Abstract
Commodity chain analysis provides a means of diagramming and analyzing changes in the global supply of alcohol in a developing-country context over time and beginning to theorize about the implications of those changes for health and development. A new ideal type of commodity chain, the “marketing-driven” chain, is proposed to describe the emerging pattern of supply of globalized beer brands, and evidence is presented from Malaysia to illustrate how the commodity chain operates. What distinguishes marketing-driven commodity chains is their reliance on the downstream activities of marketing and brand establishment. Such a chain has two important implications: It places substantial power over the alcohol supply in the hands of transnational brand owners, and it relies on an intentional process of cultural change directed by the brand owners to alter and embed exogenous patterns of drinking in developing societies.
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