TY - JOUR
T1 - Managing Distributors’ Changing Motivations over the Courseofa Joint Sales Program
AU - Gu, Flora F.
AU - Kim, Namwoon
AU - Tse, David K.
AU - Wang, Danny T.
N1 - This project received partial funding from departmental research grants to the first author (Nos. A-PA6Y and G-YH45).
PY - 2010/9
Y1 - 2010/9
N2 - Ensuring joint program participation by distributors is essential to channel management. Although studies confirm that firms can promote distributor participation by attending to their participation motivations, the authors argue that distributors may change their motivations over the course of a joint program, driven by an increase of program-related information and how their peer distributors behave. Drawing insights from the information asymmetry literature, the authors postulate that distributors’ ex ante commitment is driven by their motivation to avoid losses, and after they participate, their ex post adaptation reflects rent-seeking motivations. This study also examines how the participation of peer distributors operates as an information signal that moderates the motivation–participation link for the focal distributor. In the context of an actual sales program, this study confirms the postulate of motivation shift and the salience of network-based information in distributors’ program participation. The results show that a manufacturer needs to manage its distributors’ participation in a discriminant, process-oriented, and system-sensitive manner by addressing the latter's diverse motivations, changing goals in the joint program, and influences from peer distributors.
AB - Ensuring joint program participation by distributors is essential to channel management. Although studies confirm that firms can promote distributor participation by attending to their participation motivations, the authors argue that distributors may change their motivations over the course of a joint program, driven by an increase of program-related information and how their peer distributors behave. Drawing insights from the information asymmetry literature, the authors postulate that distributors’ ex ante commitment is driven by their motivation to avoid losses, and after they participate, their ex post adaptation reflects rent-seeking motivations. This study also examines how the participation of peer distributors operates as an information signal that moderates the motivation–participation link for the focal distributor. In the context of an actual sales program, this study confirms the postulate of motivation shift and the salience of network-based information in distributors’ program participation. The results show that a manufacturer needs to manage its distributors’ participation in a discriminant, process-oriented, and system-sensitive manner by addressing the latter's diverse motivations, changing goals in the joint program, and influences from peer distributors.
KW - Information asymmetry
KW - Marketing channel
KW - Program participation
KW - Rent-seeking motivation
KW - Risk-avoidance motivation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77956570705&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1509/jmkg.74.5.032
DO - 10.1509/jmkg.74.5.032
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:77956570705
SN - 0022-2429
VL - 74
SP - 32
EP - 47
JO - Journal of Marketing
JF - Journal of Marketing
IS - 5
ER -