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Purpose The UK government has elaborated the effect of late payment on the economy, with its impact on the construction sector being particularly pronounced. This paper aims to evaluate the late payment epidemic that persists within the construction industry, specifically analysing the effectiveness of government-led voluntary payment initiatives. Design/methodology/approach A mixed philosophical lens is adopted that incorporates both pragmatism and post-positivism to examine the late payment phenomena. Couched within deductive reasoning and a case study strategy, a questionnaire survey was conducted to elicit responses from one-hundred construction professionals. Elucidating upon respondents’ perceptions of the UK’s late payment epidemic, a comparative analysis was undertaken of upstream (main contractor) and downstream (subcontractors/suppliers) contractors through Cronbach’s alpha, descriptive statistics, independence chi-square test, Kruskal–Wallis test and Mann–Whitney U test. Findings Emergent findings reveal that in practice, the monitoring and enforcement of government-led voluntary payment initiatives has been unprosperous with numerous contractors being forced to adopt indefensibly poor and punitive payment practices. Survey responses and extant literature substantiate and underscore the industry’s need to strengthen voluntary government-led payment initiatives. To create a responsible payment culture, any future code created should be mandatory and enforceable as a self-regulating approach has failed dismally. The work concludes with practical additional measures that could be introduced to create a responsible payment culture and promote ethical trading within the UK construction industry. Originality/value This paper constitutes a novel vignette of, and reflection upon, contemporary practice in this area of construction finance and serves to emphasise that very little has changes in the sector despite numerous UK government led reports and interventions.

Purpose: All European companies are faced with the lack of payment discipline, which often affects even their survival. One of the key reasons for the lack of payment discipline is poor business ethics, which is primarily introduced with the subject of ethical climate in the literature. For this reason, we wanted to determine whether a company’s ethical climate influences its payment discipline. Design/methodology/approach: In the research, we used Arnaud’s measurement instrument (2010) that helped us to identify six dimensions of ethical climate. The data about a company’s ethical climate were later compared with the data about its payment discipline, calculated using the Dun & Bradstreet rating agency methodology. We included in the sample 273 Slovenian companies, which represented 9.1% of all companies invited to take part in the survey (2978 Slovenian enterprises with 10 or more employees). Findings: We established that (among the six dimensions of the ethical climate) the dimension “moral sensitivity – the lack of norms of empathetic concern” had statistically significant influence on the average delay of payment, and the more significant for the company the lack of norms of empathetic concern was, the longer the delay of the payment to suppliers would be. Our conclusion is that the appropriate forms of the incorporation of training and education on ethical subjects into business studies may increase the payment discipline of companies. Originality/value: The present study represents an important contribution to understanding the causes of payment defaults. The study also includes non-financial antecedents of payment discipline, which represents a new, important contribution of the research.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the differences between the actual mortgage prompt and late payments and their respective expected measures from 2004 to 2010 to spot early symptoms of housing crisis. Design/methodology/approach This paper explores these discrepancies across the entire US market and along various delinquency lengths of 30, 60 and 90 days. This paper constructs a Bayesian forecasting model that relies on prior distributional properties of diverse time horizons. Findings Abnormal mortgage delinquency rates are identified in real time and can be served as early symptoms for housing crisis. Practical implications The statistical scheme proposed in this paper can function as a valuable predictive tool for lending institutions, bank audit companies, regulatory bodies and real estate professional investors who examine changes in economic settings and trends in short sale leads. Social implications The abnormal mortgage delinquencies can serve as indicators of changes in economic fundamentals and early signs of a mounting housing crisis. Originality/value This paper presents a unique statistical technique in the context of mortgage delinquencies.

This paper examines the Late Payment Directive of the European Union and seeks to answer the question of whether the provisions of the Directive apply to loan contracts in corporate transactions. The paper first describes and analyses the Late Pay­ment Directive and provides a comprehensive analysis of relevant arguments and legal sources. It then evaluates the different factors required by the Late Payment Directive and finally argues that the Late Payment Directive has to be applied to loan contracts and facility agreements, even if this is not explicitly foreseen in the Directive.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) take up over 98% of the structure of economies and are consequently the biggest creators of new jobs, innovations, economic activity, and greater social inclusion in the European Union. One of the biggest issues that SMEs face is collection of accounts receivable. Late payments in commercial transactions are made not only by private but also public sector, and that public sector entities, i.e. state institutions, are even larger generators of illiquidity compared to private companies. SMEs in BiH have certain, although insufficient, legal solutions available in combating late payment in commercial transactions. However, the fear of losing business partners overcomes their willingness to exercise their rights as creditors.

Rising water prices threaten affordable access to basic water service in the U.S., especially in low-income communities. Faced with unaffordable water bills, households may use less water than is healthy, forgo other essential services, or fall behind on water bill payments, risking water shutoffs. Affordability ratios (ARs), which express water bills as a fraction of income, are the most common measure of water affordability. However, ARs can underestimate unaffordability due to both spatial aggregation bias and their reliance on indirect proxies for ability to pay. New metrics are needed to identify households at risk of water insecurity due to affordability challenges. Here we investigate alternative water affordability metrics that use water bill late payments and debt to track actual payment behavior at the household level. We define metrics that capture the frequency, duration, and severity of water bill delinquency. We apply these metrics to a case study in Santa Cruz, California, using monthly billing data for approximately 40 000 households from 2009 through 2021. We find large variation in delinquency across households and over time, with higher delinquency linked to proxies for low wealth such as lower assessed home value. Census blocks with similar ARs often have distinct patterns of delinquency behavior, suggesting that block-level median affordability estimates may be masking sub-populations facing affordability challenges. These results highlight the benefits of using multiple, household-level metrics to capture the role affordability plays in household water security.

PurposeThis research aims to develop a blockchain smart contract–enabled framework to resolve power imbalance problems in construction payment.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts a design science research method to develop the blockchain smart contract–enabled framework. The authors then develop a prototype system. Finally, the authors evaluate its performance in solving power imbalance-induced payment problems.FindingsThe results show that the prototype system can resolve power imbalance problems in construction payment by allowing project participants to make transparent and decentralized decisions that are self-enforceable by blockchain smart contracts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides theoretical explanations for how blockchain smart contracts can resolve power imbalances in construction payment; based on that, it proposes a novel blockchain smart contract–enabled method to rebalance the power of stakeholders in construction payment. Thus, it contributes to the body of knowledge on blockchain technology and construction payment.Practical implicationsThis study moves beyond a conceptual framework and develops a practical blockchain smart contract system for resolving power imbalances in construction payment, strengthening construction project members' confidence in using blockchain technology.Social implicationsThe proposed blockchain smart contract–enabled solution helps mitigate negative social impacts associated with late payment and non-payment. Furthermore, the research maximizes trust among participants in payment processes to inspire collaborative culture in the construction industry.Originality/valueThis paper introduces a novel blockchain smart contract integrated method, allowing project stakeholders to resolve power imbalance problems in construction payment through decentralized decision-making.

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the potential recovery of own party adjudication costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013. The investigation directly applies to England and Wales, but may be relevant to other jurisdictions. Design/methodology/approach – The interaction between The Late Payment of Commercial Debts Regulations 2013 (derived from European Directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions) and the Local Democracy et al. 2009 including reference to case law was explored. A qualitative research framework was used to collect primary data through semi-structured interviews with experienced construction industry adjudication professionals. Findings – It was discovered that adjudicators are awarding own party costs under the Regulations, but there was disagreement on the issues in both the literature and amongst the interviewees. Research limitations/implications – A definitive judgment is awaited from the Technology and Construction Court. Originality/value – This paper will be of value to construction industry adjudication professionals.

It is difficult for the people of Dlimas Tegalrejo village to find out information on drinking water bills and payment due dates. They have to wait for the presence of Pamsimas officers to find out this information. Water customers also cannot access billing and payment data in real time. This study aims to produce an application system for monitoring and recording metering in the village of Dlimas, Tegalrejo using a QR code with a mobile-based application. This system will be designed using the prototyping method, database design using ERD, and application design using UML. This application is built using Firebase services to produce Android-based applications. This research produces an Android- based application with three access rights, namely officer, admin and customer. Officers can send customer data meter numbers with the QR code scan feature. The admin is in charge of inputting customer meter data. Customers can view data on drinking water bills in real time. This study produced several algorithms in mobile programming, namely water payment calculations, late payment calculations, fine calculations, tariff and price data, and total payment calculations. The designed system can complete the work in 23.34 seconds or four times faster than the previous process.

The construction industry in South Africa faces challenges with the current payment system used to manage progress payments. Contractors often experience delays in progress payments for completed works. These late payments stem from the improper management of progress payment procedures, namely, information, communication, and collaboration, as well as corruption. This study proposes the integration of common data environment (CDE) as it has emerged central in managing information, improving communication and collaboration in a transparent manner. However, the implementation of CDE is facing challenges in the industry. Therefore, the study aimed at developing a model based on the implementation of CDE to uphold efficiency in the management of payment systems for progress payments. A systematic review was conducted to examine the enabling factors, characteristics of CDE in managing progress payment challenges, and benefits of integrating a payment system in a CDE platform. Furthermore, the study utilised questionnaire surveys to purposively collect data from construction professionals who implemented CDE in their projects. From 201 valid questionnaire responses, a structural equation model was developed; testing for the reliability, validity, model fit, and hypotheses was conducted using AMOS and ADANCO. The findings revealed that enabling factors such as quality technology and quality assurance team are the strongest enablers, followed by training and policy. The findings further predict that CDE integration will improve the management of the payment system by 0.589. The study provides theoretical and practical guidance for researchers, policy makers, and construction professionals seeking to strengthen CDE-based payment system frameworks in South Africa. Furthermore, it is recommended to adopt the method of questionnaire surveys and SEM to validate variables and establish their influence on one another to improve generalisation.