Marketing channels have faced rapid structural and functional transformations during the last few decades. While a large body of research has been devoted to understanding the supply-side aspects of marketing channels, much less research has taken the demand-side perspective to study consumer perception of channel position and functions. This article extends the channel literature to a broader domain and develops a consumer-based theoretical framework reflecting factors that influence consumer perception of and reaction to channel strategies and decisions. The authors conceptualize that consumers’ perceived channel value is a critical factor in determining their loyalty behavior. Seven important channel features are identified that would positively influence the perceived channel value. The relationship between perceived channel value and channel preference is strongly dependent on the level of customer value co-creation. The article concludes with research implications and suggestions of avenues for future research.

This study investigates the impacts of cross-buying behavior in an online shopping mall where customers can purchase from additional product categories from various independent stores. We focus on the extent to which store loyalty and relationship duration moderate the cross-buying effects on three behavioral traits: customers’ purchase rate, lifetime duration, and spending. The results reveal that customers who engage in cross-buying more intensely purchase more frequently, have longer expected lifetime duration, and spend higher amounts in each transaction. The impacts on purchase frequency and customer retention are even greater for customers who exhibit higher behavioral loyalty toward some stores. However, store loyalty is found to weaken the association between cross-buying and average spending. Further, relationship duration appears to weaken the effects of cross-buying on purchase rate and spending. These results provide new insights into the impacts of cross-buying on customer value as well as managerial implications for shopping mall owners.

This study examines the stock market's reaction to food tampering incidents to calculate the cost of such incidents to shareholders. It found that a firm loses approximately US$613 million in equity value on the day that news of a tampering incident is made public. The targeted firm also incurs additional costs that are associated with extra couponing to attract consumers after a tampering incident, litigation costs, and in some cases costs associated with removing the product from the market. Because food tampering incidents seem to only occur while the food item is in “the stream of commerce” and outside the manufacturer's direct control, the use of surveillance along the distribution channel and consumer education could be helpful in averting further incidents and possibly deaths.

Sometimes the study of international marketing channels is as fresh as the morning's newspaper. With our focus on cultural, sociological, political, and economic factors among others, many current ...

Collaboration between buyers and their suppliers often requires both parties to dedicate specialized investments to the relationship. These bilateral idiosyncratic investments serve as mutual hostages and signal commitment to the relationship, yet they are susceptible to expropriation. Drawing on research in social psychology and transaction cost economics, we argue that the nature of the bilateral idiosyncratic investments influences perceptions of a supplier's opportunism that in turn influences retailer opportunism and relationship outcomes. Data collected from 120 Norwegian managers of consumer electronics retail stores provide an assessment of the proposed model. The results indicate that the total and asymmetrical nature of the bilateral idiosyncratic investments influence perceptions of supplier opportunism and these perceptions, in turn, influence the retailer's opportunism and commitment to the relationship. Implications of these findings and future research are discussed.

Based on governance value analysis, social network theory, and resource dependence theory, this study proposed and tested a conceptual model exploring relationship flexibility in the third-party logistics (3PL) context. It contributes to knowledge of the relationship management and value creation dynamics with 3PL providers, important members of today's marketing channels. Specifically, network embeddedness and explicit contract are found to be positively related to 3PL customer firms' relationship flexibility that further has a positive significant impact on logistics performance. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are discussed.