The effect of embeddedness on purchase behaviour of rural unorganised retailers: implications for transnational corporations in developing economies

This study began with the identification of the antecedents of the purchase behaviour of rural independent retailers through a survey of experts and specialists in rural marketing. The evidence from social sciences shows that retail markets in the economically less developed countries function in similar ways. Such a similarity in social structures may be explained using the concept of embeddedness. The concept of embeddedness has, therefore, been used to select the antecedents for developing a questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses helped in validating the scale and in identifying the significant antecedents of purchase behaviour. The significant antecedents of purchase behaviour have been used to design a conjoint study. Following the conjoint study, the utility values of the antecedents of the purchase behaviour of are computed. Certain optimum combinations of these antecedents are also presented.