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An overview of the current use of handwritten text recognition (HTR) on archival manuscript material, as provided by the EU H2020 funded Transkribus platform. It explains HTR, demonstrates Transkribus, gives examples of use cases, highlights the affect HTR may have on scholarship, and evidences this turning point of the advanced use of digitised heritage content. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper adopts a case study approach, using the development and delivery of the one openly available HTR platform for manuscript material.

Transkribus has demonstrated that HTR is now a useable technology that can be employed in conjunction with mass digitisation to generate accurate transcripts of archival material. Use cases are demonstrated, and a cooperative model is suggested as a way to ensure sustainability and scaling of the platform. However, funding and resourcing issues are identified.

The paper presents results from projects: further user studies could be undertaken involving interviews, surveys, etc.

Only HTR provided via Transkribus is covered: however, this is the only publicly available platform for HTR on individual collections of historical documents at time of writing and it represents the current state-of-the-art in this field.

The increased access to information contained within historical texts has the potential to be transformational for both institutions and individuals.

This is the first published overview of how HTR is used by a wide archival studies community, reporting and showcasing current application of handwriting technology in the cultural heritage sector.

Lease contracts at the time of sale influence buyers' expectations about future returns of farmland ownership and may thus contribute to price dispersion. This paper investigates the conjecture that existing land lease contracts influence buyers' and sellers' costs of being information deficient and thus their bargaining position, their expectation formation about future returns, and thus ultimately the farmland price.

The authors link different levels of information, search, and bargaining costs to three buyer types and their land use intentions. Relying on a rich dataset of farmland transactions in the German Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt from 2014 to 2019, the authors use a hedonic pricing model to investigate five hypotheses applying multivariate one-sided tests.

The authors find buyer-specific effects related to lease status and lease term of a lot. Tenant buyers pay less than non-farmer buyers for leased lots, whereas non-tenant farmers pay a markup. While prices decrease for all buyer groups with an increasing lease term, this effect is the strongest for non-tenant farmer buyers. This study’s results suggest that an existing lease contract impacts buyers' costs of being information deficient, their bargaining positions and expectation formation, and ultimately the price discovery process.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that decomposes the effects of tenancy on farmland prices by buyer type and lease term. The study provides insights into price dispersion for identical characteristics of farmland and explains why empirical studies have found mixed or no empirical evidence that lease contracts influence the price discovery process.

This paper aims to illustrate how illegally obtained funds are laundered through raw diamonds in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

To identify specific money laundering techniques involving raw diamonds, this study used a qualitative content analysis of data collected from 60 semi-standardized interviews with both criminals and prevention experts and a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers.

Raw diamonds are extraordinarily suitable for money laundering in European German-speaking countries. In particular, they may be used in all three stages of the laundering process, namely, placement, layering and integration.

Because the qualitative findings are based on semi-standardized interviews, their insights are limited to the perspectives of the 60 interviewees.

Identifying gaps in existing anti-money laundering mechanisms should provide compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with valuable insights into how criminals operate.

While prior studies focus on the methods used by organizations to combat money laundering and how to improve anti-money laundering measures, this paper investigates how money launderers operate to avoid detection, thereby illustrating authentic experiences. Its findings provide valuable insights into the minds of money launderers and combines criminal perspective with that of prevention experts.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how illegally obtained funds from Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland are laundered through the banking system in Dubai.

The study is conducted using a qualitative content analysis of 60 semi-structured expert interviews with both criminals and money laundering prevention experts, and a quantitative survey of 200 financial sector compliance officers.

Some banks in Dubai are highly suitable for all stages of the money laundering process. However, although certain banks have weak compliance mechanisms, others act in an exemplary manner.

The qualitative findings are based on semi-structured interviews and are limited to the 60 interviewees’ perspectives.

Identification of gaps in anti-money laundering mechanisms provides compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with valuable insights into how money laundering criminals operate.

The existing literature focuses mainly on organizations and the methods they use to combat money laundering. This paper outlines how money launderers operate to avoid detection. Authentic experiences are illustrated. The reader is provided with valuable insights into the minds of money launderers. Both lawful and criminal perspectives are taken into account.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how illegally obtained funds are laundered by employment of consulting companies in Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein and Switzerland.

A qualitative content analysis of 28 semi-standardized expert interviews with both criminals and prevention experts, and a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers led to the identification of concrete money-laundering techniques involving the employment of consulting companies.

Consulting companies continue to be used for money laundering in European German-speaking countries, especially in the layering and integration stages of the money laundering process, during which the origins of funds are concealed, and the money is integrated into the legal economy.

Qualitative findings from the analysis of semi-standardized interviews are limited to the 28 interviewees’ perspectives.

Identification of gaps in existing anti-money-laundering mechanisms provides compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with valuable insights into how criminals operate.

The existing literature focuses on organizations that combat money laundering and the improvement of anti-money-laundering measures. This paper outlines how money launderers avoid detection. Both preventative and criminal perspectives are considered.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how illicit funds are laundered by using the gold method in German-speaking European countries.

To identify approaches to money laundering via gold, 60 semi-standardized interviews with money launderers and compliance officers were conducted. Further, a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers was administered.

The gold trade in European German-speaking countries remains extraordinarily suitable for money laundering. In particular, it may be used for placement and layering.

The implications are based on the statements of 60 interviewees, including both money launderers and compliance officers. Thus, the derived results are limited to the perspectives of these 60 persons.

Based on this study’s findings, gaps in the existing anti-money laundering measures are identified. Documenting these inconsistencies should provide compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with valuable insights into the minds of money launderers.

As this study explores the perspectives of both compliance officers and money launderers, it provides a broad overview of the issues. Most existing literature fails to observe money laundering from the launderers’ perspective, focusing instead on methods to prevent money laundering. Effective prevention requires profound knowledge of how criminals operate. Only by adopting criminals’ perspective can compliance officers effectively spot money-laundering methods.

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify how money launderers in European German-speaking countries use deposit boxes to place incriminated funds.

During a qualitative content analysis of 60 semi-standardized expert interviews with both criminals and prevention experts and a quantitative survey of 200 compliance officers, concrete money laundering techniques using deposit boxes were identified.

Deposit boxes may be used to place incriminated funds or prepare for their subsequent placement. Thus, the method is highly suitable to the demands of small-scale money laundering.

The study’s qualitative findings are limited to the perspectives of the 60 interview partners. The interviews were conducted in a semi-standardized fashion.

The present paper aims at identifying gaps in existing anti-money laundering mechanisms to provide compliance officers, law enforcement agencies and legislators with worthwhile insights into the minds of criminals.

The present paper illustrates how money launderers operate to avoid detection, capturing the perspective of the launderer. Thus, the reader is granted access to highly valuable information that is supposed to facilitate the introduction of new anti-money laundering measures. Moreover, it shows how compliance officers view the issue and what they consider to be important to the successful implementation of compliance mechanisms. Moreover, the officers’ statements will exhibit which methods they do and do not engage with on a daily basis.

Combining the goal-setting and job demands-resources (JD-R) theories, we examine how two project resources, collaborative project leadership and financial project resources, enhance high project performance in community-academic health partnerships.

With a sequential explanatory mixed-method research design, data were collected through a survey (N = 318) and semi-structured interviews (N = 21). A hypothesised three-path mediation model was tested using structural equation modelling with bootstrapping. Qualitative data were examined using thematic analysis.

Project workers’ hope, goal-commitment and -stress: (1) fully mediate the hypothesised relationship between highly collaborative project leadership and high project performance; and (2) partially mediate the relationship between financial project resources and high project performance. The qualitative data corroborate and deepen these findings, revealing the crucial role of hope as a cognitive-motivational facilitator in project workers’ ability to cope with challenges.

Project leaders should promote project workers’ goal commitment, reduce their goal stress and boost project performance by securing financial project resources or reinforcing workers’ hope, e.g. by fostering collaborative project leadership.

The findings contribute to the project management and JD-R literature by considering the joint effects of project workers’ hope and two commonly studied project resources (collaborative project leadership and financial project resources) on high project performance. Moreover, we demonstrate the importance of the goal-setting and JD-R theories for understanding complex health-promotion projects connecting academic to community work.