Background: Open innovation is a recently discussed concept, which contrasts the traditional way of innovating. After several large companies have already adopted this approach successfully, the academic debate continues about possible application of this concept for SMEs. Moreover, current literature highlights the importance of intermediated networks to support open innovation among these SMEs. Purpose: This study determines in what way intermediaries act as facilitators for open innovation in SME networks. The literature suggests several different functions that intermediaries execute, without being clear about the connection to open innovation. Therefore, we critically examined Science Park Jönköping as a potential facilitator for open innovation. Method: We conducted a single-case study on Science Park Jönköping’s SME network and collected qualitative data through in-depth interviews. The analysis of the data includes interpretations of the codes of the interviews as well as aggregations of these codes in an inductive way. Conclusion: Our study differentiates between two service levels Science Park Jönköping provides. Regarding the in-house environment, we conclude that intermediaries facilitate open innovation among SMEs through providing a supportive environment based on geographical proximity. As far as the networking projects are concerned, we conclude that regional intermediaries might be hindered to facilitate open innovation among SMEs due to the characteristic of their networks.

This study explores the capabilities of collaborative intermediary organisations (CIOs) and its value generating potential at the city scale. As an emerging organisational form, CIOs create public interest value by creating specific platforms for deliberations and collaboration between diverse stakeholders. This study is important in light of growing and divisive economic and social disparities. Effective solutions to complex problems require legitimate collaborative platforms aimed at creating public interest value. CIOs are one such platform. This study first explores the Johannesburg inner city context to understand the potential and design implications for CIOs. It furthermore identifies CIO capabilities and explores the question of how CIOs create value. Sixteen interviews with CIO leaders, experts and sector representatives from business, government and the community involved with CIOs were conducted. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather qualitative data which was analysed through content analysis. The research findings suggest that despite a challenging partnership context, through particular design considerations and relevant organisational capabilities, CIOs are a useful and noteworthy enabler for public interest value creation. The identified capabilities are collaborative leadership, the ability to build trust in action, supporting weaker sector to fulfill mandates, sound analytical skills as well as distinctive attributes which emphasise a commitment to the long term. CIOs create value directly by convening partners, providing a neutral platform and a ‘translation’ service, as well as through creatively leveraging diverse perspectives. The findings further show that leadership and mutual interest between sectors are the primary sources of CIO value. The value is realised through interaction between the respective partners which provides a host of intangible benefits. The study furthermore shows the potential of capable CIOs to activate further collaborative value. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / zkgibs2015 / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

During the past few years, South Africa established a competitive headquarter tax regime, which was implemented with the primary goal of encouraging foreign direct investment in South Africa. An important secondary goal was for South Africa to be used as a Holding Company location through which multinational entities can invest into sub-Saharan Africa. Although the Headquarter Company regime was developed to prevent any direct losses to the fiscus, it did not create any direct benefits or advantages. Internationally, substance requirements have a two-fold purpose: to encourage resident tax entities to engage in active economic activities, and to prohibit income losses due to tax avoidance or evasion. Some of the most important substance requirements are set out in a country’s policies on permanent establishment, beneficial ownership and transfer pricing. Another effective manner to encourage economic activity is to offer tax incentives to activities usually associated with Headquarter Companies. These activities include, but are not limited to active management, granting loans, leasing, and the provision of intellectual property. This research concludes that the inclusion of substance requirements in headquarter tax legislation will not only directly benefit the fiscus, but it will indirectly benefit the economy as a whole. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Taxation / unrestricted

This diploma thesis aims to discover, how crowdfunding influences traditional distributional structures. There are many possibilities, how to approach the problem. I have decided to compare the role of the intermediary in different forms of financing. This means, that by "distributional structures", I understand forms of financing. I compare five forms of financing, that altogether define all important kinds of financial transactions between two subjects: The bilateral model, Crowdfunding, Venture Capital, Market and Banks. As a tool for comparing all the forms, I created "Intermediate chain", that describes the way from one demanding subject, who realises his needs, through finding offering subject, to making and fulfiling a contract. I use the intermediate chain, that analyses this way, to describe all the forms of financing. The outcome of this process is a very detailed description. I describe all the models to verify, how crowdfunding takes over the function of other models. The theoretical frame of the analysis is disintermediation. Only by putting the analysis into this theoretical frame, the whole thesis becomes reasonable: The point is not to describe all the models, how people trade with each other. By the question about the influence of crowdfunding on traditional distributional structures, I...

Thesis advisor: Sarah Babb / How does the “World Factory” mediate between the rising labor cost and the intensive order fluctuation to maintain its production? While previous studies have focused on the politics of production at workplace and types of flexible employment to explain the effective control of workers and labor cost, this study argues that more attention needs to be paid to the intermediating power of labor market agencies, which has become the organizational forces for establishing informal and nonstandard employment relations. Based on two-month fieldwork at two labor staffing agencies in Shanghai and a yearlong track of changing labor prices in one of the agencies, this study finds that a flexible hiring system based on seasonal production has been established to maximize the adaptability of the manufacturing industry. This recruiting practice, through adjusting economic incentives and obscuring labor contracts, enables the market to relocate workers into different factories as production requires, thereby redistributing the total workforce under labor shortage. While workers consent to these arrangements because of high economic rewards, they also highlight doing temporary jobs as exercising control over their labor power, a strategic tool to detach themselves from the rigorous factory regime. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

Yes / We find a negative relation between firm-level political risk and future delta-hedged equity option returns. A quasi-natural experiment based on Brexit corroborates this finding since after the referendum there is a decrease in the option returns of the positive-Brexit exposure firms. The predictability is driven by the jump risk component of political uncertainty, is more pronounced in periods of high intermediary constraints and is stronger among high-demand pressure options but weaker among politically active firms. Finally, consistent with a risk-based explanation, investors of options on politically risky firms get compensated with high returns when major unexpected political shocks take place.

In the past three decades China’s rapid transition from a closed economy to become the factory of the world has astonished economists all over the world. Surveys among sourcing practitioners show that China is the most interesting market for sourcing and research points to lower costs as the main reason.This dissertation is an exploratory study of the role of the intermediary for Swedish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that source from China. Three questions are discussed. The first question concerns why Swedish SMEs choose to source from China. Although costs are a major factor for the companies, it is usually other triggers that cause the change in strategy, such as management interest or pressure from a large customer. The second research question concerns how Swedish SMEs choose to source from China and how the role of the intermediary is related to this process. The study shows that finding a good supplier is not difficult. The companies use informal channels, references and sometimes unorthodox methods such as following the supplier of the raw material to find suppliers that deliver high quality goods. The problem is however to maintain a steady quality and on time delivery which is why intermediaries are introduced late in the relationship. The cases in this study show example of five different intermediated strategies; Direct, Service,Traditional, RepO and FICE/WFOE. The traditional intermediated strategy is the only strategy where there is little or no relation between buyer and supplier, whereas the other four strategies involve different degrees of interaction between all three actors in the dyad; the buyer, the supplier and the intermediary.The third research question concerned the role of the intermediary. The study shows that the respondents are influenced by their structural view on what role the different forms of intermediaries may take. Although the respondents discuss the importance of having a long-term view on the relationship with the supplier they continuously allow intermediaries to enter the relationship on a short-term basis for quality control. These quality control centers (QC) commonly work on a fixed commission based on services that has to be specified. When the buyers are trying to change their strategy to look for an intermediary with higher involvement they usually turn to internal intermediaries (i.e. subsidiaries). When deciding on a long term intermediary the buyer usually looks for competences that supplement their own knowledge – that is Chinese language, good knowledge of the Chinese market but also technological competence. What the western owned intermediaries in China stresses however is the need to find intermediaries to supplement the suppliers’ competences, so that they are able to translate the needs of the buyer’s customer and becomes a physical reminder that they are sent from the buyer. The case of QC, shows that if a company let the relationship with the intermediary develop through interaction they can become just as involved.The study is based on interviews with key informants at Swedish SMEs andat different types of intermediaries in China. The empirical data are presented infive themes developed through an iterative process of theoretical studies anddata collection. The first two themes are directly related to the first tworesearch questions. The third theme focuses on the sourcing process andactivities of four small Swedish design companies. The fourth theme displayshow the intermediaries in China discuss their role. Finally, the fifth theme pictures the supply chain of one focal company at five points in time when they are in the process of changing their supply chain to increase transparency. / Disputationen sker fredagen den 30 mars kl. 13.00 i sal B1014 på Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping

Background: Sustainable development is considered to be one of today's most comprehensive challenges, which will require extensive changes, adaptations and innovation in all levels of the society worldwide. Simultaneously, the social and economic phenomenon of tourism has seen remarkable growth and development over the last decades, leading to become one of the fastest-growing economic sectors in the world, as well as a key component of the evolving socio-economic progress. However, the integration between these two requires extensive adjustments and further knowledge in the process of sustainable destination development, where this study takes an intermediary perspective.  Purpose: The purpose of this research is to evaluate and explore how a tourism intermediary in Sweden is working with sustainable development and how they can utilize their position in the process of developing a geographical area as a sustainable destination.  Method: This thesis is a qualitative study with an exploratory nature, where in-depth phenomenologically based interviews build knowledge upon exploring the participant’s responses through a series of three separate interviews. Thematic analysis was used to find patterns and relationships in order to analyze and validate the raw data, which later was applied to frameworks and previous literature to strengthen and build a final analysis.  Conclusion: This study shows how sustainability efforts need to be enhanced and extended beyond internal processes to successfully strive towards sustainable destination development. By taking collective responsibility and putting more pressure on co-operations, creating strong networks to communicate and collaborate, incorporate internal education of sustainability and familiarize with frameworks and follow-up tools, the intermediary position can be utilized to its full potential.

Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen var att studera förhållandet mellan offentliga skuldregister och hushållens skuldsättningsgrad samt att bidra till att öka kunskapen om den eventuellt förekommande informationsasymmetrin på kreditmarknaden.  Frågeställningar: Vilket samband förekommer mellan hushållens skuldsättningsgrad och införandet av offentliga skuldregister? Vad anser intermediära förmedlare och banker om införandet av ett eventuellt offentligt skuldregister?  Metod: Studien genomfördes med hjälp av triangulering innehållande en kvantitativ och en kvalitativ forskningsansats. Studiens urval bestod av 19 stycken europeiska länder, varav 11 stycken har och 8 stycken har inte offentligt skuldregister. Historisk data från år 1995 till år 2021 har inhämtades från OCED:s webbplats och analyserades med hjälp av Pearsons korrelation och Student t-test. Intervjuer har även genomförts med intermediära förmedlaren UC och Nordax Bank.  Slutsats: Resultaten tyder på att informationsasymmetri föreligger på kreditmarknaden och att delade meningar om fenomenet förekommer. Ett samband som är på gränsen till starkt förekommer mellan hushållens skuldsättningsgrad och införandet av offentliga skuldregister. Intermediära förmedlare har en negativ syn på införandet av offentliga skuldregister medan banker har en positiv inställning till införandet av offentliga skuldregister.  Nyckelord: informationsasymmetri, intermediär information, intermediär förmedlare, moralisk hazard, offentligt skuldregister. / Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to increasing knowledge about the potential occurrence of information asymmetry in the credit market by studying the relationship between public debt registries and grade of indebtedness for households.  Research questions: What is the relationship between the household’s grade of indebtedness and the implementation of public debt registries? What do intermediary intermediaries and banks think about the potential introduction of a public debt registry?  Method: The study employed a comprehensive approach utilizing triangulation that combined both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The sample comprised 19 European countries, of which 11 had implemented public debt registries while 8 had not. Historical data spanning from 1995 to 2021 was gathered from the OECD website and subjected to analysis using statistical tools such as Pearson's correlation and a Student t-test. Additionally, interviews were conducted with the intermediary UC and Nordax Bank to further enrich the study's findings.  Conclusions: The result indicates the existence of an information asymmetry in the credit market, but there are divergence opinions about the phenomenon. The findings suggest the presence of a nearly significant negative correlation between household debt levels and the introduction of public debt registries. Intermediaries hold a pessimistic view regarding the implementation of public debt registries, while banks exhibit a favorable stance towards their adoption.  Keywords: information asymmetry, intermediary information, intermediary intermediaries, public debt registry.

This dissertation offers a platform to understand the nature of cluster initiatives as a socio-economic phenomenon combining cluster, entrepreneurship and intermediary features. They are particular types of ventures facilitating networks and dialog platforms adjusted to local contexts and offering a way to enhance regional development. The success of clusters and regions is shaped by the degree they are based on and involve entrepreneurial activity, which is viewed here under the prism of cluster initiatives. This dissertation uses both qualitative and quantitative approaches to study various organizational aspects of cluster initiatives and their intermediary role as well as providing recommendations for the management and support of these organizations. It is based on five papers written by the author of the dissertation solely and in collaboration with other scholars where the level of analysis is focused on cluster initiatives. Based on empirical material from the papers this dissertation brings together both the structural and organizational content of cluster initiatives by providing evidence in the areas of actors and relationships, mode of organization and intermediary specific, assessment and management as well as policy. This work has generated the following conclusions: firstly, cluster initiatives represent organizations bringing together a four-faceted constellation of interrelated actors (i.e. the initiative itself, key player, support and target group), through organization of intermediary activities. Secondly, these organizations are organized as temporary projects, but being able to attract many members and to satisfy their needs through diversified and innovative activities can help them to achieve longevity. The longevity of initiatives can also be supported by policy, which in order to become effective, should include a long-term perspective and bottom-up approach. And finally, the study proposes a model of five central qualitative success factors to be used for the assessment and management of the initiatives, which together depict a holistic picture of their functioning. This model contains elements such as idea, driving forces, activities, organization and critical mass. The two models of interrelated actors and of success factors form the main contribution of this work. Extending the stream of studies this dissertation raises awareness and calls for recognition of cluster initiatives as important actors working in-between the boundaries of other organizations and institutions. / PIE/HELIX