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Policymakers worldwide have proposed a new contract – the ‘social impact bond’ (SIB) – which they claim can allay the underperformance afflicting not-for-profits, by tying the private returns of (social) investors to the success of social programs. We investigate experimentally how SIBs perform in a first-best world, where investors are rational and able to obtain hard information on not-for-profits’ performance. Using a principal-agent multitasking framework, we compare SIBs to inputs-based contracts (IBs) and performance-based contracts (PBs). IBs are based on a piece-rate mechanism, PBs on a non-binding bonus mechanism, and SIBs on a mechanism that, due to the presence of an investor, offers full enforceability. Although SIBs can perfectly enforce good behaviour, they also require the principal (i.e., government) to relinquish control over the agent’s (i.e., not-for-profit’s) payoff to a self-regarding investor, which prevents the principal and agent from being reciprocal. In spite of these drawbacks, in our experiment SIBs outperformed IBs and PBs. We therefore conclude that, at least in our laboratory test-bed, SIBs can allay the underperformance of not-for-profits.

Purpose – To seek firm-specific determinants of private benefits (PBs) in a concentrated ownership economy and compare the evidence with Barclay and Holderness (1989) findings on disperse ownership firms.

Design/methodology/approach – We estimate the PBs of control implicit in 54 large block transactions in Israel, via an elaborated Barclay and Holderness (1989) methodology, and then examine possible determinants of PBs using multivariate regressions.

Findings – Cross-sectional regressions indicate that PBs, as a proportion of firm's market value, decrease with firm's size, leverage, and profitability and increase when an individual or family controls the firm.

Research limitations/implications – Our results reinforce and are even stronger and more significant than Barclay and Holderness (1989) U.S. evidence, possibly because the magnitude of PBs in concentrated ownership economies is much higher than in disperse ownership economies. The main limitation is our reliance on one country (Israel) data only.

Originality/value – We extend Barclay and Holderness (1989) study to a concentrated ownership economy, and document clearer and more significant results on the determinants of the PBs of control.

Potato-based snacks (PBS) are widely popular among people of all age groups despite known negative health aspects. University students, due to their busy routines and less familiarity with diets are more prone to selecting unhealthy meals and snacks. The study aims to explore the outlook of university students regarding their consumption of processed and packaged PBS in their daily lives and compares gender’s PBS choices with dietary habits and food environment.

A total of 122 students from various universities across Pakistan were included in this study. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire and distributed using the snowball method.

The university students showed a significant difference in their living habits (p = 0.016), where 25.4% of enrolled male students were hostellers as compared to females (14.8%). Significant differences were noticed in choosing PBS that further depends on the familiarity of the product, (p = 0.030), where 9.0% of female students rated familiarity with the product as being important while 20.5% of males responded familiarity as a critical factor. Studying the usual location/point of purchase for a PBS, a significant difference was observed (p = 0.008%) where more male students (27.9%) choose to buy their PBS from a local convenience store as compared to female students (18.9%). Female students (13.1%) would rather choose to buy their PBS on their weekly grocery runs.

This study concluded that female and male students’ attitudes regarding the consumption of PBS were almost the same regardless of environment and brand repute.

Highlights

1. Dietary behavioral studies of consumption of PBS

2. The environment and brand reputation have no impact on the consumption of PBS

3. Gender differences have no impact on the selection of PBS

4. Awareness and healthy selection of PBS are critical factors that need to be focused

Dietary behavioral studies of consumption of PBS

The environment and brand reputation have no impact on the consumption of PBS

Gender differences have no impact on the selection of PBS

Awareness and healthy selection of PBS are critical factors that need to be focused

The Chinese construction industry is experiencing a rapid growth these days. Due to the requirements of energy conservation, emission reduction and construction waste management, the development of prefabricated buildings (PBs) has attracted much attention in the Chinese construction industry. However, the development of PBs are still in their infancy in China, which have been negatively impacted by many obstacles. It is of great significance to clarify and analyze these obstacles for the purpose of promoting the development of PBs in China. Due to the wideness and complex features of obstacles, the existing literature exploring the research topic lacks comprehensiveness. The purpose of this paper is to systematically identify and discuss the obstacles that hinder the development of PBs in China.

This paper adopts the method of news report analysis based on the news reports retrieved from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and nine major portals in China. The Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) method of content analysis was used to rank the obstacles according to their importance.

A total of 79 obstacles to the development of PBs in China are identified, and the 79 obstacles are divided into 8 dimensions. Among the Top 20 obstacles, the government dimension accounted for the highest number of 5, the market and consumer dimension and development organization dimension were 4, Manufacturing Enterprise of Prefabricated Components (PCs) dimension, construction organization dimension and design organization dimension were 2, logistics enterprise dimension was 1, and industry association dimension was 0. Among them, the biggest obstacle is the high transportation costs.

First, data collection may not be very comprehensive. Second, this paper is only based on the obstacles in the development of PBs in China, and the universality of the management conclusions needs to be further strengthened.

The research results help the stakeholders in the Chinese PBs industry to better understand the barriers hindering the industry development in a systemic way, which will help propose appropriate strategies to address these barriers.

This paper clarifies the obstacles of China's PBs and makes an analysis, which is of great value to the development of China's PBs.

Positive behaviour support (PBS) is currently considered best practice for managing challenging behaviour in young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. A key principle of PBS is that all members of the person’s support network participate in the assessment and intervention. It is, therefore, important to understand what factors act as facilitators or barriers to family engagement; however, research in this area is limited. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a novel piece of qualitative research analysis into experiences of family members of young people who have received family-based PBS.

Eight parents of a young person with an intellectual or developmental disability who had received PBS were interviewed about their experiences and factors they found helpful and hindering in terms of their engagement. Thematic analysis allowed a detailed and robust interpretation of the qualitative data.

Five superordinate themes were identified, namely, PBS is more than just strategies, considering the family context, the therapist/family relationship, acknowledging challenges and the ongoing nature of the problem and supporting family member change.

Although research was rigorously conducted, the small sample size mean findings should be considered preliminary.

The literature related to family engagement in PBS is limited and largely based on the opinions of professionals. This study identified factors that parents themselves felt were helpful and hindering in terms of their engagement and offers practical suggestions for services and future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate three preparation processes and the photoluminescent (PL) properties of PbS/poly(p‐phenylene vinylene) (PPV) composite fibres.

By the combination of electrospinning technology, chemical vapour deposition and chemical liquid deposition, PbS/PPV composite nanofibres were prepared by three simple methods. The morphologies of the fibres and the PL properties were researched with the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the eclipse fluorescence spectrophotometer.

By different synthetic methods, the dispersion morphologies of PbS nanoparticles and the PL properties of their respective PbS/PPV composite fibres were different. Moreover, the effects of PbS nanoparticles on the luminescence quenching of the PPV were observed in all the synthesised PbS/PPV composite fibres, respectively.

The dispersion morphologies of PbS nanoparticles were not uniform enough.

A new method was used for preparing nanoparticles/polymer composite fibres.

The combination of electrospinning technology and chemical liquid deposition was used for the first time to fabricate the sulfide/polymer composite fibres. In addition, we hope that the results obtained here will provide some useful evidences for the interaction mechanism between IV‐VI group semiconductors and conjugated polymers, and the prepared composite fibres will have applications in the nano‐optoelectronic field.

Some papers have investigated the complex factors impacting building information modeling (BIM) application in prefabricated buildings (PBs), but few paid attention to their interaction relationships. Ignoring the fact that different factors are not isolated may lead to some key factors being overlooked without appropriate improvement strategies being proposed. This paper aims to analyze those factors and their inter-relationships, with the view to identify the critical factors and their interaction relationships so as to derive constructive strategies that would effectively facilitate BIM adoption in Chinese prefabrication.

First, factors influencing BIM application in prefabrication are extracted and collated by literature review, expert interview and analysis of PBs characteristics. Thereafter, an evaluation laboratory (decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory) and interpretive structural modeling are used to explore the relationships and hierarchy among the factors. Based on the degree of cause and centrality, critical factors are extracted and the interaction relationship are investigated.

The results show that BIM policies and standards for PBs are the main causal factors. The maturity of BIM software and BIM data interface for PBs, willingness to share data, the strategic goals of the enterprise, BIM law and BIM input and benefit are the main transitional factors while BIM staff and workflow, enterprise attitude, distribution of BIM liability and cooperation of participants are the main direct factors.

Based on the above findings, corresponding improvement strategies are proposed so as to promote BIM application in prefabrication and the rapid development of China’s PBs efficiently.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and discuss the variables which have contributed to the adoption of positive behaviour support (PBS) and applied behaviour analysis (ABA). Differences and similarities are highlighted, applications to contemporary issues in the UK and Australia are emphasised, and considerations posed for their improved adoption.

A conceptual framework for diffusion of innovations theory is used to guide the analysis of three sets of articles, and application of the framework is guided by narrative analysis.

Eight variables from the conceptual framework were identified, and the communication networks for PBS and ABA are argued to be distinct. There has been a positive change in the perception of PBS by the ABA field, but PBS has leveraged diffusion more successfully. ABA appears to have been separated from PBS in the UK while Australia is yet to fully benefit from the contributions of ABA. Those working in the fields of PBS and ABA should further collaborate for their mutual benefit.

Greater attention to the factors which promote diffusion can assist PBS and ABA to improve their adoption.

This is the first paper to use diffusion of innovations theory to analyse the adoption of PBS and ABA.

There is not a comprehensive study which covers the evolution of the Turkish Islamic liquidity management landscape so far. The purpose of this study is to show how Turkish PBs have been gradually furnished with the needed liquidity management instruments by the Turkish Treasury, Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey and other related regulatory bodies and to analyze the repercussions of the evolution of Islamic liquidity management on balance sheets of participation banks (PBs) over time. This study also aims to come up with some humble policy recommendations that can improve Islamic liquidity management set up going forward.

The study acknowledges that at least two important elements of liquidity management should be in place on the way of improving the Islamic liquidity management environment. The first one is asset side liquidity or having an adequate amount of high-quality liquid assets. The second one is liability side liquidity, meaning that having access to funding liquidity, especially to central bank liquidity. Historical development of liquidity-related asset-side and liability-side balance sheet items between 2010 and 2020 are analyzed and visualized to demonstrate the progress in the Islamic liquidity management landscape in Turkey.

From 2010 to 2020, Turkish financial authorities made a great effort to get PBs to have more proper liquidity management tools. Turkish authorities have leveled the playing field for PBs via enriching liquidity management tools. Government sukuk issuances has filled the liquid asset gap, improved the liquidity profile of PBs and lessened overall liquidity risk while introduced central bank liquidity facilitates have reduced funding liquidity risk. Islamic liquidity management setup is much more advanced and participation banking system is more resilient than the past, but there are still some missing steps that can further ameliorate the Islamic liquidity management ecosystem in Turkey.

This study is a visualized ratio analysis of PB’s improving liquidity profile in the past 10 years and fills an important gap in terms of displaying the overall Islamic liquidity management landscape in Turkey. Further studies and analysis can be built on this paper on Islamic liquidity management, banking and finance in the future. This paper can be a useful basement for researchers who intend to study on potential impacts of improving the liquidity of PBs on monetary transmission, banking profitability and overall banking system systemic risks.

Three different and interconnected areas should be further improved. These are enriching the diversity of government securities, providing central bank liquidity facilities under various available Islamic contracts and establishing an organized Islamic money market which will facilitate fund flows among various Islamic Financial Institutions (IFIs) and conventional financial institutions. Policymakers should act together, handle arising issues in a holistic manner, design and operationalize these incomplete parts of the puzzle to further optimize the playing field for the IFIs. Thus, there will be a more inclusive and competitive finance industry in which all risks are better managed and resources are more efficiently allocated.

Although various other studies are available on the Turkish Islamic banking industry, there is not such a specific study on Islamic liquidity management of Turkish PBs which makes this study a preliminary and different one. Apart from shedding light on the Turkish journey that has built a sound Islamic liquidity management infrastructure in the past 10 year, this study also shows an exemplary country experience in developing a more inclusive and robust financial ecosystem. This paper also contributes to financial development and inclusion literature as a policy paper.