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Information technology (IT) implementation continues to be a challenging process for many organizations. The challenge is heightened when systems are changed due to mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The recent focus on IT-service management highlights the importance of having positive relationships between IT-service providers and end-users. In an M&A situation, there is often little history, and thus limited basis for trust in the IT organization, yet systems often need to be changed in these situations. The current study examines the IT-service provider's relationship with the end-user to ascertain the factors that influence that relationship and ultimately influence end-user attitudes toward the new system. We study a mandated implementation following an acquisition in the banking industry. The results highlight the important and fragile nature of trust in the IT-service provider. In addition, the results demonstrate that there are significant differences in what matters at what time during the implementation process.

This study examines the adoption and implementation of an information system in a mandatory context focusing on an Israeli governmental organization. The system referred to as “Slot” is an online platform for managing educational activities within this organization. The research investigates the impact of the system on its functionality users and the results of its usage. Additionally, the study explores factors that influence the acceptance and utilization of information systems, including whether the willingness to use the system under instruction depends on other variables. The key findings of this study are: perceived ease of use significantly and positively influences perceived usefulness; perceived usefulness significantly and positively affects symbolic adoption; and supervisor influence significantly and positively impacts perceived usefulness. Moreover, the relationship between perceived ease of use and symbolic adoption is entirely mediated by perceived usefulness as is the relationship between supervisor influence and symbolic adoption. The study’s limitations include the relatively small sample size and the specific context of the research, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. Future research could explore similar models in different organizational settings to validate and extend the applicability of the results. The findings suggest that enhancing the perceived ease of use and usefulness of mandatory systems can significantly impact their symbolic adoption, with supervisory influence playing a crucial role in shaping user perceptions. These insights can inform strategies for more effective implementation and management of information systems in mandatory settings.

PurposeAdaptation to the requirements of digital economy is especially difficult for older workers, which is a challenge for today’s organizations due to workforce shrinking and ageing. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how it is possible to develop older employees’ potential in technology use in the business environment.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examined how employees at various age perceive barriers during enterprise system (ES) adoption and use. This exploratory study is based on grounded theory and draws from the opinions of 187 Polish ES practitioners.FindingsWith age, emphasis on employees’ perception of mandatory ICT implementation projects is shifting from technology to people-related considerations. For older employees, job security and workload appear the most critical issues in such projects. Age-diverse collaboration appears necessary to address the problems posed by technology-related and demographic changes.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings imply that incorporating multiple stakeholder perspectives and age-related considerations into research on ICT adoption appears essential.Practical implicationsICT adoption in the business environment can be successfully supported by age-balanced team building, cooperation between younger and older employees, and age-adjusted change management initiatives.Social implicationsSupporting older employees during the implementation of mandatory business software should embrace reducing their negative attitudes to ICT-induced change by minimizing their perception of job insecurity.Originality/valueUnlike many prior studies, the current research places age in the central role and discusses not only how it is possible to support older employees, but also how to leverage their potential in the process of ICT adoption and use in a mandatory setting.

Mandatory pension systems occupy a central role in the system of social security because of the share of social expenditure in national economies. One of the goals of pension system is to redistribute incomes among individuals. However, it is not clear how the intentions to redistribute incomes coincide with the outcomes. In this paper, we will study the difference between the intentions as they are articulated within institutions, with the outcomes that are generated by them. We use the method of comparative institutional analysis in order to find out the differences. Our comparative institutional analysis is based on the grammar of institutions that is proposed by Crawford and Ostrom. Also, in order to understand the differences, we will compare the institutions in relatively similar cases – the Baltic States. The results show that there is a gap between the intentions and outcomes to redistribute incomes among individuals. The findings from the comparative institutional analysis suggest that the most redistributive old age pension system is in Estonia. However, according to the factual information from Eurostat, the greatest distributive effect is produced by the mandatory pension system of Lithuania.

In several developed countries, the baby boomers will come to retire in the next decades. This problem will threaten the sustainability and the intergenerational equity of mandatory pay-as-you-go pension systems because they will have to drain the “demographic wave” of retirees with a relatively small number of contributors. In this paper, we give the operating method developed on the basis of a general principle, which a defined contribution pension system, in a state of stable sustainability, should adopt to control these issues in the presence of a demographic wave. In the theoretical profile, our approach breaks and overcomes the classical juxtaposition between funded and pay-as-you-go pension schemes, carrying out the integration of the two financial methods.

Nonfinancial Defined Contribution (NDC) schemes are now in their teens. The new pension concept was born in the early 1990s, implemented from the mid-1990s in Italy, Latvia, Poland and Sweden, legislated most recently in Norway and Egypt and serves as inspiration for other reform countries. This innovative unfunded individual account scheme created high hopes at a time when the world seemed to have been locked into a stalemate between piecemeal reforms of ailing traditional defined benefit schemes and introducing pre-funded financial account schemes.The experiences and conceptual issues of NDC in its childhood were reviewed in a prior anthology (Holzmann and Palmer, 2006). This new anthology published in 2 volumes serves to review its adolescence and with the aim of contributing to a successful adulthood. Volume 1 on Lessons, Issues, Implementation includes a detailed analysis of the experience and the key policy lessons in the old and new pilot countries and general thoughts around the implementation of NDCs in other countries, including Chile, Greece and China. Volume 2 on Gender, Politics, Financial Stability includes deeper and new analyses of these issues that found limited or no attention in the 2006 publication. The key policy conclusions include: (i) NDC schemes work well (as documented by the experience of Italy, Latvia, Poland and Sweden during the crisis) but there is room to make them work even better; (ii) Go for an immediate transition to the new scheme to avoid future problems; (iii) Identify the legacy costs and their explicit financing during the transition as they will hit you otherwise soon; (iv) Adopt an explicit stabilizing mechanism to guarantee solvency; (v) Establish a reserve fund to guarantee liquidity; (vi) Elaborate an explicit mechanism to share the systemic longevity risk; and, last but not least; (vii) Address the gender implications of NDC with deeper analysis and open political discourse.

Putting the pension system on a sustainable footing arguably remains the biggest challenge in Russia's economic policies. The debate about the policy options was hitherto constrained by the absence of general equilibrium analysis. This paper fills this gap by simulating their macroeconomic effects in a DSGE model calibrated to Russia's economy-the first of its kind to the best of our knowledge. The results suggest that a minimum benefit level in the public system should optimally be financed through lower government consumption, while higher taxation of labor and capital should be avoided. Reducing public investment spending is superior to increasing consumption taxes unless investment generates high rates of return.

Companies that manage mandatory pension funds are frequently accused of excessive fee taking. International analyses have found that in countries with legal caps, commissions remain within these caps; hence, market competition does not function. Surprisingly, there are few international cases where local regulators implement mechanisms to facilitate competition. The variety of auction mechanisms available raises the question of whether an optimal solution exists for this purpose. Therefore, in this study, we present evidence, based on a controlled regulatory experiment, on the fee-reduction potential of reverse auctions.

This article examines the legislative and theoretical basis of the performance of life insurance companies in the pension system of Ukraine. Following the world practice, the three «pillars» pension system has been established since 2004 as the only one acceptable answer to the old age crisis. Life insurance companies have been included as a party to the mandatory accumulation system and non-state pension provision system. However, the mechanism and the key points of life insurers participation in the pension system are hardly regulated, and, moreover, are sometimes controversial. Although the system functions more than ten years, due to the strong governmental lobby of non-state pension funds as the main player in the non-state pension market, life insurers remain outsiders of the pension system. Thus, the suggested by the authors recommendations to settle theoretical and practical issues of life insurance companies activity on the pension provision market are designed to strengthen their role in the market and to create a more efficient, competitive environment.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyse how local governments implement non-mandatory performance measures (PM), the types of PM employed, the degree of their usefulness in decision making and/or accountability, and their outcomes. Design/methodology/approach - The information was collected through a questionnaire sent to the expert managers in charge of developing PM for Spanish local governments with more than 50,000 inhabitants. In addition, data sources were triangulated through an analysis of the performance indicators published in the notes to the local governments' financial statements and in their web sites. Findings - The implementation of PM in Spain follows a top-down approach in which each local government can choose whether to implement PM, how to implement them, and what information to disclose. Implementation features a high degree of involvement on the part of managers and little involvement on the part of medium- and street-level staff. PM are used primarily for budgetary and strategic management planning and long-term decision making. Practical implications - The paper will be useful to academics and practitioners to enable better understanding of the problems associated with introducing and using non-financial, non-mandatory PM. The Spanish case is similar to that of most continental European countries, in the leeway their local governments have in implementing their own PM systems. Originality/value - The paper sheds light on the application of an interesting aspect of public sector management accounting and contributes to the literature by analyzing the application of a non-mandatory PM system in a non-Anglo-American context.