Paper info

Economic rationality or sociological legitimacy? The conditions under which multiple channel strategies are effective

Yonghoon Choi and Yoritoshi Hara

The paper was published at the 35th IMP-conference in Paris, France in 2019.

In recent times, the proliferation of channel options available for manufacturers such as the Internet or global channels has become the rule rather than the exception. Focusing on the multiple channel literature, we try to elucidate the antecedents of manufacturers’ intention to invest in multiple channels. As drivers of investment, we shed light on effectiveness-oriented factors (i.e., contribution of current channel to firm’s profit and synergies between direct and indirect channels), as well as legitimacy-oriented factors (i.e., mimetic pressures and normative pressures). We test our research question by exploring what multiple channel investments pay off better. Based on the experiences of 249 B2B manufacturers in various industries in Japan, if manufacturers invest in multiple channels, the investments are likely to contribute positively to channel performance. In contrast, investments in multiple channels negatively affects channel performance, when the manufacturers intent to invest is forced by mimetic pressures.