Commercial Limits to Personality: Instagram Influencers and Commoditized Content Receptivity

Social media influencers-individuals who utilize various forms of network power on social networks occupy a unique identity space. On the one hand, their network power is often tied to their social identity as creators of engaging material. On the other hand, their ability to promote commercial products and services steps outside the traditionally distinct commercial–social, occupational–personal divides. In this work, the network morphologies of influencers are explored in relation to their delivery of sponsored and non-sponsored content. This article explores how the disclosure of content as ‘sponsored’ affects audience reception. We show how that the promotion of content on social media often generates higher levels of engagement and receptiveness amongst their audience despite the platform’s assumption of organic non-commercial relationships. We find that engagement levels are highest among smaller out-degree networks. Additionally, we demonstrate that sponsored content not only returns a higher level of engagement, but that the effect of sponsorship is relatively consistent across out-degree network sizes. In sum, we suggest that social media audiences are not sensitive to commercial sponsorship when tied to identity, as long as that performance is convincing and consistent.

Identification of robust retailing location patterns with complex network approaches

The problem of location is the cornerstone of strategic decisions in retail management. This decision is usually complex and multidimensional. One of the most relevant success factors is an adequate balanced tenancy, i.e., a complementary ecosystem of retail stores in the surroundings, both in planned and unplanned areas. In this paper, we use network theory to analyze the commercial spatial interactions in all the cities of Castile and Leon (an autonomous community in north-western Spain), Madrid, and Barcelona. Our approach encompasses different proposals both for the definition of the interaction networks and for their subsequent analyses. These methodologies can be used as pre-processing tools to capture features that formalize the relational dimension for location recommendation systems. Our results unveil the retail structure of different urban areas and enable a meaningful comparison between cities and methodologies. In addition, by means of consensus techniques, we identify a robust core of commercial relationships, independent of the particularities of each city, and thus help to distinguish transferable knowledge between cities. The results also suggest greater specialization of commercial space with city size.

Part 2 National and Regional Reports, Part 2.2 Asia: Coordinated by Yuko Nishitani and Béligh Elbalti, 32 Malaysia: Malaysian Perspectives on the Hague Principles

This chapter looks at Malaysian perspectives on the Hague Principles. Malaysia does not have any specific legislation or code for Private International Law. However, there are at least two specific acts which provide statutory guidelines for the recognition and enforcement of foreign decisions or awards in parties’ commercial relationships: the Malaysian Arbitration Act 2005 and the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgment Act 1958. Additionally, Malaysia is a Member State of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH), albeit not a contracting State to any of the HCCH Conventions. The Malaysian Attorney General’s Office is presently studying several HCCH Conventions to determine whether Malaysia can become a party to any of them. For the most part, and in line with Malaysia being a part of the Commonwealth, the principles of private international law have developed through judicial decisions of the Malaysian courts in determining issues ranging from the jurisdiction of the courts, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments, to parties’ choice of law in contracts. To this end, contracts governed by foreign laws are generally considered as valid in Malaysia, unless they fall under any of the categories of void contracts set out in section 24 of the Contracts Act 1950.

Ascending capitalism

In the medieval feudal societies, finance had traditionally depended on the ownership of land as the foremost source of wealth and income. Over time, however, the excessive demand for resources by rivalrous European rulers, together with the continuous expansion of trade routes and international commercial relationships, offered opportunities for financial innovation, while the growing volume of transactions also led to increased specialisation. Finance, thus, gradually evolved from auxiliary services into a sophisticated business. This chapter tracks some major developments of the era, ranging from novel instruments to the management of sovereign debt, commercial credit and the origins of modern corporations, and addresses the early theoretical contentions that were induced by the expansion of financial innovation.

Desafíos del productor nicaragüense en el mercado agrícola (regional y local) y alternativas de solución. Parte 2

The current article is divided in two parts. On a practical level, the interest of this research is to offer alternative solutions to the gaps in the regulatory framework of the Nicaraguan agricultural market, which pave the way for an unequal distribution of the economic resources generated by the national agricultural activity, in the agri-food supply chain. The objective was to determine the legal gaps that allow the unequal distribution of resources in the national agri-food supply chain and propose possible alternatives based on the agrarian doctrine. For this purpose, using analysis-synthesis, abstract-concrete, systemic-structural-functional and inductive-deductive analyses, the systems of marketing agricultural products in the countries of Central America and Nicaragua was examined and compared. As practice shows, small producers of food are not adequately protected and when it comes to commercial relationships their position is weak in the overall agri-food supply chain.

Law, Slaves, and Markets in the Roman Imperial System

There is a very close relationship between the development of the Roman legal system, grounded on the activity of the jurists, and the creation of an imperial network of commercial relationships in the Mediterranean Sea. We can see this in the late Republic, between the end of the third Punic War and the Augustan age—when Roman legal thinking transforms itself in a scientific knowledge, connected with the development of a world power. An essential feature of this society was slavery, as slaves played a crucial role in many aspects of the economy. During this period, Roman law created contracts and remedies essential to commerce, and so in many ways anticipated the commercial development of the modern world. But rather than defining commercial relations in such a way as to exclude slavery, Roman law reinforced the central role of slavery in Roman society.