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This study empirically explores one of the important channel issues – the relationship between various channel support given to channel partners and the perceived (by managers) goal‐orientation of a firm. Results from an emerging market, India, indicate that perceived orientation towards both profitability and market share is not associated with any of the channel support considered. Growth orientation however is strongly associated with most of the channel support activities – both business (e.g., business advice, pricing and ordering assistance, and personnel training) as well as marketing (advertising support, sales promotional material, and inventory management assistance) oriented activities. In contrast, perceived sales volume orientation is only associated with advertising support and business advice, however, the relationship is negative. These findings have interesting implications for channel management and channel motivation.

Introduction The purpose of this paper is to explore possible mechanisms that could be employed by members of a distribution channel to increase the level of meaningful communication among them, especially in actual or potential conflict situations. Pragmatically, our concern is with achieving the establishment within a channel of superordinate goals—goals greatly desired by all those caught in dispute or conflict which cannot be attained by the resources and energies of each of the parties separately, but which require the concerted efforts of all parties involved. It is proposed here that channel members approach the state where they can adopt such goals as communication and interaction between them increase.

This monograph progresses from a consideration of definitional issues to the development of a conceptual model for marketing‐logistics interaction and finally to a discussion of the issues of implementation of the model within the context of marketing strategy. Thus, following an introduction, Part II begins with definition of the field and examines the position of physical distribution in relation to marketing. Part III discusses the relationship of physical distribution and macro‐marketing, and is thus concerned about the social, aggregative goals of logistics systems, including the costs of distribution. Part IV continues this argument, examining specifically the influence of physical distribution on channel structure. Part V then focuses on the assumptions underlying the customer service function, asking how physical distribution can influence final demand in the market place. Part VI presents a conceptual model of marketing‐logistics demand stimulation. The operational issues concerned with its implementation are shown in Part VII; and a summary of the relevant points is presented in Part VIII. The concern has been not with presenting either new computational models nor empirical data but with presenting a new perspective on the marketing‐logistics interface. There is a need to reduce the barriers between these fields and to present more useful ways for co‐operation.

A trend has been developing in the United States towards the use of vertical marketing systems. Of the many types of vertical marketing systems, franchising has become one of the most dominant. This is evidenced, in part, by the nearly one‐third of retail sales in 1973 that were through franchised retailers (US Department of Commerce, 1974). The success of the franchise form of distribution hinges upon franchisors and franchisees both contributing skills and resources, frequently however franchisees and franchisors become dissatisfied with the other's contributions and actions. This dis‐satisfaction in some cases leads to substantial friction. Although it is not clear that conflict (friction) will always decrease channel efficiency it is probably safe to assume that continued conflict would be dysfunctional in a franchise channel. It is therefore the purpose of this article to discuss and empirically test several propositions about the franchisee's satisfaction with his franchisor.

Linear programming is one of the most widely used management science models. Our aim in this paper is to explain the nature, structure, characteristics, and application of linear programming in terms that make sense to the business manager. To the extent possible, we shall keep our presentation at a very elementary level of mathematics.

Channel control has become increasingly more important to both marketing practitioners and researchers. The manufacturers' ability to influence the marketing policies, strategies, and tactics of other channel members has been recognised as a critical element in the organisation's survival and effectiveness. However, current trends in the economy have made channel control by the manufacturer increasingly difficult. One technique that can help increase manufacturer control by increasing channel dependence is the use of minimum order quantities.

Despite the noticeable gains in agricultural productivity in the last decade, people are still dying from starvation and malnutrition. While part of the problem is inadequate food supplies at the national level, nutrition problems relate to physical and economic access to food. The key to improving access to food for the rural and urban poor consumers in developing countries lies in reforming the food distribution or marketing system. The objective of this paper is to define food marketing system parameters, delineate the imperatives of marketing system reform, and recommend actionable managerial strategies for their reform.

Market reforms have resulted in dramatic changes in the Russian business climate. Since 1991, when nearly all small shops were owned by the state, nearly 70,000, or one‐half of these shops, have been transferred into public hands. Similarly, about 3,500 medium and large firms have been privatised with the goal being to privatise one‐third of this size firms by the end of 1995. In addition to this massive transfer of ownership, foreign investment has surged with currently over 18,000 operating joint ventures having an investment value of over $10 billion (Kvint, 1994).

Previous research in the area of distributor performance proposed different scales, mostly in western, developed country context. These studies also lacked the consideration of dynamic interaction between variables, which determine the distributor’s performance. This paper proposes a composite Distributor Performance Index (DPI) to evaluate distributors’ performance based on at the “Enables” and “Results”, taking a system dynamics approach. The model results have been discussed and validated, in business marketing channel. The context of this study is India, an emerging market.

This study examines the extent to which retailer's country of origin and product assortment influence retailer operating practices. Although conventional wisdom suggests practices are likely to vary by country, universal aspects of the retailing task may lead to similarities in retailing practices for a given product, regardless of national setting. To empirically investigate whether country or product is the dominant influence in determining retailer behavior, data on retailer activities in India and Africa is examined.