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Broadband networks, enabling high‐speed and always‐on Internet connections, are now seen by many to be critical for economic growth and development, both at the national and global level. Much energy has been invested in the deployment of broadband infrastructure around the world, and governments and industry have now begun addressing the demand side of the broadband challenge, i.e. ways in which to encourage take‐up among users. The present article zooms in on one of the leading countries in broadband, Iceland. It examines the main strategies, policies and regulations in place for promoting broadband in a country that has the world’s highest number of Internet users per capita, and posits on the main opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

This paper discusses the European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA), and the European Union (EU) in relation to Iceland. The fisheries sector is being treated extensively, since it is crucial for Iceland's economic survival. Finally, the paper presents various facts as to whether Iceland should join the EU or not.

This study seeks to investigate the image that tourists visiting Iceland in the summer months have of Iceland as a tourist destination, and whether the positioning of Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland together as one area in tourist markets is possible or feasible.

The paper presents the results of two surveys. The first survey (unstructured) measures the holistic image of Iceland with a qualitative methodology. The second survey (structured) measures the attribute image of Iceland in comparison with five other countries – i.e. Norway, Scotland, Greenland, Finland and the Faroe Islands – with a perceptual mapping technique.

Results from the unstructured survey indicate that tourists have the strongest holistic image of Iceland as a scenic nature destination. Results from the structured survey indicate that tourists consider Iceland to be a safe place to visit, an opportunity for adventure, a friendly and hospitable destination, and a country of scenic and natural beauty. According to the results, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland seem to have a different image in tourists' minds.

The surveys only report the perception of tourists visiting Iceland.

It is hoped that the paper will contribute to a better understanding of how to measure image and how to market (position) the North Atlantic Islands.

The study shows the value that image can have in marketing island destinations and the importance for destinations in peripheral areas to cooperate in their marketing activities.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study which analyses the ambiguous relationship that Icelandic charities and NGOs have with the formal social welfare services they collaborate with as well as the clients they serve.

The paper is based upon the combined work of both authors and drawn from a number of projects spanning the years immediately preceding the Icelandic economic crisis of 2008, through to the years of crisis and recovery, and into the present context. This contribution is a combination of a re-analysis of older material combined with new data and emergent issues.

The contribution argues charities and NGOs in Iceland operate within an ambiguous space, not part of the formal welfare authorities yet in practice in collaboration with them. One danger is that the charitable environment offers no clear legal protections concerning client rights or entitlements to assistance, or grievance redress mechanisms typical of the formal social assistance schemes. Further, the ways in which charities exclude certain segments of the population is troubling, particularly in consideration of the lack of protections and the willingness of governments to download the costs of and responsibilities for services to non-professional and private charities and NGOs.

The findings are intended to contribute toward encouraging critical discussion about the appeal of charity as a service alternative in the context of governmental cutbacks and austerity measures.

The findings are based upon limited but original case studies in Iceland.

Port throughput analysis is a challenging task, as it consists of intertwined interactions between a variety of cargos and numerous influencing factors. This study aims to propose a quantitative method to facilitate port throughput analysis by identification of important cargos and key macroeconomic variables.

Mutual information is applied to measure the linear and nonlinear correlation among variables. The method gives a unique measure of dependence between two variables by quantifying the amount of information held in one variable through another variable.

This study uses the mutual information to the Port of Isafjordur in Iceland to underpin the port throughput analysis. The results show that marine products are the main export cargo, whereas most imports are fuel oil, industrial materials and marine product. The aggregation of these cargos, handled in the port, meaningfully determines the non-containerized port throughput. The relation between non-containerized export and the national gross domestic product (GDP) is relatively high. However, non-containerized import is mostly related to the world GDP. The non-containerized throughput shows a strong relation to the national GDP. Furthermore, the results reveal that the volume of national export trade is the key influencing macroeconomic variable to the containerized throughput.

Application of the mutual information in port throughput analysis effectively reduces epistemic uncertainty in the identification of important cargos and key influencing macroeconomic variables. Thus, it increases the reliability of the port throughput forecast.

In the year 2000 Iceland gained nationwide access to 4,000 e‐journals, another 3,500 in 2001 and over 500 since then. Thus, the population of Iceland has been given the opportunity to access full‐text articles of over 8,000 journals, most in the field of science, technology and medicine (STM) via the Internet. This paper tells the history and the effects of the nationwide access to e‐journals on remote document supply (RDS), both at The National and University Library of Iceland (NUL) and in Iceland generally. At 27 percent in 2002, NUL has the most RDS of any library in Iceland.

The purpose of this paper is to study class awareness in Iceland in the wake of a national economic collapse.

This comparatively oriented case study uses new survey data, secondary data on Iceland and 2005 World Values Survey data. The data are analyzed using a synthesis of Weber's theory of class and reference group theory.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, Icelanders are class‐aware. Most recognize and understand class terms, and are willing to assign themselves to a class. Consistent with Weber, Icelanders have fairly strong awareness of their class position, evidenced by a strong relationship between subjective class and economic class, on the one hand, and subjective class and class indicators, on the other. Consistent with reference group theory, a subjective “middle class” tendency is revealed across the class structure. Icelanders also have more of a “middle class” view of their class position and see it, on average, as higher than people in most other countries.

No systematic study of class awareness in Iceland has been carried out since the 1970s. What is more, cross‐national studies have never fielded subjective class questions in Iceland. This paper begins to rectify this omission. Lastly, a linkage of individualization and reference group processes is proposed to broaden the theoretical basis of studies of class awareness.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the macro-social marketing approach by detailing a framework to better understand the driving forces of wicked problems.

This is a conceptual paper that uses the financial crisis in Iceland as a demonstrative example to show how social mechanism theory can help social marketers and policy makers overcome complexity and strive for the social transformation they seek.

This paper suggests the utility of social mechanism theory for understanding wicked problems, how they came to be and how social marketing practices can be applied to resolve market complexities.

Social marketers need to identify what is driving what, to plan and implement interventions that will lead to the social change desired. This paper presents a framework that guides the analyst through this social change process.

This work provides social marketers with the means to understand the “moving parts” of a wicked problem to identify where an intervention is required to achieve the social change sought.

Iceland, along with the other Nordic countries, is seen as an international frontrunner in gender equality and equal sharing of responsibility for paid and unpaid work is part of the official ideology. Nevertheless, the number of women in leadership positions remains low. The purpose of this study is to analyse the practices that (re)produce power imbalances between women and men in business leadership both at the macro and the micro levels. This is done by using two theoretical explanations: gendered organizational practices and the interplay of organizations and family life.

The mixed methods are applied by analysing 51, semi-structured interviews with female and male business leaders and survey data from CEOs and executives from the 250 largest companies in Iceland.

The analyses reveal gender differences and asymmetries in work life as well as within the family. Men have longer working hours than women, higher salaries and more job-related travelling. Women carry the dual burden of work and family to a higher degree than do men. By questioning and attempting to resist the organizational culture women risk further disadvantage. The situation of male and female leaders is therefore incomparable. This is a paradox and does not fit with the idea of the Nordic gender equality of a dual breadwinner society.

It is shown that lack of gender diversity in business leadership is based on gendered organizational practices as well as on power relations within families. These two aspects are mutually reinforcing and the originality of the study is to explore the interplay between them. The authors conclude that despite being the country at the forefront of gender equality in the world, neither organizational practices nor family relations recognize the different life experiences of women and men in Iceland. This is expressed in organizational practices and different access to time and support, which may hinder gaining gender equality in top leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to seek a clearer understanding of how firms involved in power intensive industries participate in foreign direct investment. The paper asks the following questions: how skilled are the employees available for hire? What kind of pollution restrictions will be applied to the plant? Is the infrastructure in place to enable free transport of the necessary materials? All of these are factors that can be analyzed on a national level, and are major factors in government policy.

The research is designated to explain how macro policy can be directed towards firms in the power intensive industry, to impact the competitiveness within the industry. Skilled labor differences is reflecting governmental policy in its willingness to contribute to education. Infrastructure can be viewed as an indicator for long‐term policy planning by the government. The pollution variable reflects on macro policy emphasis by governments, by presenting their emission targets. Investment cost variable gives indication of government policy concerning the ease with which foreign investors can enter into and invest in a particular country. The case country is Iceland, an isolated island that is unable to export its abundance directly and therefore must do so through foreign direct investment.

The findings indicate that source countries are attracted by the level of skill in Iceland at the beginning stage of operations when faced with fixed threshold cost. Once the plants have overcome fixed costs, there are positive impacts on marginal investment, the more skilled the source country is compared to the host. Other factors that proved to be important in this case study are distance, infrastructure, government stability, pollution quotas, and the fishing resource.

The relative friendliness a country's policies display towards an industry can make a huge difference when it comes to how successful a business can be, so studying these national‐level policies can help an individual determine what kind of direction to take on the day‐to‐day operational decisions.