The Paradox of Wholesalers’s Survival: an Analysis Through Role and Legitimacy in the Context of Fruit and Vegetables distribution Networks

Role and position are key concepts in explaining both stability and change in distribution networks.Developing a shared understanding of roles with other actorshasbeen identified asa prerequisite for an actor thatwants to change theirposition in a network. Our research aims at understanding how such a shared perception of role develops through actors’ actions and interactions in networks. We explore the extent to which the concept of legitimacy helps in understanding the favourable conditions to develop a shared interpretation of role. The empirical setting of this research is the Frenchfreshfruit and vegetables (FFV) distribution that has been characterised by an important movement of disintermediation as large-scale retailers started to centralise their purchasing and marketing functions and to concentrate their supplies.Contrary to other product categories, wholesalers still keep on acting in such networks. Findings rely on a two-stepqualitative approach:a qualitative study based on interviews at three wholesalers and a multiple cases study of four FFV departments linked to a same regional divisional officebut contrasted on the way they interact with wholesalers. We thus aim at understanding wholesalers’new roles and positions in large-scale retailing distribution networksand at explainingwhy they still exist but, on the other hand, why they also encounterdifficulties to gain a more stable and lasting position.