Intermediary and Intermediation: Which Logistics Services?

Background: What Is Intermediation?

Knowledge of the origins and emergence of the concept of intermediation is essential to understanding its evolution and transformations. Defined as a third-party entity in interaction with its environment, the intermediary has acquired a central position in many business and cultural networks. Representing a link, a transition, a transmission and a passage, it facilitates communication between several entities that contribute to the functioning of complex systems. The prefix inter- takes on different aspects: a spatial or temporal link between two persons; a mutual or reciprocal relation. Intermediation is an interaction giving rise to exchanges, in the form of an intervention intended to achieve an objective or to reach a peaceful agreement in the event of differences of opinion, conflict, misunderstanding, ignorance or information asymmetry, in other words within the framework of technical and/or information mediation.