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HSBC (The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited) Holdings Plc. is a part of various trade finance consortia which aimed to digitise the traditional paper-based trade finance process. It had successfully executed multiple trade finance pilots using a blockchain based platform Voltron and was launching its Contour blockchain trade finance platform as a service to its clients. The trade finance market was estimated to be USD 18 trillion on an annual basis and HSBC had a 12% share in the trade finance transactions worldwide. This case revolves around the challenges facing banks/consortia while porting the traditional trade finance process to the blockchain based system. The crux is how the banks form the consortia, implement blockchain and facilitate trading globally given that it is a new technology and will require bringing all the stakeholders involved in the trade finance value chain to the blockchain based platform. HSBC is facing some decision questions on the formation, governance and management of the consortium, on the interoperability between consortia and on how to price its services to its customers.

The purpose of this article is to delve into the precise leadership and governance roles required of general practitioners (GPs) in England as they are propelled into clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

A conceptual framework which captures the complementary essences of both leadership and governance is developed and then used to assess the extent to which GPs will be undertaking leadership and/or governance roles under the reformed National Health Service (NHS) plan.

It is found that there are some key particular aspects of both leadership and governance which are likely to be required of GPs as they form clinical commissioning groups. These elements are identified and discussed.

Using this analysis, general practitioners, health service managers and policy makers will be able to make a more informed assessment of the roles that they will have to adopt in the future and those roles which they may find it difficult to play. GPs in future will need to expand their roles in line with new responsibilities. The ways in which, and the success with which, they discharge their new roles will depend crucially on how they, and significant others (NHS managers), understand the nature of leadership and governance.

Most analyses of the new GP commissioning consortia have focused on issues concerning size and structure of commissioning consortia, the risks involved, the population size required, and risk. This article is original in its clear focus on the teasing‐out of the distinct leadership and governance elements required under the GP commissioning arrangements.

The Queensland Government Libraries Consortium can claim to be one of Australia's more successful special library consortia in recent years, with a stable core membership of 14 library services, and combined savings to the Queensland Government of over A$1M in the 2002‐2003 financial year. This paper identifies critical success factors for the consortium to date, and looks to present and future challenges at a time when no organisation can afford to take continued existence, let alone success, for granted. In 2002, consortium members began looking strategically at how their organisation should be working to future‐proof services, and expertise. This process of internal review is still very much a work in progress, and continues to pose as many questions as it answers. It has, however, focused the attention on four issues of critical concern to the consortium: corporate governance, size, scope of functions, and recognition. Solutions implemented to date may serve as useful case studies for other consortia.

Are library consortia agile organizations? That is, do they have the leadership capacity to respond quickly to or drive change in complex environments? To explore the related issues of library consortium agility and leadership, the author developed a case study of the Ohio Private Academic Libraries (referred to hereafter as OPAL) consortium, 1998–2007. This chapter describes the OPAL experience and summarizes her findings, conclusions, and recommendations.

Despite rapid growth in blockchains, there was limited discussion about non-technical and technical factors on blockchain governance in the extant literature. This study aims to contribute new knowledge to the literature on potential factors affecting the adoption, governance and scale-up of blockchain technologies in the health-care and energy sectors, presented in a holistic framework.

This study adopts the qualitative case study research methodology to research blockchain governance in practice. The authors contacted a national blockchain consortium to conduct their research on the governance issue of blockchain. Two leading case organizations, one from the health-care industry and another from the energy industry, were deliberately selected for their study for their active role and reputation in the consortium and practical experience in blockchain governance.

The developed framework helps identify potential research gaps or concerns on adopting a blockchain as well as assessing blockchain implementation and governance in other industries. Depending on the circumstances, some of the factors can be either drivers or obstacles to further blockchain development. The different forces may also be more or less evident over time as blockchains develop. The two real-world case studies contribute to the information technology governance literature on blockchain governance.

The results of this case studies will be beneficial for developing theories and empirical models to determine antecedents for achieving consensus and trust in blockchain and testing the relationship between these factors and blockchain governance at different levels. As a result, theories related to the governance of blockchain technologies could be further developed.

This paper seeks to apply the relational exchange framework, updated by insights on interimistic relationships, to analyze governance implications for the three types of e‐marketplaces currently in operation: independent exchanges, consortia, and private exchanges. These three archetypes are analyzed from a functional perspective and, more importantly, from a relationship governance perspective.

The paper is conceptual in approach.

The three e‐marketplace archetypes currently in existence correspond to different levels of operational integration and, in turn, to three different types of inter‐firm relationships. Moreover, the three types of relational structures proposed offer different solutions for governance processes such as partner qualification, monitoring, and enforcement.

The network of relationships between firms is changing all the time as a result of dynamic industry conditions. The relational continuum proposed can explain the focal firm's shifting reliance on one or another of the e‐marketplace types as a result of industry volatility.

The analysis advocates a portfolio approach to e‐marketplace adoption, based on the varying strengths of their connections with different industry partners. This approach also implies a new type of segmentation, based on the place that the trading partner occupies on the relational continuum.

When analyzing e‐marketplaces, a focus on technology and functional parameters alone misses an essential aspect: when choosing among various e‐marketplace formats currently in operation, firms cannot overlook the inter‐firm relationships that characterize these marketplaces and give them their identity.

The extant literature distinguishes sharply between corporate and community models of destination governance. In contrast, the case of Naturns/Naturno illustrates how a specific mixture of corporate and community approaches in governance can yield positive results. In particular, it shows how the existence of a network core characterized by integrative entrepreneurial leadership, an element that would in the first instance be associated with a corporate-driven destination, turns out to be a potential driver of a successful community-oriented destination development. In Naturns/Naturno, through its integrative entrepreneurial behavior, a hotel consortium has been influential in leading the transformation of the whole destination toward increased quality, strategic coherence, and innovativeness, while maintaining its community orientation.

Using three university library consortia China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) (China), Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) (USA) and Joint University Librarians Advisory Committee (JULAC) (Hong Kong) as examples, the purpose of this paper is to compare the administration of three university consortia and to explore the cultural, educational and geopolitical forces that produce and shape university library consortia.

The methodology used reviewed published and proprietary documents, interviews and observation.

While the stated objectives are similar, the three vary markedly in size, funding source, and whether programming is a bottom-up decision or emanates from the central government. CALIS was started by China ' s Ministry of Education, who also helps in setting programmatic agendas and appointing managers; GWLA came into existence through the efforts of a small group of university librarians, elect their own board and set programming in response to member needs and suggestions; JULAC, initiated by the university librarians in Hong Kong has some support from the government through bodies charged with the oversight of the universities. The differing educational systems also influence programming, for example in the relative importance member libraries place on preferential inter-library loan.

There are few comparative studies of library consortia found in Asia and the US comparative studies of consortia encourage an understanding of the benefits of different consortia models.

Efforts to increase sustainability are increasingly being promulgated using non-state forms of governance. Currently, there are multiple multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) working to develop sustainability standards and metrics for US agriculture. These include: LEO-4000, Field to Market, and the Sustainability Consortium. Using Paul Thompson’s (2010) tripartite sustainability framework, the proposed sustainability standards and metrics of the three MSIs are assessed. Our findings indicate that the current political economic stakeholder nexus is producing incremental adjustments to the status quo of industrial agriculture. Put differently, the standards and metrics being produced by these initiatives are largely advancing programs of sustainable intensification in which sustainability is equated with increasing resource efficiencies. Hence, our research problematizes the efficacy of non-state governance approaches for transformative change in food and agriculture. The findings in this chapter are based on fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2013.

Traces the term “library consortium” as a form of co‐operation among libraries. Focuses on reasons for forming consortia and types, ranging from highly decentralised to highly centralised. Literature on consortia is mostly reported in four sources. Highlights the formation of the International Association of Library Consortia in 1997. The current trend is one of sharing integrated library systems and computer databases, collection development, purchasing of electronic journals, and staff development. What has been achieved is the provision of resources to patrons that did not have them before the consortia, as well as increased levels of services and convenience of patrons. By libraries banding together, cost savings come through reduced cost per unit as the group of libraries in the consortium shares the expenditure.