Search Results (5)

An increasing trend in late payment and nonpayment of construction projects would hinder the sustainable development of projects by impeding progress or causing disputes. Although the interim payment method is a good practice to solve payment-related problems of construction projects, its acceptance rate is low, and studies on it are few. Therefore, this research aims to extend the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to understand practitioners’ acceptance behavior toward the interim payment method. By adopting TAM, this study established an acceptance model of the interim payment method, which consists of four constructs and 25 indicators, and validated it through 131 survey data collected in Jiangsu Province, China. The results showed that the adoption rate for public projects (17%) was much lower than that of private projects (44.8%). The results revealed that environmental factors, perceived usefulness, and attitude increase practitioners’ acceptance, while the perceived ease of use impedes practitioners’ acceptance. In addition, the settlement process and pricing method impact the ease of use the most and could be breakthrough points for improvement in the future. Moreover, the perceived usefulness significantly affects practitioners’ attitudes but does not affect behavioral intention. This study contributes to the body of knowledge of project management by identifying the key causes of the low acceptance of the interim payment method and provides strategies for further improvement. The findings would help to inform the decision-making in policies, strategies, and incentive schemes to increase practitioners’ acceptance in China and worldwide. Full article

In this study, we examine the association between interim financing and firm performance in an emerging economy. Prior research shows that firms utilize trade credit to boost their operating performance or market valuation. However, recent research on the relation between trade credit as alternative financing and firm performance provides mixed evidence. Nevertheless, limited research has been conducted in developing economies; hence, we attempt to fill this gap in the present paper. We argue that trade credit may not be attractive to external debt financing as trade credit may not contribute to business growth while external debt financing does. To test our conjecture, we employed ordinary least squares (OLS), firm fixed effects, and random effects regressions. By utilizing 1002 firm-year observations, our findings suggest a negative relationship between trade credit and firm performance. To check and control endogeneity and reverse causality issues we use instrumental variable approach (i.e., Heckman two-stage least squares regression). Our results remain robust through different measures of firm performance and trade credit. Our study provides policy implications and contributions to trade credit and firm performance literature. Full article

The existing literature finds that finance has a significant impact on carbon emissions, but there is a lack of theoretical explanation on whether and how digital finance, an important new financial form, affects carbon emissions. This paper uses balanced panel data at the provincial level in China from 2011 to 2018 as a sample to empirically test the relationship between digital finance and carbon emissions and introduces three exogenous events to test the impact of policy shocks. The results show that digital finance has a significant inhibitory effect on carbon emissions; the implementation of the policies of ‘G20 High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion’, ‘Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China’, and ‘Interim measures for the management of greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction’ strengthens the suppression of carbon emissions by digital finance, and the robustness test also supports the protection of digital finance. The research conclusions of this article provide theoretical evidence for understanding the relationship between digital finance and other new financial formats and carbon emissions and provide an empirical basis for policy-makers to promote the development of digital finance to reduce carbon emissions. Full article

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Decisions for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) recognize its role in poverty alleviation, enhancing social and environmental resilience and ensuring linkages between mitigation and adaptation. Similarly, the UNFCCC recognizes the diversity of potential environmental and social risks and benefits that could result from REDD+ implementation. As a result, the UNFCCC adopted a set of social, environmental and governance safeguards, commonly known as “Cancun Safeguards.” Cancun Safeguards should be addressed and respected throughout REDD+ implementation regardless of the source and type of funding and play a key role in accessing results-based finance. The UNFCCC provides guidance regarding an information system as well as up-to-date reports as information and reporting tools on how all Cancun Safeguards have been addressed and respected. However, the UNFCCC does not offer any guidance on how to consider, assess and/or verify reported information. Given the key role that the Green Climate Fund (GCF) plays in channeling REDD+ results-based finance, this research paper examines early lessons from the GCF’s pilot programme for REDD-plus results-based payments (RBPs). It assesses the extent to which REDD+ activities have been implemented in consistency with the Cancun Safeguards. This paper examines the assessment and verification procedures of the GCF’s pilot programme. Key informant interviews have been a key source of information. We conclude that assessing the extent to which REDD+ results-based activities have in fact been consistent with Cancun Safeguards is a complex endeavor. Such complexity requires a qualitative approach as well as a dedicated verification procedure. This in turn has not been fully captured in the GCF’s pilot programme. Additionally, we conclude that by requiring countries to demonstrate conformance with its interim safeguards in the context of REDD+ results-based finance, the GCF’s pilot programme poses a significant burden to countries’ abilities to access results-based financing. Full article

Incorporation of sustainable management for the rework of defective items brings long lasting benefits. In global business, there are situations when the products are procured from a global supplier. There are chances that the received lot may contain a fraction of imperfect products. These imperfect products are still valuable and can be repairable to save the environment. It is sustainable to repair imperfect items in a local repair store as compared to sending it back to the supplier. The cost of carbon emissions is also incorporated in the function to incorporate the environmental impact on total profit. Meanwhile, the supplier also offers a multi-trade-credit-period to the buyer. The developed model is sustainable and reduces the environmental impact as well as benefits for interim financing. This paper has an objective to maximize the total profit by developing a synergic economic order quantity model by considering multi-trade-credit policy, rework, and shortages simultaneously. This model can help in making decisions to enhance the performance of sustainable inventory management by controlling the cycle time and a fraction of time for a global supply chain. A non-derivative approach is employed to develop a closed-form optimal result. The numerical illustration with sensitivity analysis is also drawn to provide managerial insights into real practices. Full article