For instance, the top fast-food chain by number of locations, Subway, added close to 6, 000 restaurants from 2008-2010, the Milford, CT-based company reports.
This type of impact by top-of-the-food-chain predators on lower trophic levels is well known in marine systems, said Peterson, and has been shown to occur in terrestrial systems in the study of invertebrates.
Breedon however has noticed that when payment terms are accelerated at the top of the chain - when for example the government pays promptly - there is a benefit to the supplier dealing directly with the end buyer, but not necessarily to those smaller companies sitting below the main supplier.