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Prior to conducting business via the Web, business partners agree on the business processes they are able to support. In ebXML, the choreography of these business processes is described as an instance of the so‐called business process specification schema (BPSS). For execution purposes the BPSS must be defined in the exact business context of the partnership. Reference models for B2B processes developed by standard organizations usually span over multiple business contexts to avoid a multitude of similar processes. In this paper we present how business collaboration models following the UN/CEFACT Modeling Methodology (UMM) are expressed in ebXML BPSS. To allow a mapping from multi‐context business collaboration models to a context‐specific choreography in ebXML BPSS we extend UMM to capture constraints for different business contexts

This study examines the limitations of the practical application of letter of credit transactions requiring an on-board bill of lading under the FCA and presents opinions on the practical use of FCA-ruled bills of lading for letter of credit transactions.

It is very significant that the Incoterms^Ⓡ2020 FCA rules have added new content regarding the optional description of the on-board bill of lading. However, even if the seller has received the on-board bill of lading, there is a limitation in that the bank may not judge the presented documents as a consistent presentation for payment. Identifying these limitations and suggesting solutions are very important for future international commerce transactions. This study is conducted in the following order. First, we review the UCP regulations that banks apply to confirm the consistency of transportation documents in letter of credit transactions. Second, we confirm the limitations in applying the selective description of the on-board bill of lading newly established in the FCA rules proposed by the ICC to letter of credit transactions. Lastly, necessary opinions are presented on how the buying and selling parties can properly utilize the Incoterms in letter of credit transactions.

The establishment of the ICC’s Incoterms 2020 FCA rule’s on-board bill of lading option regulation is intended to resolve merchants’ inconvenience caused by the document screening standards of banks that ignore changes in the trade environment such as the emergence of containers and maintain traditional ship trading practices. It can be interpreted. However, there are still problems with the presentation of on-board bills of lading under FCA rules, and there are also problems with practices between merchants and banks. Existing prior research is limited to dealing with the problems of using FOB rules in container transportation and the limitations of the onboard bill of lading option provisions of FCA rules. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has also affected trade, ushering in the digital era. Trade platforms developed with new technologies are either under development or being prepared for commercialization.

This study reaffirmed the main implications covered in previous studies and proposed the use of multimodal transport documents rather than bills of lading as an alternative to problems that may arise in letter of credit transactions that require on-board bills of lading under FCA rules. Above all, it presented opinions on changes in banks’ practices that require on-board bills of lading in letter of credit transactions, which are inconsistent with the mainstream container-based intermodal transportation.

China's increasing importance as a major global supplier has coincided in recent years with a number of disturbing cases of quality fade (sudden unexpected deteriorations in agreed quality levels) adversely impacting consumer safety, welfare and brand equity. The most effective responses to the problem of quality fade when sourcing from China are firm‐based. However, the efficacy of such responses assumes the existence of efficient markets and market‐supporting institutions. In the face of widespread market failure overseas, buyers need to carefully structure the global sourcing relationship to minimise the risk of quality fade. This paper seeks to address this issue.

The paper adopts a comparative discussion approach to explore the three key global sourcing governance structures: contracts, internal organisation, and trust, and assesses their effectiveness in attenuating quality issues under both the general contracting problems of uncertainty and opportunism and the challenges unique to the Chinese business environment.

The comparative discussion suggests no clear superiority of any one structure and a need to carefully monitor quality performance on an ongoing basis. This suggests that the appropriate structure is contextual and depends on specific needs for information and compliance.

Highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the three major governance structures emphasises trade‐offs that firms sourcing from China may need to make. Increased costs but assured quality may be an acceptable trade‐off when firms are sourcing high‐risk products (foodstuffs, pharmaceutical and vehicle tyres) or serving vulnerable market segments such as children.

To provide an overview of the national foreign direct investment (“FDI”) screening mechanisms in place across Europe including in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK.

This article summarizes the key elements of the national FDI screening regimes of some of the leading European economies. This includes setting out the relevant investment thresholds, protected sectors, lengths of review periods, standstill obligations and potential sanctions in each jurisdiction.

Many of Europe’s leading economies are following the wider global trend towards stricter reviews of foreign investment ahead of the EU Screening Regulation coming into force in October 2020. However, the approach taken to FDI screening can vary significantly at a country level in terms of both process and substance and the applicable laws are evolving rapidly, not least as a response to concerns related to the impact of COVID-19.

Investors looking to make acquisitions in Europe will need to consider whether national FDI screening will apply to their proposed investments. Depending on the jurisdiction, FDI screening can introduce lengthy review periods and require detailed information gathering as well as uncertainty as to the final outcome. Potential investors also need to consider the risk of sanctions, including criminal sanctions, for non-compliance with the screening regimes.

This article offers a summary and comparison of national FDI screening regimes across Europe.

This article aims at analysing the different institutional aspects of the rural land market that are manifest at the transactional level. Second, it answers the question whether including these aspects in a land price model increases the understanding of rural land market outcomes. Institutional economics scholars have challenged the limited institutional behaviour of conventional land market models. Despite their research methods remaining primarily qualitative, research findings suggest that we should look at institutional aspects to understand land and real estate market outcomes better.

This paper presents a hedonic price model explaining rural land prices by using individual institutional transaction aspects from the deeds of purchase of the land exchange.

The results indicate that incorporating institutional aspects, such as property rights, transactional arrangements and governance context, as explanatory variables significantly improves the power of the model.

The approach taken in this article is new in the sense that it tries to combine a quantitative research method with a rich data set of a more qualitative character. The use of deeds of purchase as a primary source of a hedonic price model is relatively new and provides a first step in bridging the gap between advanced hedonic land price models and rich institutional economic insights in market processes.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of entrepreneurial growth from the perspective of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm and transaction cost theory (TCT) and to formulate propositions regarding the entrepreneurs’ decisional rules and structural elements in this process.

The argumentation draws upon three fields of academic research, namely, entrepreneurship studies on firm growth as well as strategic management and organization science studies on company scope and size (boundary). A systematic review of the literature was performed that combines the RBV and TCT to explain a firm’s boundary.

Three levels of entrepreneurial decisional rules in the process of growth were identified. The first level includes main decisional criteria. The second level approaches the structural elements of growth process, namely, its motives, rationale, mechanism and modes. The third level assumes evolutionary approach to decision making, namely, feedback relationships among transaction costs, governance and capabilities to create value from growth.

The paper broadens the early stream of research in the process of entrepreneurial growth. It contributes to explaining the way growth is realized, instead of identifying its predictors, which has dominated in to-date studies. The entrepreneurs’ decisional rules and choices in the process of expansion were suggested. Moreover, the integrated RBV-TCT approach was proposed as a theoretical background for studying this phenomenon.

Industrial marketing covers a broad range of heterogeneous products and services. In response to this heterogeneity, researchers have developed a variety of systematisations of transactions on industrial markets. These systematisations have provided insights for the identification of different types of transaction processes (business types), and for deriving type‐specific marketing recommendations. Based on this literature, the paper considers the consequences of interpreting the typological criteria as variables that can be influenced by the transaction parties, instead of treating them as data.

Transaction cost economics provides the main theoretical foundations. Focusing on seller‐initiated strategy, the paper develops a conceptual framework for shifts between business types that are derived based on differing degrees and horizons of asset specificity.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework and discusses technological and contractual ways of implementing shifts between business types. A central implication of the dynamic perspective is the idea of asset specificity as a choice variable.

First, this research is conceptual. Future empirical research is needed regarding the proposed framework as a whole as well as individual hypotheses. Second, based on our qualitative considerations, more formal models could possibly be applied as useful complements in further analysis of some of the raised issues.

Fundamental changes in market offerings in the form of shifts between business types are common elements of marketing practice, with recent examples in the automotive industry and the IT sector. The paper offers a framework for systematically considering such shifts.

The paper extends existing (static) business types frameworks by incorporating a dynamic perspective.

This chapter first reviews some of the background concepts on central bank digital currency (CBDC) to provide a broad context, before diving into wholesale CBDC often a starting point for central banks to build CBDC prototypes based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), as it involves less complexity in experimentation. This chapter also examines cross-border CBDC, often an extension of wholesale CBDC prototypes based on DLT. The next chapter will then discuss retail CBDC as well as the prospects of economy-wide roll out of CBDC going forward.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically establish the boundary conditions of the guilt mitigation process that consumers resort to in justifying consumption under contextual ambiguity, with respect to consumers' discomfit with ambiguity. While well observed, the process of guilt mitigation is less articulated with respect to contextually relevant consumers’ personality trait(s) (such as, discomfort with ambiguity) that may affect decision-making idiosyncratically. This gap is addressed herewith.

Three experiments were conducted across two studies to establish the boundary conditions of guilt mitigation in the specific context of transactions involving trade-ins. In doing so, consumers' direct price imputation or, indirectly, their relative preference for financially equivalent, but structurally distinct, price structures was measured. Guilt was induced among consumers by directly manipulating consumers' degree of attachment with their old product (the trade-in).

Results indicate that consumers resort to guilt mitigation in justifying consumption more extensively when they harbor higher levels of discomfort with ambiguity, not otherwise – the moderating effects of consumers' discomfort with ambiguity or the boundary condition under study.

Hypothetical buying scenarios, albeit constructed based on field information and subsequently tested for realism, were used to conduct the experiments, versus field experiments using real consumers. Further, the respondent pool comprised of Indian nationals only. These remain the primary limitations of this research.

The findings indicate that managers may be able to construe deals in a manner that promotes self-segmentation by consumers, especially when consumers harbor greater discomfort with ambiguity. This, in turn, implies reduction in consumer heterogeneity and a concomitant increase in marketing efficiency.

By considering consumers' discomfort with ambiguity in this research, the efficacy of the guilt mitigation process was established with respect to a contextually relevant individual difference factor. While the fundamentally constructive nature of guilt mitigation necessitates such considerations, this research gap, thus addressed, remained unaddressed hitherto.