Modelling the Role of Trust and Commitment in Predicting Channel Conflict Effects

Marketing channels are social systems, with continuous interactions between different individuals and organizations. As long as there are such interactions, conflicts are unavoidable. Conflict in channels are said to have two possible effects – positive effects (increased channel efficiency) and negative effects (reduced channel efficiency). In this paper, trust and commitment have been posited as determining whether conflicts would produce positive effects or negative effects. I have proposed that as commitment and trust increase in the channel, the more likely that when such conflicts occur, they would result in increased efficiency and as trust and commitment reduce in the channel, the more likely that when such conflicts occur they would result in reduced efficiency. Keywords: Channel Conflict, Trust, Commitmen