Drawing on the DTDP experience, this paper presents preliminary evidence of on-farm technology adoption and accompanying welfare benefits for DTDP project beneficiaries. The empirical findings help to affirm the significance of institutional interventions financed under the SE model in delivering these welfare outcomes. Three modalities for these interventions are identified and categorized according to their respective functions in risk mitigation, provision of access to knowledge and technical skills, and delivery of basic services such as education, health and infrastructure. In offering a framework for assessing the continuing relevance of institutional interventions over time, the typology highlights the risk of creating a culture of dependency, and underscores the importance of formulating exit strategies at an early stage in the project’s development.
Based on the empirical findings, a conceptual clarification is proposed, providing new evidence for the significance of SE as a practical mechanism for delivering agro-innovation outcomes; the new conceptual framework carries implications for technology adoption and agricultural development policy. The study is limited by its single case approach; further quantitative research is needed covering multiple case studies across countries in emerging economies in order to quantify the interactions among specific institutional interventions and output variables. It would also be pertinent to investigate specific challenges to scale-up or replication of SEs, including limits to organizational growth, and the inherent incompatibility of grass-roots approaches with a distant and impersonal management associated with increasing organizational scale. These issues represent important avenues for future research.
Finally, it must also be acknowledged that DTDP has evolved within a unique institutional and leadership context; thus it 144

is to be expected that effectiveness of replication may be constrained without comparable levels of leadership, political support and financial resources. The focus of this study on institutional rather than organizational influences means that the significance of organizational leadership has not been considered. Nevertheless, DTDP’s unique organizational context, and the personal adulation among Thai people for H.R.H. Srinagarindra, the Princess Mother, have certainly been instrumental in securing the goodwill and cooperation of government agencies and the private sector; future studies may attempt to quantify such benefits and evaluate the role of organizational leadership among SEs.