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The purpose of this paper is to develop a step-by-step procedure, referred to as transaction formalism protocol (TFP) that the transaction development personnel will use to formalise transactions (communications) in the domain of infrastructure management. The protocol is developed at two levels of abstraction: TFP specification and TFP tool. This paper presents the TFP specification in detail and introduces the TFP tool briefly. The specific focus of this paper is on the development process of the protocol specification.

A four-step approach is used to develop the TFP; including, identify and select existing standards, benchmark standards, link and build on these standards, and develop TFP. To develop the protocol, the function modelling standard, integration definition function modelling (IDEF0) is used. The IDEF0 treats each step of the protocol as a function.

The TFP specification and TFP tool are developed using the proposed methodology. The TFP specification specifies inputs, controls, mechanisms, tools/techniques, and outputs required in each step, whereas the TFP tool defines forms for each step of the protocol that the transaction development personnel will use to define transactions in the domain of infrastructure management.

The development of the TFP would enable the transaction development personnel (including transaction analysts, transaction designers, software developers, process modellers, and industry experts) to formalise transactions effectively and efficiently for the development of ICT-based collaboration systems.

The proposed protocol incorporates shortcomings of existing standards. In contrast to other design standards that focus on either design or design cum implementation of the work processes and communications, the proposed TFP includes transaction monitoring and improvements in addition to the design and implementation of communications. Unlike other standards, the TFP is a detailed step-by-step procedure to ease its usability and understandability.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the consequences of the “safe harbor” provisions of the US Bankruptcy Code that were enacted from 1984 through 2005 and that protect certain financial contracts from standard bankruptcy procedures.

Qualitative methods are used to evaluate whether these provisions of the Bankruptcy Code were successful in their stated goal of reducing systemic risk in the financial system. A model of systemic risk is presented verbally in order to frame the discussion.

Recent evidence indicates that the “safe harbor” provisions, in fact, destabilized the financial system by encouraging collateralized interbank lending, discouraging careful analysis of the credit risk of counterparties and increasing the risk that creditors will run on a financial firm.

This paper indicates that the rewriting of the Bankruptcy Code to favor financial firms has had a profoundly destabilizing effect on the financial system. To put the financial system on more secure foundations, the author proposes that large complex financial institutions be prohibited from posting collateral on over the counter derivative transactions and that the repo‐related bankruptcy amendments passed in 2005 be repealed.

This paper proposes an original framework for understanding systemic risk which drives the results in the paper.

In this chapter, we explore the legal framework of AGMs in seven Member States (Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom) of shareholder decision-making rights. We find that, since only a small part of the decision-making rights is harmonized at the European level, there are numerous differences in shareholder rights among national laws. These decision-making rights are usually about the topics director (re-)elections, pay matters, share capital, amendments to articles of association, annual accounts, etc. To be able to conduct empirical research in the remaining chapters, we develop a categorization framework of 15 voting items.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to highlight the stages in the relationship which eventually lead to an integrated logistics alliance.

The stages involved in the evolutionary process have been explained with the help of concepts of mental models and knowledge-related asymmetries. The study has been justified by applying multiple case research design which involves examples of successful logistics alliances.

The analysis using case study approach provides a detailed overview how third-party logistics providers develop successful relationships with different industry firms over a period of time which eventually lead to innovations benefiting both the partners.

In the paper, a qualitative case study methodology has been adopted which is limited in nature when compared to quantitative approach. Nevertheless, the multiple cases discussed in the paper involve organizations from diverse sectors thus providing a holistic perspective and adding value to the current strategic alliance literature.

The complete understanding of the concepts discussed in this paper will help companies revisit their business strategies and identify areas of improvements in their current engagement practices with third-party logistics providers.

Many a time, relationships fail to develop into an alliance and research related to the attributes causing these failures might be limited. In the past, though many papers have talked about strategic alliances between third-party logistics providers and customers, little has been discussed about how such relationships evolve into successful strategic alliances.

The purpose of this paper is to test if activism by civil society organisations (CSOs hereafter) in successfully mobilising resistance to the Government of Ghana “collateralization” of gold resources and other mineral royalties in 2020 (dubbed the “Agyapa deal”) espouse tenets of Foucault’s (2009) “governmentality” and “counter conduct” dispositions.

This paper draws on Dean’s (1999) discussion of government analytics to highlight how CSO activism can simultaneously challenge government practice and share in it. This paper uses an evidence-based and interpretive qualitative content analysis approach. This paper relied on secondary data sources from 1 January 2020 to 21 August 2021. Data collection involved an extensive review of secondary materials concerning the Agyapa deal, relying on the author's local knowledge to identify the likely sources of information.

This paper exposes how the counteractions of CSOs, underpinned by the desire for so-called “good governance”, invariably extend governmentality and other neo-liberal ideals. In this case, CSOs' actions espoused the ideals of marketisation, extended governable spaces, engrained subjectivation and treated citizens as incapable of formulating and advancing their desires without overt help. Secondly, it provides evidence that massive deployment of accountability and other calculable practices, however wilful, complement efforts at shaping public opinion.

CSO counter-conduct is merely symbolic rather than substantive. Substantive counter-conduct requires the citizenry to actively lead the problematisation process, holding CSOs accountable for acting on their behalf. The current trajectory where CSO accountability is primarily to their international financiers, predominantly neo-liberal advocates, raises questions about “in whose interest they seek another form of governance?” Practically, the splinter of interests that may emanate from citizenry directly led counter-conduct can affect garnering the critical mass needed to force a policy change. That said, however, there is a case for citizenry “making themselves” rather than “being made” within the governmentality process.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first application of the Foucauldian and Dean framework to a data set from Ghana.

With the passage of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002, corporate legal counsel has an increasing responsibility related to fraud. The purpose of this paper is to focus on financial reporting fraud resulting in the false presentation of operating results and financial position to the public, lenders, taxing authorities or other corporate stakeholders.

The paper reviews cases with a focus on financial reporting fraud as identified by corporate counsel.

The ways in which corporations can utilise corporate counsel to protect themselves from financial statement and other reporting frauds.

This paper provides guidance to corporate counsel as to some of the common forms of financial statement fraud and the risk factors (red flags) that may indicate the presence of fraud.

Corporate counsel, by virtue of their natural involvement in the negotiation of contracts and customer/vendor disputes, as well as their consulting role to top management in many types of business transactions and problems, are uniquely positioned to identify financial statement fraud issues and other financial disclosure problems.

The use of offsets is one of the main characteristics of international defence trade. The rising costs of defence equipment and the significant contraction of defence spending have resulted in an environment that favoured the use of offset policies, the latter becoming increasingly demanding in both quantitative and qualitative terms. The chapter analyses the role of offsets on the process of integration of defence equipment markets, with a specific focus on the EU. Particular attention is given to the offset-relevant regulation and practice and to their recent evolution in the EU following the adoption of European Directive on defence and security procurement (81/81/EC). Offsets play a dual role with regard to the integration of defence industries: on one hand they can be trade-distorting and contribute to the survival of inefficient suppliers in arms importing countries; on the other hand, they can contribute in overcoming barriers that may otherwise prevent some potentially efficient suppliers from accessing the supply chains of the big system integrators. The chapter draws the attention on the need to complement the regulatory evolution by further initiatives aiming at improving the access of non-incumbent suppliers to the supply chains of the large defence system integrators.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the contentious issue whether lawyers become launderers when they accept dirty money as legal fees. Lawyers represent criminal defendants who may wish to pay for their legal fees with proceeds of their criminal activities. The paper analyses the legal position of Namibia and Zimbabwe on such tainted fees and proceeds to compare with the different position taken by the United States.

The paper adopts a desk research methodology with reliance on various sources such as statutory laws, case laws, books, journal articles and the internet. Its scope is limited to issue and content analysis relating to the use of dirty money as legal fees.

The paper shows that lawyers become launderers when they accept dirty money as legal fees with knowledge or suspicion of its origins. It concludes that the prohibition of dirty money as legal fees is important in the fight against economic crime in Namibia and Zimbabwe. Even though it is decriminalised in the USA, the continuous prosecution of lawyers for tainted fees shows that state authorities are aware of the dangers of tainted legal fees.

This paper adds to the few available literature on dirty money and legal fees. It provides sound reasons why prohibition of tainted attorneys’ fees adds muscle to the fight against economic crime. No prior literature is available on tainted legal fees in Namibia and Zimbabwe specifically.

The evolution of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) was nurtured by economists and accountants loyal to the philosophical basis of what is often referred to as “Western” market economies, being classical and neoclassical contracting theories. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how a particular Asian cultural attribute (guānxì ) impacts on the efficacy of fair value measurement.

Using a literature review and research of studies of the adoption of IFRS in China, studies of both guānxì and fair value in Chinese accounting research, this study unbundles Williamson’s governance structure and contracting theory to examine how guānxì is positioned orthogonally to fair value (market-oriented valuation) principles for financial reporting. This is followed by a case study of the events surrounding the collapse of China Medical Technologies.

Guānxì is integral to Asian economies and economic transactions. Resulting conditions, characterised by relational contracting, may not meet the qualitative characteristics of neutrality and faithful representation in fair value measurement of assets and liabilities. The same may be true when insider or “trusted party transaction” values prevail for large ticket transactions among entities in any jurisdiction.

Future research on the impact of guānxì may be constrained by its often hidden, and yet dynamic, character; and the varieties of its manifestations.

This study highlights how difficult it may be to achieve both comparability and relevance in the asset and liability recognition and measurement rules in Asian (and possibly also other) economies adopting accounting principles that are developed in a Western context.

The emergence of new digital technologies in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution presents a turning point that could change the fate of the traditional ways of designing, build and manage asset data. Disruptive technologies such as Blockchain and theInternet of things (IoT) are one of the main pillars that are driving this revolution. The integration of decentralised networks and automated workflows has the potential to become a pivotal factor in construction projects, especially in supply chain ecosystems within the off-site manufacturing field. Obstacles related to fragmented information, interoperability, transparency and “big data” management are the main drivers for change that the industry needs to address. Whilst organisations and users can automate workflows and processes by utilising IoT technology to transfer data without human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction, the interaction, storage and management of the data generated are not safe or reliable.

The approach outlined in this paper addresses the challenges that IoT and centralised networks present. Blockchain, a peer-to-peer distributed database, offers the possibility to support and maintain the asset information without interruptions in all the stages of the life cycle. The synergy between these technologies, along with other techniques, methods and platforms (such as building information modeling (BIM)), based on a single environment, will support information traceability from the strategic definition to end of life.

The framework of this study presents an excellent opportunity to apply new workflows and processes with the application of new technologies and protocols. It benefits from a well-established platform such as BIM to enable the coordination and management of digital assets as well as giving illustration and collaboration to the supply chain members. IoT and Blockchain are the other layers that work together with the third layer (BIM). This framework proposed the use of these platforms to ensure the information traceability of physical and digital assets, data automation and information management, in a dynamic supply chain ecosystem, bringing efficiency and transparency to stakeholders and users.

This study provides an exploratory framework to be used by the supply chain members in offsite manufacturing, and the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry in general, to track asset information throughout their entire life cycle securely and transparently.

This paper contributes to the knowledge of IoT, Blockchain technology and BIM use in offsite manufacturing under the AEC industry. It provides a basis for future research by professionals, experts and academics regarding these technologies and their workflows.