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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate value for money drivers in public private partnership (PPP) schemes.Design/methodology/approachThree case studies of PPP construction projects in the UK were undertaken.FindingsPPP contracts commonly require the private agent to take responsibilities for the performance of the asset over a long term, at least for a significant part of its useful life, so that efficiencies arising from long term asset management can be obtained. The evidence is finely balanced on the usefulness of such initiatives in realizing efficiency gains, although there is clear benefit of risk transfer.Practical implicationsThe findings highlight the challenge of designing and implementing innovative partnership plans to manage public services more effectively. More emphasis needs to be placed on strategies for the transfer of risk, value for money drivers and project expertise for the successful conclusions of PPP contracts.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the new research area of public private partnerships.

Public sector managers now view e-learning as an important instrument for obtaining skill-based organizational outcomes. This is partly due to special emphasis on interactive citizenship. Not all organizations are likely to implement this training strategy, however, because there are significant tradeoffs involved in terms of both costs and benefits. This article examines the organizational determinants of e-learning: larger establishments with multiple public services, organizations that employ educated workforces and well-established internal labor markets are more likely to adopt an e-learning strategy. The influence of many such factors requires that a value-based analysis is undertaken to help organizations make optimal decisions about the choice of e-learning.

Die Ergebnisse der Weiterbildung hängen von bestimmten Merkmalen des Arbeitnehmers und des Unternehmens sowie von den Methoden der betrieblichen Planung und Umsetzung kosteneffektiver Weiterbildungsprogramme ab. Weiterbildungsprogramme werden von Organisationen erarbeitet, damit die Arbeitnehmer effektiv zum Erfolg des Unternehmens beitragen. Nicht alle Unternehmen bieten jedoch Weiterbildungsplätze an, da Kosten und Nutzen genau gegeneinander abgewogen werden müssen. In diesem Artikel werden die Determinanten die einer Weiterbildungsstrategie zugrunde liegen, erörtert. Dazu gehören Faktoren auf Arbeitnehmerebene ebenso wie Faktoren auf der Unternehmensebene und der institutionellen Ebene. Größere Unternehmen mit komplementären technischen Ressourcen und gut etablierten internen Arbeitsmärkten und Organisationen, die qualifizierte Arbeitskräfte beschäftigen, werden eher über eine durchdachte Weiterbildungsstrategie verfügen. Die staatliche Politik kann auch kleine Bildungseinrichtungen beeinflussen. Der Einfluss vieler solcher Faktoren macht die Notwendigkeit einer wertbasierten Analyse deutlich, damit die Unternehmen optimale Entscheidungen über das Weiterbildungsangebot treffen können. Ein Ansatz, der die Rolle der Weiterbildung im Wertschöpfungsprozess bestimmt, ist insbesondere für den Erhalt und die Schaffung von Arbeitsplätzen in Europa relevant. Der Beitrag weist auf wichtige Trade-offs hin, die zur Erzielung eines derartigen Ergebnisses von Bedeutung sind. (IAB)

Bonuses are increasingly linked to wider business goals, replacing the traditional focus on output or profit measures. The evidence also shows that companies make awards to coincide with payments made by competitors to raise their profile among prospective employees and customers. The timing of bonus payments has thus become a strategic consideration in many markets in recent years. These trends suggest that there are a host of factors that contribute to companies' decisions about bonus payouts. This article uses case studies of two U.K. banks to show that companies pay bonuses for a variety of purposes, ranging from employee performance and productivity to wider company goals, such as company reputation, stakeholder influence and employee hiring and retention policies. The article argues that current bonus pay practices are best understood as a value-added strategy, as various trade-offs are required before a company can expect to benefit from its employee rewards and benefit strategy.

AbstractPeer‐to‐peer (P2P) lending has emerged as a network form of crowdfunding that facilitates the loan originations outside the traditional banking model. In China, the combination of imperfect financial development and Internet technology has led to the widespread growth of a P2P network lending market. Using the theoretical lens of information asymmetry, we identify the key sources of risks facing contemporary Chinese P2P companies. Results from our two regression models reveal several factors that can be used as predictors for risk and financial management, including marriage, income, and house property. Our findings also show that collective inference by non‐expert lenders can accurately draw an inference from soft/nonstandard information. The construction of such a predictive system is important for ensuring the good operation of P2P network lending platforms in emerging economies.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the main determinants that affect accommodation purchase intentions through lodging websites in sharing economy context. This industry differs from the hotel industry because it is a community marketplace with a growing community of users where renters can monetize their extra space and list their properties to an audience of millions while travelers can find unique accommodation at any price point.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors examine factors such as perceived lodging value, perceived lodging price, lodging information, online lodging reviews, trust with the host, website usability and perceived privacy/security of the website, and measure their relationships with purchase intentions. Based on an online survey data, the structural model test outcomes explain the direct effect of the exogenous variables on purchase intentions and the mediating effect of perceived lodging value between perceived lodging price and purchase intentions.


Findings
The study demonstrates that the six latent factors and proposed associations have positive effects on purchase intentions. Thus, enterprises operating in the online lodging industry should consider these elements as key antecedents of lodging purchase intentions.


Originality/value
Lodging websites operate in a highly competitive market where they have to compete with hotel operators, hostels, bed and breakfasts and hotel comparison websites in current sharing economy. In addition, consumers usually spend a great deal of time and effort on online pre-purchase evaluation because of the ease of the information gathering process where consumers can find a wide variety of options online. Therefore, understanding the drivers that convert browsers into renters is a topic of great interest among marketing managers in the current sharing economy context.