Apparel Manufacturers ’ Use of Factory Outlets to Increase Market Power: An Exploratory Study

Apparel manufacturers throughout the United States have sought to achieve greater market power through the use of a multiple channel marketing strategy, selling merchandise throughfactory outlet stores in addition to selling through retail channels. The purpose of this study was to develop an underlying conceptual framework that incorporated the use of this strategy to increase market power, and to conduct an exploratory study to test relationships between changes in market power, expressed as internal and external control, and economic outcomes. Data were generated from responses to a mailed questionnaire completed sufficiently by seventeen of the twenty-two apparel manufacturers in Missouri who used this multiple channel strategy. A significant relationship was found between internal control and economic outcomes, and between external control and economic outcomes. These findings suggest that apparel manufacturers may want to consider using a multiple channel marketing strategy to improve market power as evidenced by economic outcomes