Alberto Sa VinhasSharmila ChatterjeeShantanu DuttaAdam Fein • Joseph LajosScott NeslinLisa ScheerWilliam RossQiong Wang

The marketing literature has made significant progress toward a better understanding of how firms can effectively design and manage their channels of distribution. However, the complexity of today's channel systems raises additional issues that remain unaddressed. The purpose of this article is to suggest promising research directions in this domain. We suggest several possible avenues to relate multiple channel design and management to channel-system, channel-relationship, and customer-level outcomes. In particular, we see a great opportunity to integrate

[1]  Todd J. Arnold,et al.  Achieving relationship marketing effectiveness in business-to-business exchanges , 2008 .

[2]  Barton A. Weitz,et al.  The Use of Pledges to Build and Sustain Commitment in , 1992 .

[3]  John G. Lynch,et al.  Interactive Home Shopping: Consumer, Retailer, and Manufacturer Incentives to Participate in Electronic Marketplaces , 1997 .

[4]  James A. Narus,et al.  Business marketing: understand what customers value. , 1998, Harvard business review.

[5]  Martin Fassnacht,et al.  The Role of Soft Factors in Implementing a Service-Oriented Strategy in Industrial Marketing Companies , 2003 .

[6]  Inge Geyskens,et al.  How cannibalistic is the internet channel? A study of the newspaper industry in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands , 2002 .

[7]  Michael A. Cusumano,et al.  The Business of Software: What Every Manager, Programmer, and Entrepreneur Must Know to Thrive and Survive in Good Times and Bad , 2004 .

[8]  Bart J. Bronnenberg,et al.  The Emergence of Market Structure in New Repeat-Purchase Categories: The Interplay of Market Share and Retailer Distribution , 2000 .

[9]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[10]  Joseph P. Cannon,et al.  An Examination of the Nature of Trust in Buyer–Seller Relationships: , 1997 .

[11]  R. Normann,et al.  From value chain to value constellation: designing interactive strategy. , 1993, Harvard business review.

[12]  R. Oliver,et al.  Perspectives on Behavior-Based versus Outcome-Based Salesforce Control Systems , 1987 .

[13]  E. Anderson,et al.  Patterns of Credible Commitments: Territory and Brand Selectivity in Industrial Distribution Channels , 1997 .

[14]  Kevin L. Webb,et al.  Hybrid channel conflict: causes and effects on channel performance , 2002 .

[15]  Gary L. Frazier,et al.  Determinants of Distribution Intensity , 1996 .

[16]  F. Dwyer,et al.  Environmental Relationships of the Internal Political Economy of Marketing Channels , 1985 .

[17]  Jan B. Heide,et al.  Understanding Dual Distribution: The Case of Reps and House Accounts , 1995 .

[18]  O. Williamson The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach , 1981, American Journal of Sociology.

[19]  Robert W. Palmatier,et al.  Use of relationship marketing programs in building customer-salesperson and customer-firm relationships: Differential influences on financial outcomes , 2007 .

[20]  S. Neslin,et al.  Multichannel customer management: Understanding the research-shopper phenomenon , 2007 .

[21]  Stephen L. Vargo,et al.  Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution , 2008 .

[22]  Gary L. Frazier Organizing and managing channels of distribution , 1999 .

[23]  Jan B. Heide,et al.  Do Norms Matter in Marketing Relationships? , 1992 .

[24]  Dawn Iacobucci,et al.  Commercial and Interpersonal Relationships; Using the Structure of Interpersonal Relationships to Understand Individual-to-Individual, Individual-to-Firm, and Firm-to-Firm Relationships in Commerce , 1996 .

[25]  Robert W. Palmatier,et al.  Customer Loyalty to Whom? Managing the Benefits and Risks of Salesperson-Owned Loyalty , 2007 .

[26]  Ning Li,et al.  Trust at Different Organizational Levels , 2008 .

[27]  S. Hunt,et al.  The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing , 1994 .

[28]  Dominique M. Hanssens,et al.  The Impact of Marketing-Induced versus Word-of-Mouth Customer Acquisition on Customer Equity Growth , 2008 .

[29]  Erin Anderson,et al.  The Salesperson as Outside Agent or Employee: A Transaction Cost Analysis , 2008, Mark. Sci..

[30]  J. Liebeskind,et al.  Contractual Commitments, Bargaining Power, and Governance Inseparability: Incorporating History Into Transaction Cost Theory , 1999 .

[31]  Rupinder P. Jindal,et al.  Determinants of the Variety of Routes to Market , 2007 .

[32]  P Morris,et al.  Why IT Projects Fail , 1997 .

[33]  L. Stern,et al.  The Effect of Influence Type and Performance Outcomes on Attitude toward the Influencer , 1992 .

[34]  Alberto Sa Vinhas,et al.  How Potential Conflict Drives Channel Structure: Concurrent (Direct and Indirect) Channels , 2005 .

[35]  Charlotte H. Mason,et al.  The role of distribution in the diffusion of new durable consumer products , 1990 .

[36]  Jacquelyn S. Thomas,et al.  Challenges and Opportunities in Multichannel Customer Management , 2006 .

[37]  M. Dekimpe,et al.  The Market Valuation of Internet Channel Additions , 2002 .

[38]  P. Verhoef,et al.  The effect of acquisition channels on customer loyalty and cross-buying , 2005 .