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This dissertation investigates the expansion of digital infrastructure in Iceland as a vector, site, and problem of power. In recent years, the island has been declared an emerging "hot spot" for international data center development. However, as such infrastructures are constructed, they reprise the effects of older, more ambivalent connections: specifically, Iceland's history as a Danish colony and an American military base. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic and archival research, this dissertation argues that Iceland has long occupied the position of an "infrastructural intermediary," or a technical node in the networks of others. This position is an appealing one for international developers, but in Reykjanes, Iceland, where data center development is concentrated, its imperial roots render its consequences mixed. By attending to concrete points of technical connection, their material histories, and the everyday encounters that take place around them, this dissertation examines Icelanders' experiences in the middle position, and some of their strategies for making the most of being in between. In doing so, this work brings enduring questions of sovereignty, identity, and imperial power into conversation with pressing debates on digital data.

This article focuses on transnational intermediary organizations in higher education and research. We conceive of intermediaries as organizations that are actively involved in transnational university governance without having formal access to or control over policy or governmental funding. Such intermediary organizations have in previous research been shown to play central roles in the development and circulation of new themes and ideas for how to manage universities and measure university performance. Intermediaries link different types of actors and act as translators of global themes. In this respect, they are decisive in policy formulation. While the expansion of such transnational intermediaries is well documented in earlier research, we know little about who they are and how they interact. The article is the first to map transnational intermediaries concerned with higher education and research, as well as their linkages with each other. Through an original web-crawling technique, we identify a large number of transnational intermediaries that are actively linked to each other. These intermediaries exhibit a dense and stretched-out pattern with no obvious single center of gravitation. Instead, the field consists of several smaller and clearly distinguished constellations, resembling the structure of the Milky Way. Using these data, we advance two main arguments. First, transnational university intermediaries form an organized field of their own, vouching for their importance for the scaling up of governance networks and the development of collaborative governance arrangements. Second, within this field, there are several clusters where certain intermediaries occupy a more central position in the field than others. In all, this article contributes to the existing literature on governance networks, sketching the consequences of intensified global activities among intermediaries for how new themes and ideas about university management travel and translate, highlighting the significance of intermediary organizations for national university systems and individual universities.

AbstractI study a model of competition between data intermediaries, which collect personal data from consumers and sell them to downstream firms. Competition has a limited impact on benefiting consumers: If intermediaries offer high compensation for data, consumers share data with multiple intermediaries, which lowers the downstream price of data and hurts intermediaries. Anticipating this, intermediaries offer low compensation for data. Although consumers are exclusive suppliers of data, the nonrivalry of data can lead to concentration and high intermediary profits in data markets. In particular, if downstream firms use data to extract surplus from consumers, competing intermediaries sustain a monopoly outcome.

Geographically based intermediary groups in cities, primarily the political party structure and community groups, can potentially affect the distribution of public services to neighborhoods in three ways. First, they can stimulate citizen demands for services, which urban bureaucracies transform into outputs; more demands yield more services. Second, urban service agencies may grant special consideration to demands mediated by the intermediary structures, producing more output per demand for mediated demands. Finally, parties and groups may intervene in neighborhoods to co-produce services, gaining more impact from agency efforts than in neighborhoods not represented by strong intermediary structures.Using data on citizen complaints, agency outputs and service impacts in neighborhoods, this study of building code enforcement in Chicago finds that the party structure is efficacious at all three stages of the service provision process, but that groups are not effective at any stage.

"Elections in Europe" ist der seit Langem erwartete letzte Band in einer weltweit angelegten Reihe zu Wahlen und Wahlsystemen. Das Werk vervollständigt die bei Oxford University Press erschienene Reihe von Bänden mit den Schwerpunkten Afrika, Asien, die Pazifikstaaten sowie Nord- und Südamerika. Nach einer vergleichenden Einführung der Herausgeber in Wahlen und Wahlsysteme bietet das Buch Kapitel zu allen europäischen Staaten von namhaften Experten. Unter Anwendung von systematischen Kriterien und einheitlichen Konzepten im Hinblick auf die zusammengestellten Informationen, erläutert jedes Kapitel den historischen, politischen und rechtlichen Kontext der Wahlen.Darüber hinaus bieten die einzelnen Kapitel umfassende Statistiken über alle nationalen Wahlen und Volksabstimmungen, die in den jeweiligen Ländern durchgeführt wurden. Politologen weltweit begrüßen diese unverzichtbare Quelle für Wissenschaftler im Bereich der länderübergreifenden politischen Forschung. Es gibt kein vergleichbares Werk zu diesem Thema."These election volumes are a precious, indispensable source of information for cross-national political research. There is no comparable work on the subject".Giovanni Sartori, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, New York "These data handbooks are a wonderfully rich, precise, and comprehensive resource for social scientists and others who do comparative research on elections worldwide. Elections in Europe is a truly monumental and admirable volume!" Arend Lijphart, Professor Emeritus, University of California, San Diego "Elections in Europe constitutes an extraordinary effort. Along with the other volumes in the series it provides a reliable, systematic and analytical source of election data and documentation on electoral systems. An entire discipline will be able to rely on it for years to come. The authors must be congratulated for providing the scientific community with such a valuable instrument".Daniele Caramani, Professor of Political Science, University of St. Gallen.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of FinTech companies in SCF. The application of digital technology in supply chain activities has facilitated the evolution of supply chain finance (SCF) to a new level. However, how financial technology (FinTech) companies promote this evolution has not been thoroughly examined.


Design/methodology/approach
This research used the multiple-case study approach and social network analysis method to explore how FinTech companies influence SCF networks.


Findings
The results reveal that FinTech companies play the crucial role of a signaling intermediary by facilitating interactions among relevant parties, accelerating the flow of information and reducing information asymmetry arising from data smog. Moreover, FinTech companies make SCF information networks more equitable and promote the performance of SCF.


Originality/value
This study deepens the conversation at the nexus of signal theory and SCF and provides managerial implications for alleviating information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders to solve the difficulty and high-cost problems of obtaining financing of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Digital and social inclusion intermediaries play a crucial role in providing digital literacy to excluded groups and in using Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support social inclusion. However, information on the main characteristics of these actors is lacking. This paper presents the preliminary results of part of the MIREIA research conducted by the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, which aimed to characterise eInclusion intermediary actors in Europe and measure their socio-economic impact. This article explores the role of third sector organisations in the broader landscape of eInclusion intermediary actors. It first presents a conceptualization of the role and impacts of eInclusion intermediary actors, based on the results of a literature review and detailed 'locality mappings' conducted in three areas in Europe, in order to provide a definition of these actors. It then presents the methodology and main findings of an online survey designed to provide a 'map' of the eInclusion actors operating in Europe, answering the following questions: What are eInclusion actors? How can they be classified? Which services do they provide, to which targets groups?, and finally How do they operate and innovate? Findings show that the vast majority of eInclusion actors in the third sector are small organizations, in terms of staff numbers and budget, providing ICT services mainly to senior citizens, young adults and unemployed people. The results are consistent with the theoretical framework proposed and thus confirm that the configuration of the main characteristics of eInclusion intermediary actors is influenced by several factors including these actors' own intrinsic characteristics (mission, human and financial resources, etc.) and the external conditions (institutional environment, needs of the population where they operate, etc.). At the same time, these external factors and the different features of the intermediaries are linked and interrelated. These preliminary conclusions point to the fact that, despite the limitations inherent in the approach used, the findings presented in this paper can be considered relevant because: 1) they are the results of the first attempt in Europe to collect primary data from eInclusion intermediary actors and aim to create at least a baseline for future research; 2) the link between this activity and policy-making at EU level and the direct involvement of pan-European stakeholders and practitioners from the field will form the basis for further research and policy actions, informed by the results of the investigation; 3) the findings of the analysis provide useful insights and help shed light on the diversity and role of eInclusion intermediary actors and the contributions of their programmes to advancing social and economic inclusion in Europe. Further research is, however, required to systematise the findings and confirm the preliminary results with more in-depth investigation and analysis.

PurposeTo provide an investigation of e‐commerce development via an examination of the forces shaping web site development among intermediaries in an extended supply chain.Design/methodology/approachA two‐stage research design combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Unstructured interviews conducted in the spirit of phenomenology elicited a range of critical incidents of web site development which were further examined via a quantitative survey of intermediaries to test for relationships between critical incidents and web site adoption.FindingsAdopter groups were identified which showed statistically significant differences in terms of the critical incidents driving web site development as well as differences in terms of key company characteristics. The timing of web site adoption was also found to affect the subsequent use of the technology, with early adopters making more advanced use.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations associated with the use of retrospective data and respondents' abilities to recall events, although attempts were made to minimise these through external validation.Practical implicationsProvides useful insights for providers of financial services in understanding how to progress the adoption of web site technology by intermediaries, suggesting the development of networks of relationships involving IT suppliers rather than simply focusing on relationships with preferred intermediaries.Originality/valueAddresses a research gap in terms of business‐to‐business e‐commerce and offers practical guidance on how to widen participation in the financial services supply chain.

Intermediaries are seen as important actors in facilitating payments for environmental services (PES). However, few data exist on the adequacy of the services provided by intermediaries and the impacts of their interventions. Using four PES case studies in Vietnam, this paper analyses the roles of government agencies, non-government organizations, international agencies, local organizations and professional consulting firms as PES intermediaries. The findings indicate that these intermediaries are essential in supporting PES establishment. Their roles are as service and information providers, mediators, arbitrators, equalizers, representatives, watchdogs, developers of standards and bridge builders. Concerns have been raised about the quality of intermediaries' participatory work, political influence on intermediaries' activities and the neutral status of intermediaries. Although local organizations are strongly driven by the government, they are important channels for the poor to express their opinions. However, to act as environmental services (ES) sellers, local organizations need to overcome numerous challenges, particularly related to capacity for monitoring ES and enforcement of contracts. Relationships amongst intermediaries are complex and should be carefully examined by PES stakeholders to avoid negative impact on the poor. Each of the intermediaries may operate at a different level and can have different functions but a multi-sector approach is required for an effective PES implementation

The ascendency of Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency of Brazil in 2018 put the role of traditional media companies and journalists under the spotlight. Bad news or opinions against his government have been officially treated as fake, inaccurate, or false information. In this context, data show a decrease in news trust and growing news consumption through platforms. According to the 2021 Reuters Institute report on news trust, only 21% of Brazilians trust the press as an institution, with 71% using social media platforms to be informed. As part of a broad and complex crisis of the traditional intermediary model, several journalists appeared in the Brazilian public sphere as influencers on social media platforms such as Twitter. Based on a qualitative perspective, this article aims to research the role of journalists as political influencers and their use of Twitter to express their voices. A sample of 10 journalists with more than 10,000 followers on Twitter, five working for traditional media and five from native digital media, were interviewed in depth. We realized that they use their digital capital in two political directions. On the one hand, as part of a digital strategy promoted by media outlets to gain attention and call the audience, journalists share their spots and comments on daily issues. On the other hand, in a polarized political context, journalists have found Twitter a means to express their voices in a context of increasing violence and restrictions on free expression among this collective.

SummaryIntermediary determinants are the most immediate mechanisms through which socioeconomic position shapes health inequities. This study examines the effect of community socioeconomic context on different indicators representing intermediary determinants of child health. In the context of Colombia, a developing country with a clear economic expansion, but one of the most unequal countries in the world, two categories of intermediary determinants, namely behavioural and psychosocial factors and the health system, are analysed. Using data from the 2010 Colombian Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the results suggest that whilst the community context can exert a greater influence on factors linked directly to health, in the case of psychosocial factors and parent's behaviours, the family context can be more important. In addition, the results from multilevel analysis indicate that a significant percentage of the variability in the overall index of intermediary determinants of child health is explained by the community context, even after controlling for individual, family and community characteristics. These findings underline the importance of distinguishing between community and family intervention programmes in order to reduce place-based health inequities in Colombia.

Introduction: New legal challenges of big data /Joe Cannataci, Valeria Falce and Oreste Pollicino --Big data and big databases between privacy and competition /Sofia Oliveira Pais --Competition challenges of big data : algorithmic collusion, personalised pricing and privacy /Antonio Capobianco and Pedro Gonzaga --Antitrust enforcement and privacy standards /Renato Nazzini --Mergers, data markets and competition /Damiano Canapa --Platform role and intermediary responsibility /Vicente Bagnoli --Global perspectives on big data and consumer law /Mateja Durovic and Franciszek Lech --Data as an input in competition law cases : standards, difficulties and biases in EU merger control /Rupprecht Podszun and Sarah Langenstein --Breaking down information silos with big data : a legal analysis of data sharing /Giovanni De Gregorio and Sofia Ranchordás --The relationship between freedom of expression and big data /Oleg Soldatov --Big data and children's rights : new legal challenges alongside new opportunities /Shulamit Almog and Liat Franco --Artificial intelligence in the big data era : risks and opportunities /Francesca Lagioia and Giovanni Sartor.

This study explored the antecedent mechanism of task performance. We collected data from teams working on Chinese overseas projects in 13 countries and regions, and conducted a cross-layer analysis through matching the data of 70 direct leaders and 277 employees. The results show that
benevolent leadership was positively associated with employees' task performance, personal initiative, and work engagement. In addition, employees' personal initiative and work engagement played a chain intermediary role in the relationship between benevolent leadership and employee task performance.
These findings show how benevolent leadership influences employee task performance in cross-cultural management. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

AbstractIndustry upgrading and structure transformation are important methods for the green and sustainable development. This paper utilizes urban panel data from China spanning the years 2009–2022 to investigate the impact of manufacturing and producer services collaborative agglomeration on green economy efficiency. Additionally, it examines the mediating effect of three modes of technical change: domestic technological stock, international technology transfer, and innovation absorptive capacity. The key findings are summarized as follows: (1) The impact of Industrial collaborative agglomeration (ICA) on green economy efficiency follows a U‐shaped curve relationship, when the degree of ICA is below the inflection point (1.4022), it negatively affects green economy efficiency. However, when the degree surpasses that point, it demonstrates a positive impact. (2) Domestic technological stock and international technology transfer act as mediating variables between ICA and green economy efficiency. Advancements in domestic technology innovation and increased international technology transfer contribute to a positive effect of ICA on green economic efficiency.