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Supermarkets have spread extremely rapidly in developing countries after the 'take-off' in the early to mid-1990s. Former analyses of supermarket diffusion have not adequately explained the sudden burst and then exponential diffusion of supermarkets in the late-1990s and early-2000s. We argue that rather than taking demand and market institutional and organizational conditions as "exogenous", as former analyses have tended to do, modern food retailers instead have treated local conditions as substantially "endogenous". To enable their rapid growth, supermarkets undertake "proactive fast-tracking strategies" to alter the "enabling conditions" of entry and growth. Beside the retail investments that have been extensively treated in recent literature, these proactive strategies focus on improving the "enabling conditions" via (1) procurement system modernization and (2) local supply chain development. One important strategy retailers have used to facilitate (1) and (2) is to form symbiotic relationships with modern wholesale, logistics, and processing firms. An example we address is "follow sourcing", where a transnational retailer encourages transnational logistics and wholesale firms with whom the retailer is working in home markets, to locate to the developing country. This is a spur to globalization of services in support of retail. Follow-sourcing has been treated for example in the automobile manufactures sector (follow-sourcing from spare parts manufacturers) -but not in the food sector. A second important strategy is that of multi-network-sourcing, in which supermarkets source from national, regional, and global networks. We analyze that strategy here, adding to the literature which to date has touched on this theme only scantly, and for the first time identify typical paths, present preliminary evidence (from Central America and Indonesia) concerning this multisourcing-network strategy, and discuss trade implications. One of these is the move to primacy of South-South trade in supermarket sourcing -a new dimension of globalization. By introducing this link of retailer transformation and trade into the literature, we hope to spur a new line of research that is timely in light of the trade, development, and globalization debates in developing countries.
Supermarkets have spread extremely rapidly in developing countries after the 'take-off' in the early to mid-1990s. Former analyses of supermarket diffusion have not adequately explained the sudden burst and then exponential diffusion of supermarkets in the late-1990s and early-2000s. We argue that rather than taking demand and market institutional and organizational conditions as "exogenous", as former analyses have tended to do, modern food retailers instead have treated local conditions as substantially "endogenous". To enable their rapid growth, supermarkets undertake "proactive fast-tracking strategies" to alter the "enabling conditions" of entry and growth. Beside the retail investments that have been extensively treated in recent literature, these proactive strategies focus on improving the "enabling conditions" via (1) procurement system modernization and (2) local supply chain development. One important strategy retailers have used to facilitate (1) and (2) is to form symbiotic relationships with modern wholesale, logistics, and processing firms. An example we address is "follow sourcing", where a transnational retailer encourages transnational logistics and wholesale firms with whom the retailer is working in home markets, to locate to the developing country. This is a spur to globalization of services in support of retail. Follow-sourcing has been treated for example in the automobile manufactures sector (follow-sourcing from spare parts manufacturers) -but not in the food sector. A second important strategy is that of multi-network-sourcing, in which supermarkets source from national, regional, and global networks. We analyze that strategy here, adding to the literature which to date has touched on this theme only scantly, and for the first time identify typical paths, present preliminary evidence (from Central America and Indonesia) concerning this multisourcing-network strategy, and discuss trade implications. One of these is the move to primacy of South-South trade in supermarket sourcing -a new dimension of globalization. By introducing this link of retailer transformation and trade into the literature, we hope to spur a new line of research that is timely in light of the trade, development, and globalization debates in developing countries.
Maize is the principal agricultural crop produced by Zambian smallholder farmers for household consumption and sale. Their production strategy is therefore important in meeting food security and income needs. This study uses data collected from a survey of a random sample of farm households in southern Zambia to develop a Tobit regression model. The model identifies farm and farmer characteristics important for adoption of improved maize seed varieties as well as to determine the role of farmer perceptions of technology attributes in maize varietal adoption. The results indicate that expectations about output price and yield are important determinants of adoption. Other factors directly correlated with the probability of adoption include the status of being male-headed, farm size and membership to farmer organizations. Households with more wealth and educated heads were also significantly more likely to adopt improved varieties. Some of the policy implications of these findings are that intervention strategies should be designed and implemented to encourage poor households and those with low levels of formal education to participate in local farmer organizations. The positive interaction between membership to organizations and the adoption of technologies also suggests that group based extension approaches should be encouraged not only for their role in collective action but also for their positive impact on information diffusion and technology adoption.
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