As late developers, emerging economies often skip many stages of development that advanced economies have gone through. This happens in physical and online retailing also. Also, as late developers, emerging economies are not wedded to 'legacy' ways of doing things; they experiment and innovate on multiple dimensions such as transacting, communicating, payments, delivery and service. A countervailing force is the weight of tradition in the emerging, sometimes several centuries old. In retailing, in many emerging economies, this means entrenched, traditional, and micro-scale retailers represent a significant social, economic and -- importantly -- political force. This session invites papers that examine the ongoing retail transitions in emerging economies: traditional to modern, domestic to multinational, physical to online, real to virtual, rural-to-urban and vice versa, re-seeking of traditions, and so on. Papers that examine tensions, histories, behaviors, conflicts, innovations, experimentation, influences, impacts, patterns -- especially at levels above individual enterprises -- are welcome. Of course, we seek geographic variety also, including comparisons and contrasts; including with advanced economies.

Queries related to this track may be addressed to Professor Nikhilesh Dholakia: nikdholakia@gmail.com Professor Ruby Roy Dholakia: rrdholakia@uri.edu