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This chapter studies the conditions under which market intermediaries reward or sanction market actors who deviate from the prevailing categorical order. The authors first assess how the expertise of a market intermediary – an understudied determinant of their authority – can lead to a positive evaluation of categorical deviation. Then, the authors identify two inhibitors that are likely to temper such positive appraisal: identity preservation and competition among market intermediaries. Factoring in both micro-level and macro-level dimensions of market dynamics, this chapter contributes to research on market intermediaries, the evolution of category systems, and more broadly, to the microfoundations of institutional change.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact mechanism of workers’ perceived justice, trust and job satisfaction (JS) on their continuance participation intention in the crowdsourcing market.

An e-questionnaire was posted as an online task on Zhubajie, and data from 304 valid questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS 3 software.

Results show that crowdsourcing workers’ distributive and interpersonal justice have a significant impact on their trust in the task requester, while procedural and informational justice significantly affect their trust in intermediary management. Workers’ trust in the task requester and in intermediary management positively affects JS, which ultimately affects their continuance participation intention in the crowdsourcing market.

Based on the social exchange theory, this study examines the positive impact of workers’ justice perception on their continuance participation intention. It dissects the inherent mechanism of workers’ justice perception about their continuance participation intention using three variables of trust in the task requester, trust in intermediary management and JS.

Given the positive relationship between workers’ justice perception and continuance participation intention, crowdsourcing intermediary website managers should adopt effective measures to enhance workers’ justice perception to strengthen their continuance participation intention.

This study explores factors that influence workers’ continuance participation intention and their inherent mechanism in the crowdsourcing market based on justice and social exchange theories. It is an extension of research on continuous participation behavior in the crowdsourcing field.

To construct a theoretical framework for understanding the impact of the digitalisation of transactions on the organisation of export intermediation.

This is a conceptual/research paper with a number of illustrative examples – primarily from SMEs.

In the paper, a range of internet‐enabled forms of export intermediation are derived, offsetting the conventional trade‐off between resource commitment and marketing control.

The paper holds a number of relevant insights for export managers seeking to integrate the possibilities of the digital revolution in the organisation of their export marketing activities. These include reshuffling of export marketing tasks among the actors in the marketing channel and new forms of activity specialisation among actors.

Using the theoretical framework of Alderson in combination with transaction cost theorizing. The paper provides a novel theoretical approach for understanding the evolution of marketing institutions in the export marketing field.

What characterizes the relationships with intermediaries that are soon to be replaced, and are the replacements successful? The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The study applies a longitudinal design. The paper conducted a survey among a sample of exporters concerning their relationships with independent intermediaries in terms of trust, commitment, communication, control and two performance variables; financial performance and strategic goal achievement. Five years thereafter the author contacted the same companies again and questioned which independent intermediaries had been replaced in the period. The author then compared the replaced intermediaries with the extended intermediaries before they were replaced and analysed changes in the evaluations of the relationships and of the performance after the replacement.

The relationships with terminated intermediaries that were replaced by sales subsidiary or home-based direct sales were characterized having higher trust, communication and control than extended relationships before replacement. While it may be surprising that these quite successful relationships were terminated, this is in line with internationalization process theories. The replacements, both intermediaries that were replaced by other intermediaries and by sales subsidiary/home-based direct sales, were highly successful in terms of improvement in performance and behavioural relationship variables.

The empirical findings are limited by the sample and by data collection from the principal only in the dyadic relations.

International independent intermediaries should analyse the likelihood of being replaced by the principal because the relationship or the performance is unsatisfactory, but also because of satisfactory evaluations. Terminations of satisfactory relationships tend to be accompanied by change in operation mode to internal organization. The independent intermediary should in such cases build a defence structure against unwanted termination and/or prepare for buyout. The success of the replacements suggests that international marketers benefit from being proactive in replacing intermediaries with new intermediaries or with a hierarchal entry mode.

This is the first study that applies most of these variables from interorganizational relations theory in the study of international independent intermediary replacements. It is also the first to give insight into the consequences of intermediary terminations.

Previous research suggests that constructions of legitimacy play a central role in the development of markets, yet little attention has been given to how that legitimacy is constructed through the material practices of market actors. This paper aims to address this gap via an examination of cultural intermediaries in the fine wine market of Shanghai.

An interpretive thematic analysis was carried out on data from 13 semi-structured interviews with fine wine intermediaries based primarily in Shanghai (5 wine writers/educators; 5 sommeliers/retailers; 3 brand representatives).

The dimensions of the legitimation of wine were examined, identifying three key themes: the legitimacy of intermediaries as experts; the legitimacy of a particular mode of wine consumption; the legitimacy of the intermediaries as exemplars for not-yet-legitimate consumers. These findings suggest that cultural intermediaries’ personal, consuming preferences and practices are significant to the formation of a new market, and that they must negotiate potential tensions between interactions with legitimate, not-yet-legitimate and illegitimate consumers.

Limitations with regard to generalizability are discussed with regard to potential future research.

The focus on cultural intermediaries and dimensions of legitimation can be used to examine the case of other emerging markets to anticipate the pathways to institutionalizing new forms of taste and consumption practices.

The paper offers an empirical insight into the market dynamics of distinction in the Shanghai wine market and conceptual insight into the importance of cultural intermediaries as exemplar consumers.

For many exporting firms, success in foreign markets hinges to a large extent on the performance of their foreign intermediaries (Albaum, Strandskov, & Duerr, 2002; Ellis, 2000; Root, 1987). In spite of the key role played by intermediaries in foreign markets – i.e. sales agents and independent distributors (Solberg & Nes, 2002) – exporters often regard them as temporary arrangements and second-best alternatives to conducting foreign marketing, sales, and service activities in-house. The typical assumption is that foreign intermediaries are low-control entry modes (Hill, 2003; Root, 1987) that do not have the potential of exploiting the full sales potential of export markets. In other words, foreign intermediary arrangements could have inherent limitations that foster mediocre rather than excellent market performance. Several studies report that exporters generally distrust foreign intermediaries and suspect them of shirking at any given occasion (Beeth, 1990; Nicholas, 1986; Petersen, Benito, & Pedersen, 2000). Poor performance is sometimes expected. On the other hand, foreign intermediaries often find that exporters put in place incentive structures that do not induce them to achieve excellent performance. Hence, it is asserted that foreign intermediaries may deliberately seek mediocrity rather than very poor or outstanding performance.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to examine recent developments in European policy debates concerned with whether governments should intervene in the digital intermediary marketplace to protect the public’s interest.

The paper discusses the public’s interest in the evolution of the digital intermediary marketplace, considers the economics and policy literature on the case for policy intervention in the market dynamics of digital platforms and examines the extent to which policy makers in Europe are catching up with changes in the market for digital platform services.

It is argued that policy-makers need to broaden the evidence base upon which they consider whether policy intervention is needed beyond economic analysis. This is essential to ensure that the European digital intermediary marketplace develops in line with economic, social and cultural goals.

The case is made for measures to ensure continuous and integrated monitoring of developments in the digital marketplace based on economic indicators and evidence on the diversity of media content.

Suggestions are made about the need for innovations in the way policy makers develop the required evidence base for their decisions.

The paper draws attention to the need for proactive policy making based on a consideration of economic, social and cultural goals to ensure that digital intermediaries are held accountable.

The paper provides a multidisciplinary perspective on the dynamics of the digital intermediary ecology and assesses the extent to which the European digital market strategy provides an integrated initiative that is likely to be implemented.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research question: how can intermediaries contribute to social impact creation through their interventions at different levels of distribution networks in the base of the pyramid (BoP) markets?

The paper adopts an embedded case study of an intermediary organization. The analysis focuses on the intervention of the intermediary on the distribution stages of supply chains in four different projects in the food sector in Ethiopia, Benin, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

The embedded case study reveals essential formal and informal roles undertaken by the intermediary organization to develop decentralized distribution networks based on local micro-entrepreneurs. The study proposes that efforts undertaken by the intermediaries toward knowledge sharing and capacity building among partners can enable the adoption of pro-poor strategies across the supply chain. Moreover, hybrid intermediaries can act as “guardians” of the mutual value creation approach since one of their key roles is to advocate the needs of the BoP.

Important implications for improving nutrition and food security in the BoP markets are developed based on the empirical findings. The findings open avenues for further research into the antecedents of retention rates in distribution networks based on local micro-entrepreneurs.

Findings have implications for different types of BoP initiatives by highlighting how intermediary organizations intervene to develop distribution models with a special focus on social impact.

This paper fills an important research gap by discussing social impact aspects in BoP supply chains by adopting the perspective of intermediary organizations.

This macroeconomic analysis chronicles the risk behavior of market-based financial intermediaries and traditional depository institutions from 1980 to 2010 and assesses the role that competition, financial innovation and regulation played in their evolving risk behaviors. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a two-part CAPM framework in line with Campbell et al. (2001), risk measures are constructed through the decomposition of industry-level risk and firm-level idiosyncratic risk. These constructed measures are used in a VAR model with a historical decomposition approach to assess the impact of the three factors on the relative risk behavior of these firms.

The results indicate that the market-based and traditional intermediaries exhibited a period of diverging relative average firm-level risk behavior followed by a period of converging risk behavior. Using the derived firm-level risk measures, the impact of competition, financial innovation and regulatory changes on explaining these changing risk behaviors is explored. The results suggest that regulatory changes (i.e. deregulation) can best explain the relative risk behavior over the divergence period through late 1999 relative to the other two variables. The period from November 1999 through the financial crisis marks the converging risk behaviors across these intermediaries. Over this period, the changing nature of competition played the most important role in driving these behaviors.

The key contribution of this analysis highlights the evolutionary changes in the risk behaviors of market-based and traditional financial intermediaries and the factors driving both their diverging and converging nature over time.