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There is widespread belief that intermediaries in African agri-food value chains have disproportionate market power. In this paper, the authors examine this belief by uncovering the purchasing and selling prices, costs and profit margins by farmers, intermediaries and retailers in the matooke (cooking banana) value chain in Uganda, and by analysing the prevailing value chain and market structures, seasonal entry and exit dynamics and the trading relationships in the chain.

Data for this study were collected along the trading routes from the main matooke producing districts in South-West Uganda (Kabarole, Bunyangabo, Bushenyi, Isingiro and Mbarara) to the main urban markets around the capital Kampala. A structured survey was administered with 383 producers, 172 collectors and wholesalers and 71 retailers. In addition, key informant interviews and focus group discussions were held.

The authors find that price mark-ups by intermediaries (selling prices minus purchasing prices) vary with the type of intermediary, season and location but generally reflect the costs of moving matooke down the value chain to the urban consumer. The authors do not find evidence for disproportionate market power among the intermediaries in the chain. Intermediaries enter and exit the market in peak and off-peak season, such that profits are kept in check. This seasonality does imply a small shift in market power in favour of farmers in off-peak season and in favour of intermediaries in the peak season.

The investigation concentrated on an important and relatively homogenous staple crop along its main trade route. More remote areas, where there is less of an abundance of matooke, might still be characterised by local monopsonies where intermediaries have more market power due to high search and transport costs. Similarly, (local) monopsonies might exist for products for which there is a smaller market (segment), for products with a stronger seasonal variation in supply and for more perishable products.

While there is an important literature on the role of intermediaries in African agri-food value chains, the evidence on intermediary market power is scant. Beliefs on intermediary market power are largely based on anecdotal evidence from farmers or inferred from observed prices or market structures. The paper contributes in addressing this important knowledge gap by studying the matooke value chain in Uganda.

Grounded on resource dependence theory, the authors explored how power and dependence affect sustainability adoption in an artisanal fishing supply chain (AFSC) in Mexico.

An in-depth longitudinal case study was conducted to identify relationships among fishers, a cooperative and intermediaries using a content analysis of data gathered from a combination of interviews, focus groups, observations, participatory workshops and secondary data.

As a result of the existing power imbalance among AFSC members, mediated forces (e.g. rewards for intermediary–fishers relationship) were the most prominent observed. In addition, a close and high dependence on resources affecting supply chain sustainability (SCS) adoption was identified. For example, within intermediary–cooperative relationships, a power imbalance caused mostly by financial resource dependence generated a negative impact on economic sustainability related to unfair prices and unfair trade. The results, thus, showed the detrimental influence of intermediaries among AFSC members on SCS adoption.

A greater understanding of power imbalance and dependence can help AFSC members to identify their weaknesses and develop actions to adopt sustainability.

Unlike previous research, the authors go beyond the often positive research focus of SCS studies and provide, through the resource dependence theory, a longitudinal view on how power imbalance negatively affects SCS adoption.

Digital intermediaries such as Google and Facebook are seen as the new powerbrokers in online news, controlling access to consumers and with the potential even to suppress and target messages to individuals. Academics, publishers and policymakers have raised concerns about the implications of this new power, from the impact on media plurality to implications for democratic discourse, freedom of speech and control over public opinion formation. After reviewing academic literature that has raised this concern and public policy addressing it, this paper aims to examine the empirical foundations for these claims. Through secondary analysis of industry data on referrals of online news traffic, the authors find that intermediaries do have the potential to exert significant influence over distribution of online news. The authors however find that not all news that is filtered through intermediary services is subject to the same shaping and editorial forces, in part, because user agency is also an important factor. The role of intermediaries in news distribution is thus complex; headline numbers do not translate automatically into influence due to the complex interplay and exchange between user agency and the editorial influence of intermediaries.

This paper is based mainly on a secondary analysis of publicly available data on news referrals, and some data provided by news publishers along with re-analysis of regulatory data from Ofcom and previously unpublished data from the BBC and SimilarWeb. These data sources are combined for the first time to investigate claims regarding the current controversy about media plurality, algorithmic power and transparency.

The paper finds that evidence that intermediaries wield concentrated editorial power is mixed. While other, non-intermediated news distribution platforms such as TV and the press remain highly important, online is heading towards being the most important distribution platform, particularly for younger demographics. The authors found that intermediaries such as search and social control access to a significant proportion of online news content. Not all use of intermediaries is indicative of online gatekeeping however. User agency also determines how content is prioritised and thus consumed. The news consumed is therefore a product of a complex interplay between user agency and intermediary influence. In contrast to traditional discussions of media power and its regulation (for example the notion of mass media plurality); it is thus not possible to make inferences on influence simply by noting the market share of intermediaries. The role of intermediaries is much more subtle and opaque.

This paper is mainly based on publicly available data. It is crucial to find out what is possible with such data as regulators with responsibility for monitoring and regulating media plurality are similarly limited to such data. The implications are that further research with a wide range of methods and data sources will be necessary to update research on media plurality and diversity.

The implications of these findings are that independent public authorities should have access to much more revealing data about public opinion formation processes, including referrals and other data currently held only by publishers. The three stage analytical framework will be of use to regulators and policymakers currently looking into these issues.

Civil society and public debate about digital intermediaries is currently intensively discussed in policy debate. Taking these debates forward will depend on whether existing public policy frameworks (such as limits on news plurality) are able to accommodate the new challenges such as intermediary influence on news distribution and public opinion formation.

The recent special issue of INFO, including contributions from Mansell and Helberger, raised a range of similar issues with regard to media plurality and intermediaries. These papers did not seek empirically to examine in depth, using all available publicly relevant data, the implications for media pluralism and diversity in one particular media market. The paper is theoretically original, contains some previously unpublished data and an entirely new empirical and theoretical analysis. The models and tables are previously unpublished.

While prior studies have examined how loyal customers create value for preferred manufacturers, this study aims to focus on the supply chain and captures the indirect economic and relational benefits and costs of customer value creation on channel intermediaries.

Service-dominant logic is used to explain the rationale behind consumer contributions and supply chain connectedness in an interactive online world. Drawing from the relevant literature, a conceptual model supported by propositions is presented.

As manufacturers utilize consumer contributions, affiliated intermediaries will report having less informational power, providing less value to the channel, greater benefit-based and cost-based dependence, heightened efforts to create channel value, an enhanced reputation and greater sales, and greater collaboration with customers.

This conceptual paper is the beginning of an investigation into the pragmatic function of a service-dominant view as it pertains to a marketing channel. As this avenue for research is further developed, it is important that the propositions included in this study first be examined.

Awareness of the underlying logic and the resulting impacts should aid channel intermediaries in realizing their own contributions throughout the manufacturer ' s value chain and recognizing changes to their positions of power. As a result, channel intermediaries should be better positioned to assess the health and future prospects of the relationship.

This work is the first study to examine potential impacts on the intermediary operating in a channel in which the manufacturer is significantly influenced by consumer contributions.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

Considers the need for industrial producers (intermediaries) to be flexible and adapt their channel, e.g. commercial and consumption, strategies to the changing demands of producers and end users. Summarizes that the differing outputs demanded by the above – e.g. steady flow of consumption and stock inventory for the former, product variety and waiting time for the latter – should not conflict even though end users dictate the intermediaries priorities. Concludes that intermediaries should position themselves effectively between producers and end users and differentiate in order to retain their niche and avoid being taken over, the above being capable of performing many of their functions themselves.

The purpose of this study is to present a conceptual overview of the price transmissions within agri‐food supply chains. Analyzing price transmission in agri‐food supply chains is essential since imperfect price transition may result in market power. This is an important issue that needs attention, given that the structure of agri‐food retail in Europe, USA and Canada is experiencing rapid change towards retail power.

The conceptual overview draws on a review of different approaches in analyzing transmission of prices through an agri‐food supply chain based on supply chain analysis and price transmission studies.

Three key challenges are identified in analyzing price transmission in agri‐food supply chains: structure of the supply chain; factors affecting price transmission; and supply response.

This paper presents a novel concept in analyzing price transmission in agri‐food supply chains using price transmission literature and bi‐directional flows of information and products in agri‐food supply chains

This study seeks to understand the opinions of internet users toward extreme speech on social media platforms and their willingness to censor such speech. The purpose of this paper is to examine how norms of freedom of expression are changing in an online communication environment dominated by these platforms.

Four focus groups were conducted in this study. Participants needed to use at least one social media platform daily. Groups were homogeneous in terms of race and gender: African-American females, African-American males, white females and white males.

Participants in general did not report a strong willingness to censor extreme speech on social media platforms. Rather, they expressed apathy and cynicism toward both their own and social media companies’ ability to combat extreme speech and make online discourse more positive. Female participants tended to value the overall health of public discourse and protection of more vulnerable social media users on social media platforms. African-American female participants called for platforms to recognize a special duty to protect minority users, whom they saw as responsible for the platforms’ success.

Focus groups are useful for providing exploratory rather than generalizable data. However, by increasing the understanding of how individuals define extreme speech on social media, these data can reveal how individuals rhetorically shape the social media platforms and interpret their role in democratic discourse.

This research takes the rich field of studying tolerance toward extreme speech to new territory: the online realm where public discourse (and especially extreme discourse) is hosted more and more.

In the debate on rural development, contract farming (CF) is pointed out as a mechanism that reduces constraints on farmers' access to resources and improves farmers' welfare. However, the role of intermediaries' power in farmers' contracting decisions has not been investigated thoroughly. Considering that intermediaries' power affects farmers' businesses, livelihoods, risk and profit sharing, it becomes imperative to understand its effects on contracting decisions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions over which intermediaries exercise the power they hold over farmers and how these power dimensions influence farmers' participation in CF.

A survey was conducted in the leading Albanian MAP production region, Malësi e Madhe, with 168 sage producers interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is employed to develop measures for the latent variables of the study (e.g. intermediaries' power), and a logit regression is used to assess CF determinants.

The study finds that intermediaries exercise their power over different dimensions of farmers' activities, namely profit margin and activities related to product quality. The results point out that intermediaries' exercised power over farmers' margins and product quality-related activities decreased farmers' likelihood to engage in CF. On the other hand, a farmer's commitment to the intermediary and investment in specific assets increased the likelihood of participation. Furthermore, the analysis shows that CF does not leave small farmers out of high-value agricultural commodity chains (HVAC) for highly labour-intensive crops.

The analysis focuses only on one sector with export orientation. Generalisation to other sectors is limited due to the specific features of the MAPs value chain.

The paper expands the debate on CF by adding the concept of intermediaries' power and its different dimensions of influence on farmers' participation in CF.

Legal intermediation is an emerging theoretical concept developed to grasp the importance of the process and actors who contribute to legal endogenization, in particular in the field of economic activities and work governed by various public regulations. This chapter proposes to extend the analytical category of legal intermediary to all actors who, even if they are not legal professionals, deal on a daily basis with legal categories and provisions. In order to deepen our understanding of these actors and their contribution to how organizations frame legality, this chapter investigates four examples of legal intermediaries who are not legal professionals. Based on field surveys conducted over the past 15 years in France on employment policy, industrial relations, occupational health and safety regulation, and forensic economics, I make three contributions. First, the cases show the diversity of legal intermediaries and their growing and increasingly reflexive roles in our complex economies. Second, while they are not legal professionals per se, to different degrees, these legal intermediaries assume roles similar to those of legal professionals such as legislators, judges, lawyers, inspectors, cops, and even clerks. Finally, depending on their level of legitimacy and power, I show how legal intermediaries take part in the process of legal endogenization and how they more broadly frame ordinary legality.