Abstract
When l commenced this study l had two major objectives. The first was to find the factors which hold the trade associations together. It is amazing that any large group of retailers can retain its cohesionbeyond the immediate needs of short-run strategy when those same retailers are in continual competition with one another.
The questions to be considered were:
(1)What stimuli induced the individuals to co-ale see intogroups?
(2)Who were the men who led the groups and what were their motives ?
(3)How did they hold the groups together after the removal of the initial stimuli, after the objectives had been reached, or after it became apparent that the objectives were unattainable?
Although I am acutely conscious that I cannot answer these questions completely, I hope that my attempts have not been entirely unsuccessful. Where i have been able to gain access to the relevant records l have been able to trace the stimuli which caused certain reactions. [Extract from Preface]