MARKETING IN AN UNDERDEVELOPED ECONOMY: THE NORTH INDIAN SUGAR INDUSTRY.

By LeonHirsch '52. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1962. 392 pp. $4.50.

In 1959 the Ford Foundation established a Doctoral Dissertation Competition for the purpose of recognizing excellence in research by graduate business students. Each year five doctoral dissertations receive this distinguished award. Dr. Hirsch's book was one of the five awards for the 1959-60 academic year.

During the last decade we have seen a number of articles and monographs but very few books dealing with the marketing aspects of business in underdeveloped countries. In part, this reflects the difficulties one faces in gathering secondary data from government, university or trade association sources in the underdeveloped countries. Language barriers and a general hostility on the part of businessmen to reveal their operating procedures and policies have also compounded the problem. Despite these obstacles, Dr. Hirsch has successfully described the marketing of North India sugar, largely through direct contact with the industry's business leaders.

By restricting his investigation to a single product of a single country he was able to develop a comprehensive picture of the marketing process. This included the procurement of cane, the sugar factories' selling activities, and the efforts of intermediaries such as selling agents, brokers, wholesalers, and retailers. The bulk of his work represents a description of the functions performed by these institutions as they move this product (second only to textiles in India) to market.

In a final statement, however, the author concludes that the process followed in the marketing of North India sugar, as revealed by his research, exemplifies the application of economic principles found in advanced economies. This is in contradiction to the beliefs of many students of business who have examined underdeveloped countries and concluded that the organization of businesses is not profit oriented because of limited needs and social customs. The author concludes that while institutional frameworks will vary markedly the basic behavior patterns of buyers and sellers in an underdeveloped country will be the same as those found in a well-developed country.