Internal Contracts Research Articles

Right to Employment Protection of the Adjunct and Internal Full Time Contract Faculties in the Tribhuvan Univer

This study explores at the legal rules for recruitment part-time and full-time contract teachers at Tribhuvan University (T.U.) in Nepal. It focuses on how they are recruitment, selection, and how their rights are protected. The study uses legal documents like the T.U. Act and court cases from other countries to examine these issues. The findings show how T.U. uses part-time teachers, how it hires them, and how decisions made by the administration can affect them. The study also highlights international court cases to see what they say about following proper procedures, meeting contract obligations, and protecting the rights of teachers. Based on this, the study suggests ways to improve the situation, i.e., considering the needs of teachers, following labor laws, and having clear rules about academic freedom and job security. It also suggests making contracts clearer and giving teachers more rights, such as knowing more about their jobs and being able to bargain together as a group.

Design and aerodynamic characteristics of variable-geometry hypersonic inlet based on shock wave elimination

To solve the problem that the control of shock wave elimination is weakened under off-design conditions, the design concept of a variable-geometry inlet scheme that combines the variable-geometry cowl (translating and diagonalizing) with regulating shock wave elimination is introduced in this paper. The variable-geometry inlet is designed by the theories of oblique shock wave and isentropic wave as well as the Oswatitsch theory. Regulatory law of the variable-geometry cowl based on shock wave elimination is obtained by the geometric relationships between cowl compression angle, cowl shock wave angle, and optimal control point or range. Numerical simulations are conducted to investigate flow field characteristics, control mechanism, and working performance of the inlet. Results reveal that expansion waves have a significant impact on the cowl shock wave and boundary layer interaction, and flow separation. Furthermore, variable-geometry inlet with translating and diagonalizing cowl based on the regulation of shock wave elimination effectively controls and even completely eliminates the flow separation. In terms of inlet performance, the total pressure loss of the variable-geometry inlet decreases such that the total pressure recovery coefficients of the translating cowl and diagonalizing cowl inlets are increased by maximum values of 3.39 % and 9.97 %, respectively. However, the mass flow coefficient of translating cowl inlet decreases, whereas that of the diagonalizing cowl inlet is equivalent to that of the fixed-geometry inlet. The working range can be widened by changing the internal contract ratio of the inlet through translating or diagonalizing the cowl. The results confirm that the scheme of variable geometry inlet with diagonalizing cowl is practicable and reliable and has important guiding significance and value for inlet design.

A Study on Contributing Factors of IT Outsourcing Satisfaction Financial Service Industry in Hong Kong

This paper aims to identify the critical success factors in Hong Kong Financial Service Industry IT outsourcing satisfaction and propose possible satisfaction rate boosts. A hybrid methodology (qualitative and quantitative) was adopted to analyze the variables and their relationship thoroughly. The six members focus group was formed to discuss IT outsourcing, and the survey was conducted to collect 447 valid responses for data analysis. The six critical success factors were Perceived Information Security Risk, Quality of Service Provider, Contract Management, Internal Contract Experience, Communication and Regulatory Policy, identified to support satisfaction of Hong Kong FSI IT outsourcing after conducting the analysis. Three recommendations are proposed to improve IT outsourcing satisfaction based on the findings of critical success factors: (1) A Build-up of Vendor Evaluation Framework, (2) Enhancement for Knowledge Management, and (3) Enhance Performance Monitoring. The snowball sampling method might have introduced biased information. In future research, a more extensive research scale would be required to understand the whole population, which would be more appropriate for the industry to understand the need and construct any policy. This paper is a holistic approach to identifying factors that affect Hong Kong FSI IT outsourcing satisfaction. In addition, practical recommendations were proposed to improve those factors, thereby increasing the satisfaction rate of IT outsourcing.

Exploring Accountability Choices in Service Contracts for Collaborative Public Safety Services Provision

There is limited evidence on how local governments adopt formal contractual mechanisms to hold partners accountable and mitigate defection in the context of differing power dynamics. What kind of monitoring mechanisms do local governments choose to check opportunism and align incentives as they delegate service provision to another actor? Does the choice of monitoring mechanisms vary if the partner government is another local government, higher-level government, or a non-government actor? Does the choice of monitoring mechanisms used by local governments vary by the nature of service provision? To explore these questions, we examine a randomly selected sample of 163 public service contracts involving local governments in Iowa. Our findings suggest that the use of monitoring mechanisms is not homogenous and varies across different service areas and collaboration directions. In practice, our findings are useful for enhancing local governments’ internal contract management capacity for preventing contract failure, establishing accountability, and mitigating risk.

Managing cloud security in the presence of strategic hacker and joint responsibility

The widespread use of cloud computing has brought cloud security to the forefront. The cloud provider and the firm assume varying degrees of joint responsibility for cloud security with cloud service models including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, to defend the strategic hacker. This paper builds a game-theoretical model to study cloud security management, in which we find that ignoring the strategic hacker leads to the dislocation security investment decisions (overinvestment or underinvestment) for the provider and the firm in bilateral refund contracts (BRCs). The strategic hacker’s attack effort is inverse U-shaped with cloud service models, leading to a free-riding problem between the provider and the firm. Furthermore, from the perspective of social welfare maximization, both the provider and the firm would underinvest or overinvest in cloud security. To solve the problem, we propose two new contract mechanisms: one is an internal effort-based contract, in which the provider oversees the firm internally and the compensation rate depends on the firm’s effort once the breach occurs. The other is an external effort-based contract, in which the monitoring agency supervises the efforts of the provider and the firm. We compare the two new contracts with BRCs and obtain the optimal choice for principals.

Proposed Improvement of the Contract Award Process in Contracting and Procurement using Lean Six Sigma Methodology (A Case Study of an Oil and Gas Company in Indonesia)

Oil and gas (O&G) production is crucial for Indonesia’s economy, and Company XYZ is actively involved in O&G exploration and production in three operational fields. Effective contracting and procurement procedures are essential for timely access to equipment, services, and materials while minimizing costs, delays, and risks. O&G procurement involves various responsibilities such as procuring drilling rigs, equipment, seismic services, and transportation. Insufficient planning in these processes can lead to project delays, increased expenses, and lower profitability. To address these challenges, the research proposes implementing Lean Six Sigma principles with the DMAIC methodology to improve the contracting and procurement process. In the Define phase, the current state of the contract award process is identified through process mapping. The Measure phase evaluates the internal contract routing approval performances, highlighting variations in completion time for IRS documents. The Analyze phase identifies factors contributing to redundancy, including lack of digitization, absence of a contract control system, time-consuming processes, and a complicated routing process. The Improve phase recommends three solutions: implementing a contract monitoring and control system, streamlining the contract approval routing process, and digitizing the contracting and procurement processes. These solutions aim to improve efficiency, coordination, and decision-making, ultimately enhancing the contract award process, reducing delays, and increasing operational effectiveness and profitability. The Control phase ensures the sustainability of proposed solutions through regular monthly reviews to assess the effectiveness of the control plan and make necessary improvements.

Network patterns of university-industry collaboration: A case study of the chemical sciences in Australia

University–industry (U–I) collaboration takes on many forms, from research services, teaching and training, to curiosity-led research. In the chemical industries, academic chemists generate new knowledge, address novel problems faced by industry, and train the future workforce in cutting-edge methods. In this study, we examine the dynamic structures of collaborative research contracts and grants between academic and industry partners over a 5-year period within a research-intensive Australian university. We reconstruct internal contract data provided by a university research office as records of its collaborations into a complex relational database that links researchers to research projects. We then structure this complex relational data as a two-mode network of researcher-project collaborations for utilisation with Social Network Analysis (SNA)—a relational methodology ideally suited to relational data. Specifically, we use a stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM), a statistical network model for longitudinal two-mode network data. Although the dataset is complicated, we manage to replicate it exactly using a very parsimonious and relatable network model. Results indicate that as academics gain experience, they become more involved in direct research contracts with industry, and in research projects more generally. Further, more senior academics are involved in projects involving both industry partners and other academic partners of any level. While more experienced academics are also less likely to repeat collaborations with the same colleagues, there is a more general tendency in these collaborations, regardless of academic seniority or industry engagement, for prior collaborations to predict future collaborations. We discuss implications for industry and academics.

Transaction costs in healthcare: empirical evidence from Portuguese hospitals

Transaction Cost Economics has been used in the healthcare context to discuss the make-or-buy dichotomy, focusing on minimizing production or governance costs, respectively. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that there are other relevant costs, which influence these decisions in health care. Thus, the purpose of this research project was to study such additional variables which may significantly influence the dynamics of transaction costs in hospitals. Semi-structured interviewing was used to collect the data, complemented by some document analysis and observation in the visits made to the hospitals studied. The interviews were conducted during a period of three months, with directors and administrators of four Portuguese hospitals. A deeper study was developed in one of the hospitals where it was possible to get information from additional interviews and documents. Two important findings should be highlighted. Firstly, the internal transaction costs derived from the hospital’s own internal contracting process which generates retention costs of medical personnel and costs of control of the internal contract itself. Secondly, they were studied the intangible costs, particularly those related to the decision of carrying out a process that could deteriorate the patient’s health or her/his critical situation, making the total cost, including treatment and possible re-hospitalizations higher than the cost of having treated the patient internally since the initial cost was considered greater than treating the patient outside hospital facilities. These variables should be considered when studying or using TCE in hospitals, complementing and extending the traditional framework as it is discussed here.

527 Opportunity Amongst the Opportunistic: Improving Administration of Time-Critical Medications within a Burn Center

Abstract Introduction The absence of skin places patients with burns at an increased risk for a compromised immune system, thus susceptible to opportunistic infection. The use of time-critical medications (TCM) is often required for treatment. By definition, untimely administration may result in suboptimal therapy and put the patient at risk for harm. Our institutional goal for administration is 90%. In 2021 we observed a drop in compliance to 86.8% and instituted a multidisciplinary, quality improvement (QI) approach to improve TCM administration. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of our interventions and identify trends in medication administration by staff type. Methods QI interventions included a collaboration between Nursing, Pharmacy, and Informatics to overcome barriers to timely administration related to unavailability of medication, education, and options for documentation in the electronic health record (EHR). Medication dispensing systems were floor stocked with eligible TCMs and pharmacists were instructed to refrain from scheduling TCMs within 30 minutes of shift change. Education was disseminated via weekly newsletter, staff huddle, and individual feedback was provided for low performers. TCM metrics were added to the quality board and top performers were acknowledged in a ‘Benchmark Brief.’ Lastly, the EHR was updated to enhance documentation. Medication administration was grouped by year. Staff was identified as burn staff or non-burn staff; comprised of internal resource, contract, and float staff. Results Following initiation of the QI project, timely administration increased by 8.6% to a 95.4% rate of timely administration. Conclusions Despite increases in annual inpatient admissions, our multidisciplinary quality improvement project was successful, increasing administration of TCM by 8.6%. Further, improvement by burn staff exceeded that of non-burn staff in the burn center. This supports a need to enhance quality initiatives for non-burn staff in the center. Applicability of Research to Practice Further research is needed to evaluate efficacy of education, specifically related to temporal dissemination amongst non-burn staff.

Oracles Integration in Blockchain-Based Platform for Smart Crop Production Data Exchange

Blockchain oracles are an intermediary designed to connect external non-deterministic information and real-world data to the blockchain digital infrastructure. The variety of proposed solutions and purposes are of great variety and suggest that it is necessary to take into account different features of the process and specifically define the required functionalities. The purpose of this paper is to present the integration of oracles into an EOSIO blockchain-based platform for smart crop production data exchange by smart contracts. The functions of two oracles are presented. Their integration is described at the design level and at the implementation of the smart contracts. The design level is illustrated by workflow diagrams of internal processes between oracle applications and the blockchain smart contract and by external processes in the oracles’ smart contracts. The implementation level is illustrated by oracle application configuration files and elements of C++ smart contracts, such as constant and variable declarations, multi-index tables, internal contract functions, and actions called by other contracts and external programs. As results of the oracles’ operation, a report on the detected emergency failures and an estimate of the cost of ram resource are presented.

Management innovation: The role of internal, external factors, and business group affiliation

In this study, we investigate the role of internal and external factors in management innovation. Specifically, we consider employee training and employee creativity as internal factors, whilst consultants, government subsidies, and government contracts are external ones. In addition, we investigate whether the impacts of internal and external factors on management innovation are affected by business group affiliation. Based on a sample of Turkish firms drawn from the World Bank Enterprise Survey, the results indicate that while employee training, employee creativity, government subsidies, and government contracts contribute to management innovation, consultants have no effect. Furthermore, the findings show that business group affiliates benefit more from employee creativity and government contracts in management innovation, whereas independent firms utilize government subsidies more in their management innovation activities. This study contributes to our understanding of the antecedents of management innovation and the moderating role of organizational context in an emerging economy.

Decisions of pricing and delivery-lead-time in dual-channel supply chains with data-driven marketing using internal financing and contract coordination

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to investigate how to introduce a financing scheme to tackle the manufacturer's capital constraint problem, discuss the effects of data-driven marketing (DDM) quality, cross-channel-return (CCR) rate and financing interest rate on the members' pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions and optimal performances, and analyzes `how to achieve the coordination within a dual-channel supply chain (DSC) by contract coordination.Design/methodology/approachThis work establishes a DSC model with DDM, and the offline retailer can provide internal financing to the capital-constrained online manufacturer. The demand under the price is determined based on DDM quality, customer channel preference and delivery lead time. Then, combined with the Stackelberg game, the optimal pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions are discussed under the inconsistent and consistent pricing strategies with decentralized and centralized systems. Furthermore, it designs a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract to coordinate the members under the two pricing strategies.Findings(1) The increase of DDM quality will reduce the delivery-lead-time under the inconsistent or consistent pricing strategy and will push the selling prices; (2) The growth of the CCR rate will raise selling prices and extend the delivery-lead-time under the decentralized decision; (3) Under price competition, the offline selling price is higher than the online selling price when customers prefer the offline channel and vice versa; (4) The retailer and the manufacturer can achieve a win-win situation through a manufacturer-revenue sharing contract.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the studies related to DSC by investigating pricing and delivery-lead-time decisions based on DDM, CCR, internal financing and supply chain contract and proposes some managerial implications.

Страхування відповідальності власників транспортних засобів в Україні в контексті євроінтеграції та страхового менеджменту

Mandatory civil liability insurance for owners of land vehicles in Ukraine provides social protection for road accident participants and contributes to European integration processes. The purpose of the research is to analyze the current condition of the car liability insurance market in Ukraine, identify problems and substantiate practical recommendations for improving insurance management, taking into account European integration processes. The mandatory liability insurance for owners of land vehicles in Ukraine was systematized. The structure of the car insurance portfolio of insurance companies in Ukraine was analyzed. The impact of war and quarantine on the structure of the insurance portfolio and the level of digitization of the car insurance market in Ukraine is substantiated. The main indicators of the market of mandatory liability insurance for land vehicles owners in Ukraine are analyzed. The necessity to increase the size of insurance sums to European standards is substantiated. The recommendations regarding the use of the direct losses compensation system for all participants in the market of mandatory liability insurance for owners of ground vehicles under internal contracts are given. Proposals to improve the quality of liability insurance under an internal agreement by introducing non-cash payments with private individuals when paying compensation and changing the procedure for calculating the cost of repairing cars when damage is established are substantiated.

The diabetes health plan and medication adherence among individuals with low incomes.

To test the impact of the Diabetes Health Plan (DHP), a diabetes-specific insurance plan that lowers out-of-pocket costs for diabetes-related medications and clinical visits, on adherence to oral hypoglycemic medications among low-income adults with Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM). Cohort of adults (18-64) with T2DM, an annual household income <USD 30,000, and who were continuously enrolled in an employer-sponsored UnitedHealthcare plan for at least two years between 2009 and 2014. We employed a linear regression Difference-In-Differences (DID) approach with a matched comparison group. To assess for differential DHP effects across adherent versus non-adherent patients, we ran a Difference-in-Difference-in-Differences (DDD) analysis by including an interaction term that included indicators for DHP exposure status and time, and low versus high baseline medication adherence. The analytic data set is limited to employer groups that purchased the DHP and standard benefit plans from UnitedHealthcare, had internal pharmacy contracts; complete pharmacy claims data, and sufficient medical claims and lab data to identify employees and their dependents with T2DM. Our DID analysis did not show improved medication adherence associated with employer DHP adoption. However, the DDD model suggested a difference between DHP-exposed and comparison beneficiaries when comparing the relative effect on individuals who were adherent versus non-adherent at baseline, as suggested by the significant three-way interaction term (10.2,p=0.028). This effect was driven by the 8.2 percentage point increase in medication adherence for the DHP subsample that was non-adherent at baseline. The DHP may benefit low-income patients with low baseline medication adherence. Value-based insurance design may be an important strategy for mitigating income disparities in T2DM outcomes.

Accountability in the Ghanaian local governance structure: probing the role of external auditing

The roles of external auditors have been under the spotlight due to the strategic positions they occupy to ensure accountability by public sector managers. This study examines the role of the external auditors in the accountability regime of the Ghanaian local governance structure. The study analyzed the annual reports of the Auditor General (AG) on all the metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana from 2010 to 2018 through a content analysis method. The analysis revealed that Ghanaian audit activities had mainly focused on internal control effectiveness, cash management, contract management, revenue management, expenditure management, payroll management, and procurement management. However, the study found that the focus of the external auditors kept expanding as the years progressed. The evidence showed that the auditors excluded performance audits in their scope of work. The findings of the study further revealed that the MMDAs had recurring, repetitive, and common audit queries, comprising cash; procurement and stores; contract and tax irregularities. Besides, the audit recommendations were in response to the specific audit queries on the various financial and operational irregularities. Based on the analysis, the study concludes that the external auditing in Ghana has marginally contributed to accountability in the MMDAs. The study recommends that the scope of the external audit should include performance auditing.

Outsourced Services, Supervision of Contracts and Labor Liabilities: Case Study UNIR From 2015 to 2019

This article aims to identify the monetary amounts spent by Fundação Universidade Federal de Rondônia (UNIR), with Labor Court due to administrative failures during the supervision of outsourced service contracts. It is a case study, with qualitative research, with documentary analysis of the decisions, sentences and judgments delivered in the processes. After the analysis of 68 (sixty-eight) cases in which UNIR appeared in the passive pole, categories were identified for the classification of the cases. It was found that there was a reduction in the number of lawsuits against UNIR after the Labor Reform and 21 (twenty-one) lawsuits were identified in which UNIR was ordered to pay labor indemnities or the contracted companies signed labor agreements, causing the public agency to be obliged to make payments through Small Value Requests (RPV), or Precatories, deriving from failures in internal controls and management contracts at Fundação Universidade Federal de Rondônia (UNIR).

Thrombophilia Testing Practices: The Mayo Clinic Experience

Introduction: The 2013 ASH Choosing Wisely campaign recommends against thrombophilia testing in patients with major transient risk factors for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Our Special Coagulation Laboratory (SCL) offers an algorithmic approach to thrombophilia testing which includes assays for lupus anticoagulant, dysfibrinogenemia, anticoagulant proteins (protein C, protein S, antithrombin), activated protein C resistance with reflex to factor v Leiden (if indicated), and prothrombin G20210A mutation. Samples are received through Mayo Clinic Laboratories (MCL), national and international reference laboratory (often with limited or no clinical information) and from internal Mayo Clinic practice. We hypothesized that thrombophilia testing would decline in cases where it was recommended against following the publication of testing guidelines. Methods: We audited the external thrombophilia testing samples between2013-2019 and internal samples between 2014-2019 (periods during which they were available). For the internal samples, complete test volumes were only available 2014-2019. Because external clients may either adopt internal testing or contract with a different reference laboratory, many clients may not have been retained over the entire observed period. To better understand the ordering practices of consistent clients, external clients which did not have thrombophilia testing sent to MCL each year of the observed period were excluded. We separated internal ordering practices by hematology and oncology or thrombophilia clinic staff and trainees contrasted with those of other specialties. Results: MCL received 18,529 external thrombophilia testing samples from 322 external healthcare systems during the observed period. From 37 clients, 5,878 (38.2%) samples met inclusion criteria. Annual volume of samples ranged from 890 in 2013 to 861 in 2019 (861-1046). Special coagulation lab processed 11,639 internal thrombophilia tests during the observed periods. There was a consistent small annual increase in testing with 1,398 performed in 2014 and 2,430 in 2019. Of 11651 tests ordered, only 18.6% (2167) were ordered by people most likely to be familiar with ASH choosing wisely campaign. Annual thrombophilia testing ordered by hematology and oncology or thrombophilia clinic staff increased from 307 in 2014 to 387 in 2019 (307-432). However, the ordering practices of these providers as a proportion of overall practices declined from 22.0% (307/1398) in 2014 to 15.9 % (387/2430) in 2019. Table Discussion: Our preliminary data showed no significant trend in thrombophilia ordering practices among included external clients since publication of the ASH Choosing Wisely guidelines on thrombophilia testing. Internally we found a consistent small rise in numbers of thrombophilia tests ordered since 2014 but this may reflect changes in patient volume. We observed that the majority of internal thrombophilia testing was ordered by non-hematology/oncology or thrombophilia providers who are perhaps less likely to be familiar with ASH Choosing Wisely guidelines. The proportion of testing ordered by hematology &amp; oncology or thrombophilia providers declined during the observed period. Our findings are limited by lacking information on the indication and appropriateness for testing as well as possibility of change in patient population. However the overall trend in test volumes and specialty of ordering providers deserves attention and highlight the value in educating other medical societies on ASH Choosing Wisely recommendations for thrombophilia testing. Future work will focus on appropriateness for thrombophilia testing including the indication and time (remote from anticoagulation and acute thrombotic episode), location of testing (inpatient vs. outpatient), as well as investigating if testing has changed patient management, which may help in creating new Choosing Wisely recommendations for thrombophilia testing. Figure 1. Disclosures Pruthi: HEMA Biologics: Honoraria; Bayer Healthcare: Honoraria; Merck: Honoraria; Instrumentation Laboratory: Honoraria; Genentech Inc.: Honoraria; CSL Behring: Honoraria.

Deeply Analysis on French Rules of Conflict of Laws

The law, in a general way, has the role of regulating life in society. From this same Law, several rights with branches facilitate their explanation and use in our social life to establish order. This being life in society could be seen as a kind of contract to the extent that it would be difficult for the individual to live without maintaining relationships with others. So, from the moment that there is this exchange between individuals there is what we could call contract. As we know, the contract is defined in law as an agreement by which one or more persons agree to one or more other persons to give, do or not to do something. It should also be specified that there are several kinds of contracts, but the one that will be the main focus of our development is the international contract. An international contract is understood to mean this contract, which, unlike the internal contract, presents an element of extraneity, in other words an international character. For example, a contract between two individuals of different nationality.&#x0D; The contract thus concluded, the contracting parties may indeed encounter difficulties that may arise at any time, most often due to non-compliance with the terms of the contract. These problems or disputes are often very difficult to resolve because the parties are from different origins, residing in different countries, or bound by commitments made in a country other than their country of residence, hence the existence of different laws. and the birth of what is called a conflict of laws.&#x0D; This being so, by conflict of laws is meant to be one of the main problems with private international law (the branch of law which deals with the settlement of disputes of private rights having at least an extraneous character). Thus, the question arises as to which law would be applicable in the event of a conflict of laws in the matter of contract, that is, how to choose or determine the applicable law in the course of a dispute with a foreign element? Thus, once the French judge is seized of the dispute, it will be necessary to find the law applicable to the questions of law asked. Assuming that the French judge can apply a foreign law, and that the various foreign laws with links to the litigation have a theoretical vocation to apply, were developed what are called conflict of laws rules which is an abstract rule, indirect (it does not solve the substantive question asked, but only to determine the law competent to resolve this substantive legal issue), and neutral (the substantive solution is not taken into account in the determination of the applicable law).&#x0D; In order to give answers to our questioning, we will focus on how to choose the law applicable to conflict of laws in matters of contract and this, in the light of French law, the Rome Convention of 19 June 1980 and the Rome 1 Regulation on the law applicable to international contractual obligations.

APPRAISING THE LAW OF WILLS IN A CONTRACT

&lt;p&gt;Contracts play a significant role in both economic and commercial transactions, whether internal contract within a national legal system of a State or contract with international nature due to there is more than one legal system would be involved. As a tool that runs international trade and a means of economic exchanges across the border, it can not be denied that many practitioners have high stakes and interest through a contract. The internationality of the contract may impose its subordination to a law other than the law of the judge, and may be subjected to the international substantive rules represented in the most common rules of international law or common principles of international trade rules. Therefore, the definition of the concept of an international contract is a critical issue for the consequences of this limitation. Therefore, the appraisal between domestic and international contract is crucial to do as well as the role of the will in internationalizing the contract.&lt;/p&gt;

Pay-for-performance schemes: Should optimal prices vary across system and clinical quality indicators?

Quality indicators are classified into system or clinical quality indicators. Typically, different levels of an organization steer each of the two types of indicators. Decentralized levels control clinical indicators (blood pressure, blood sugar etc.) while centralized levels control system indicators (waiting time, electronic health records etc.). In this paper we examine optimal pay-for-performance schemes for the two indicators by considering a model consisting of hierarchy of principal-agent interactions where pay-for-performance rewards are distributed to the centralized level (unit of accountability). We find that the optimal pay-for-performance price depends on factors such as the degree and distribution of altruistic preferences, quality costs, the marginal cost of public funds, and the interdependence between the quality variables. The optimal price should differ for system and clinical indicators both when an internal incentive system is in place and when this is not the case. The optimal price for clinical indicators is to reflect the centralized levels’ ability to steer the decentralized level - the type of internal contract that exists between the two levels of the organization. The optimal price for system indicators is independent of the type of internal contract since such indicators are under the control of the unit of accountability. Finally, it is shown that rewarding organizations on the basis of clinical quality indicators can be optimal also when such incentives are not transmitted to the decentralized level of the organization. This conclusion is the result of the indirect effects that non-incentivized variables (system indicators) might have on the incentivized ones (clinical indicators).Published: Online May 2019.