ABSTRACT. Dawson holds that, for the retail sector, internationalization is the latest stage in its continuing integration into a consumer driven globalized economy. Coe and Wrigley map out a detailed research agenda with respect to the host economy impacts of transnational retailing. Reardon et al. contend that the rapid take-off of supermarkets was due to a set of critical conditions on the demand side and to two other factors: a supportive institutional and policy environment in the 1990s, and to proactive fast-tracking strategies in marketing and procurement by both retail trans-national corporations and leading domestic retailers.