legislations are limited to enouncing broad principles. This is also the case for the crucial provisions related to counterparty risk management. Therefore, these provisions in se do not guarantee the proper regulation of counterparty risk management practices. Consequently, much is to be expected from the implementing measures adopted by regulatory institutions.

The paper provides an overview of those provisions in the European and US regulations that specifically concern central clearing for CDS. It is one of the first papers which does this in a very well‐structured and clearly written manner. Also it is one of the first to provide a clear comparison between the provisions in the EU and the US regulations.

Since, the early 1990s, emerging markets have started to play an important role in the trading of derivatives products. Despite the fact that these markets are characterized in general as illiquid, segmented, politically unstable, with lack of regulations and historical financial databases, they do have some advantages for markets' participants. This paper aims to discuss some of the main obstacles to the inception of successful derivative products in emerging economies and to provide a number of viable solutions.

The objective of this paper is to share with financial markets' participants, regulators and policymakers some of the author's real‐world experiences and observations as a derivatives trader and later as a trading risk manager in emerging economies. The endeavor here is to provide several robust guidelines that can assist emerging markets in the establishment of sound derivative markets within a prudential framework of rules and policies.

To this end, key risk management rules and procedures that should be considered before dealing with derivative products are examined and adapted to the specific needs of emerging markets. The suggested viable solutions can be implemented in almost all emerging economies, if they are adapted to correspond to each market's initial level of sophistication.

The real‐world guidelines and observations that are discussed in this work will be of value to financial entities, regulators and policymakers operating within the context of emerging markets.

This paper fills a gap in the risk management literature, especially from the emerging markets perspective, by providing a practitioner's views on how to set‐up sound and effective derivative products markets in emerging economies. The paper will be of value to those interested in founding a successful and sound trading environment of derivative products in emerging markets.

Considerable effort is devoted to developing new models for organizing bibliographic metadata. However, such models have been repeatedly criticized for their lack of proper user testing. The purpose of this paper is to present a study on how non-experts in bibliographic systems map the bibliographic universe and, in particular, how they conceptualize relationships between independent but strongly related entities.

The study is based on an open concept-mapping task performed to externalize the conceptualizations of 98 novice students. The conceptualizations of the resulting concept maps are identified and analyzed statistically.

The study shows that the participants’ conceptualizations have great variety, differing in detail and granularity. These conceptualizations can be categorized into two main groups according to derivative relationships: those that apply a single-entity model directly relating document entities and those (the majority) that apply a multi-entity model relating documents through a high-level collocating node. These high-level nodes seem to be most adequately interpreted either as superwork devices collocating documents belonging to the same bibliographic family or as devices collocating documents belonging to a shared fictional world.

The findings can guide the work to develop bibliographic standards. Based on the diversity of the conceptualizations, the findings also emphasize the need for more user testing of both conceptual models and the bibliographic end-user systems implementing those models.

A systems perspective of waste management allows an integrated approach not only to the five basic functional elements of waste management itself (generation, reduction, collection, recycling, disposal), but to the problems arising at the interfaces with the management of energy, nature conservation, environmental protection, economic factors like unemployment and productivity, etc. This monograph separately describes present practices and the problems to be solved in each of the functional areas of waste management and at the important interfaces. Strategies for more efficient control are then proposed from a systems perspective. Systematic and objective means of solving problems become possible leading to optimal management and a positive contribution to economic development, not least through resource conservation. India is the particular context within which waste generation and management are discussed. In considering waste disposal techniques, special attention is given to sewage and radioactive wastes.