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This report assesses the potential of electricity contract auctions as a procurement option for the World Bank's client countries. It focuses on the role of auctions of electricity contracts designed to expand and retain existing generation capacity. It is not meant to be a 'how-to' manual. Rather, it highlights some major issues and options that need to be taken into account when a country considers moving towards competitive electricity procurement through the introduction of electricity auctions. Auctions have played an important role in the effort to match supply and demand. Ever since the 1990s, the use of long-term contract auctions to procure new generation capacity, notably from private sector suppliers, has garnered increased affection from investors, governments, and multilateral agencies in general, as a means to achieve a competitive and transparent procurement process while providing certainty of supply for the medium to long term. However, the liberalization of electricity markets and the move from single-buyer procurement models increased the nature of the challenge facing system planners in their efforts to ensure an adequate and secure supply of electricity in the future at the best price. While auctions as general propositions are a means to match supply with demand in a cost-effective manner, they can also be and have been used to meet a variety of goals.

This chapter contains sections titled: Introduction The Changing Roles of End Users and Residents in the Energy Provision System Stimulating Energy Behavior Change in Current Design Practice Toward Including Social Interaction and Community‐Based Approaches Approaches to Using Social Interaction in Relation to Energy‐Related Behavior Conclusions References

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons why customers often cannot or do not exit a negative service encounter (lock-in) and to discuss how this affects their well-being and coping responses. This contributes to the research on how negative service encounters emerge and evolve and how such encounters impact customer well-being and subsequent responses.Design/methodology/approachAn inductive, exploratory approach was used. Interviews with 20 service customers yielded over 90 detailed lock-in experiences across 25 different services. A multi-step, iterative coding process was used with a mixture of coding techniques that stem from a grounded theory approach.FindingsFour categories of factors that caused customers to endure a negative event were identified (physical lock-in, dependency on the service, social lock-in and psychological lock-in). Customers either experienced inner turmoil (if they perceived having the option to stay or leave) or felt captive; both impacted their well-being and coping strategies in different ways. Three characteristics of negative events that caused lock-in to persist over time were identified.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a qualitative study that aims to identify factors behind customer lock-in, reduced well-being and coping strategies across different types of service encounters. Future research may build on these themes to investigate lock-in during specific service encounters in greater depth.Practical implicationsThis research provides insights regarding how service providers can anticipate lock-in situations. In addition, the findings point to several ways in which frontline employees can assist customers with the coping process, during lock-in.Originality/valueCustomer lock-in during a service encounter is a common, yet unexplored phenomenon. This research contributes to a better understanding of why customers endure negative events and how such perceptions are reflected in their experiences and behaviors.

After an intense final year of secondary school studies, Sarah-Jane Wild applied for a role at New Zealand's State Insurance that was only ever meant to be a stopgap before doing something else - although what, she wasn't exactly sure. PCRIC is a captive insurance company that helps reduce the financial vulnerability of small island nations to natural disasters. A first for New Zealand, Tower's partnership with global industry leader Risk Management Solutions has resulted in the launch of floodrisk ratings for every residential address in New Zealand - a crucial development, given the increase in the frequency and severity of weather events due to climate change.

The trade in high‐value natural resources, particularly exotic plants and animals (henceforth biocommerce), can lead to both positive and negative impacts on wild populations. The exotic plant and animal hobbies are highly organized with internal cultures that are often poorly understood by non‐members; however, understanding them is of central importance for biocommerce with both direct and indirect consequences for the conservation of wild populations. Growing international demands for exotic species leaves simple questions related to the economics of biocommerce unexplored. The long‐term success of biocommerce businesses requires constant income, meaning they obtain and retain significant market proportions. Some biocommerce products can be reproduced by hobbyists and undercut business efforts based on sustainably produced exports. We analyse a test case in Neotropical poison frogs where sustainable biocommerce is burgeoning, yet (export‐based) businesses face direct market competition from the offspring produced within the countries, which receive their exports, and therefore are forced to rely on fervent customer support. Solution: We survey customers' behaviours where we find different classes of consumers, which differ in where they place higher values within the hobby. By taking into account these different classes, we gain insights and potential solutions to promote the stability of this unique type of biocommerce. Growing international demands for exotic species leaves simple questions related to the economics of biocommerce unexplored. We analyse a test case in Neotropical poison frogs where sustainable biocommerce is burgeoning, yet (export‐based) businesses face direct market competition from the offspring produced within the countries which receive their exports. By taking into account these different classes, we gain insights into the stability of this unique type of biocommerce.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation on innovation in family businesses. By reviewing related literature, the relationships among internal marketing, entrepreneurial orientation, and innovation were hypothesized. The developed conceptual model is tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) using a sample of 288 family businesses. The result of the SEM model shows that both internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation act as a basis for innovation in family businesses. Further, it was revealed that internal marketing is key determinant of entrepreneurial orientation in the context of family business. The study has contributed to the literature by demonstrating the routes through which internal marketing and entrepreneurial orientation impact on innovation in the case of family businesses.

In U.S. District Court in Little Rock, CNH further claims another fraud was occurring with more than 100 bogus Venture customer contracts that were used to finance pieces of equipment. The civil trial for Merritt and more than a dozen other defendants who are facing allegations that include fraudulent conduct and civil conspiracy is scheduled to start Aug. 26 in front of U.S. District Court Judge Brian Miller. CNH discovered that 204 pieces of equipment that it had security interest in were missing. CNH said in court documents that Merritt made payments on the forged retail financing contracts to keep the alleged fraud hidden, but he wasn't able to keep up the payments, resulting in the loans falling into default.

In most markets, buyers differ in their ability or willingness to switch supplier. This note proposes a novel industry concentration measure that takes this heterogeneity into account. The index increases in the share of captive sales, coincides with the Hirschman–Herfindahl Index when none of the buyers are captive, and takes the “pure monopoly” value of 1 when all are captive.