The Power-Influence Process in a Channel of Distribution: A Seller's Market Perspective (Interorganizational Theory)

153 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1984.This dissertation focuses on the power-influence process within a distribution channel in the context of a seller's market. Specifically, it analyzes the relationship between the level of power of a firm, and the influence strategies used by its boundary personnel. It also investigates how the different types of influence strategies are intercorrelated; and the relationship between the actual power of a source firm in a seller's market, and the power attributed to it by the target firm in a channel dyad.Data collection for this research was done in India. Fifty-one dealers in the tungsten carbide tool industry were personally interviewed using a structured interview guide after the interview guide had been pretested on eight dealers.The construct of power was operationalized using Emerson's dependence framework. Eight relevant variables constituting dealer dependence were operationalized. Dealer dependence was equated with manufacturer power for every manufacturer-dealer dyad. Six influence strategies ranging from the most explicit to the most implicit were studied in this research. In order of increasing explicitness, these strategies are: information exchange, requests, recommendations, legalistic pleas, promises and threats.The level of manufacturer power was correlated with the frequency of use of each of these six influence strategies. It was observed that a manufacturer's power correlates positively with its frequency of use of relatively explicit strategies such as threats, promises and legalistic pleas. Conversely, manufacturer power was found to correlate negatively with its frequency of use of relatively inexplicit influence strategies comprising information exchange, requests and recommendations. A positive relationship between the actual power of a source firm and the power attributed to it by the target firm was uncovered in this research. Frequencies of use of threats, promises, and legalistic pleas were found to be positively intercorrelated. Frequencies of use of information exchange and request strategies were also positively correlated. Finally, frequencies of use of threats, promises and legalistic pleas were found to be negatively correlated with the frequencies of use of information exchange and requests.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD