Engaging retailers: giving them voice or controlling their voice, a supplier’s perspective

Hirschman (1970) suggests that every member of a group can influence the group by either expressing their voice or exiting the group. Subsequent research has looked at exit-voice loyalty from the supplier-retailer perspective (Blois, 2008). This paper takes an overview of the wholesaler-retailer relationship in the UK convenience sector; it considers how their approach to exit-voice-loyalty may be affecting the wholesalers’ turnover. The results of the research suggest that the wholesalers do not use cost of exit or enabling retailer voice exclusively; instead they now tend to combine both within their retailer relationship strategies