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Newly established intersections between offline and online channels create room for enhancing inter-channel synergies. The nature and structure of emerging markets only further emphasize the need to expand existing knowledge. Consequently, this study investigates inter-channel synergy creation during offline–online retail integration in emerging markets.

Data collected from 97 companies in Serbia that incorporated online channels into their offline retailing businesses were analyzed using the structural equation modeling method.

The results show that retailers who have undergone click-to-brick integration in the emerging markets struggle to leverage physical presence for inter-channel synergy creation through digital channels. Essentially, retailers integrating clicks into bricks in emerging markets are less likely to achieve immediate omni-channel synergy, resorting to a multi-iterative transition process.

This research synthesizes knowledge on inter-channel synergy creation in an omni-channel context, as well as existing findings regarding inter-channel integration. This paper presents the first comprehensive study on inter-channel synergy creation during click-to-brick integration in emerging retail markets. Moreover, this study outlines challenges facing retailers seeking channel synergy during click-to-brick integration. The study results have theoretical and practical implications regarding inter-channel synergy creation in the multi-channel environment of emerging markets.

When a company simultaneously manages several distribution channels, there are important issues regarding the sharing of marketing and logistical resources. This paper aims to discuss the integration of sales staff, communication and logistical operations to improve service delivery to multi-channel consumers.

The paper is based on a literature review regarding multi-channel strategy to build a conceptual framework. This framework is discussed using three illustrations from the French multi-channel distribution field (King Jouet, Fnac and Darty).

The exploratory research underlines the importance of information about how consumers order in different channels. This makes the global management of different channels difficult and threatens marketing and logistical sharing.

The integration process is becoming increasingly important in service recovery. Companies must therefore facilitate total access to logistical information. This requires an organisational interaction between marketing and the supply chain activities.

The paper underlines the importance of the integration process in service recovery management, particularly when a defective product must be replaced and a new product be made available to consumers.

Observes that traditional retail, catalog, and online‐only businesses face a critical decision – to accept a new, yet unrefined business model that includes multiple channels or to retain their single channel model and risk becoming obsolete and left behind by new, multi‐channel competitors. The decision process and implementation of a multi‐channel strategy could be simplified if businesses understood what drives consumers to a single channel, multiple channels, and which channels are preferred. Outlines the key issues facing multi‐channel marketers, and encourages multi‐channel businesses to take a customer‐centric view rather than a channel focused view to work through the challenges unique to the multi‐channel marketer. A model of multi‐channel buyer behavior is proposed to help the multi‐channel marketer develop a customer‐centric view. Presents a series of propositions which serve to encourage and direct future research in this area.

Many studies have examined the use of social media by either customers or firms, especially in developed markets. However, little is known about why young individual entrepreneurs use digital channels (DCs) as business platforms in emerging markets (EMs) and how they integrate them into their marketing activities. This paper aims to try filling this gap.

Given the exploratory nature of this research, the authors employ a qualitative approach based on a focus group (12 participants) and semi-structured interviews (8 participants) with young entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia. The authors adopted a deductive thematic analysis based on pre-determined theoretical frameworks to analyse and interpret the data.

The authors found that the young entrepreneurs mainly used Instagram, Snapchat and, to a moderate extent, YouTube as digital marketing channels for advertising purposes. However, they used WhatsApp for establishing direct contact and personalising communication with customers. The entrepreneurs used these channels because they are useful, easy to use, cost-effective, fun and widely used by local customers. The authors also found that the entrepreneurs used social media and offline channels conjointly in three main marketing activities (communication/promotion, transactions and customer service) to boost the customer purchasing process. The complementarity of social media and offline channels was found to improve brand visibility, enlarge markets and strengthen the customer relationship. However, the achievement of these benefits varied across small firms depending on the entrepreneurs' abilities in coordinating multiple channels and according to the distinctiveness of their businesses.

This study contributes to the entrepreneurial literature by extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to explain the motives behind the use of DCs amongst individual entrepreneurs. Furthermore, this paper proposes a novel theoretical framework for studying the interaction between online and offline marketing channels during the purchasing process. Through this framework, the study provides new insights into channel coordination and multi-channel customer behaviours from the entrepreneur's perspective.

This study helps understand why small firms use different DCs. Likewise, it shows how young entrepreneurs coordinate online/offline channels in a complementary manner. The findings could also help in designing appropriate programmes encouraging young entrepreneurs to use online channels and social media to enhance their business activities.

This study offers a novel attempt at explaining the use of DCs and their interaction with traditional channels from the entrepreneur's perspective and brings new insights to why and how young entrepreneurs use DCs in an emerging market.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and empirically test a conceptual model to predict the determinants of online channel use in a multi‐channel environment.

A case study of a free, multi‐channel entertainment magazine is used to statistically analyse a proposed model of customers' channel use (n=224) using an online survey of real consumers.

The findings in the paper confirm a number of determinants of consumer attitudes. Subjective norms and consumer attitudes positively affect behavioural intention to use and intentions directly relate to actual use. The results also indicate that three constructs (i.e. enjoyment, marketing efforts and age), one from each three main determinant groups (i.e. marketing variables, individual difference variables and channel attributes), are likely to be an accurate predictor of consumer attitudes.

The paper shows that enjoyment was an important factor among the younger, socially aware and somewhat hedonistically‐oriented consumers of the magazine. Firms should track consumer preferences from registration and then should try to create activities that give consumers enjoyment. Linking together of marketing efforts is very important. Advertising can be a great opportunity to grow online operations. Search engines and the use of incentives (prizes) can be useful in this regard. Firms should also advertise their web site through the offline channel or any places that can reach target consumers. A good mix of offline and online advertising can present a message and reinforce it for consumers in different channels.

This paper contributes towards understanding consumer behaviour in the online channel use context in a multi‐channel environment.

A well‐integrated multi‐channel format enables consumers to examine goods at one channel, buy them at another channel, and finally pick them up at a third channel. Multichannel retailing offers synergies, as it can result in an increased customer base, added revenue, and higher market share. Common characteristics of a well‐integrated retail strategy include: highly‐integrated promotions, product consistency across channels, an integrated information system that shares customer, pricing and inventory data across multiple channels, a process that enables store pick‐up for items purchased on the Web or through a catalog, and the search for multi‐channel opportunities with appropriate partners. This article provides a check‐list to enable a retailer to assess its readiness to undertake a multi‐channel strategy.

This paper aims to study the positive impact of functional conflict and conflict management in improving supplier–reseller relationship performance in multi-channel setting (reseller together with supplier’s sales reps). The authors develop four hypotheses, including direct and mediated effects, about conflict management, conflict and the impact on channel performance.

The authors’ sample of suppliers in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in Brazil consists of an interesting setting of multi-channel distribution, as suppliers deal with sales reps in combination with reseller channels to offer products to customers. The sample is representative of the industry, including more than 60 per cent of the ICT suppliers. The model was tested with partial least squares in the context of ICT industry in Brazil.

The empirical test shows that although an increase in functional conflict improves channel performance (direct effect), an excessive increase may amplify the dysfunctional conflict, thereby damaging channel performance (indirect effect). The negative interplay between the two natures of conflicts is counterbalanced with conflict management. Results show that conflict management improves channel performance by decreasing the harmful effects of dysfunctional conflict. This paper contributes to the theory by deepening our understanding of conflict, a critical challenge underlying supplier–reseller relationships in marketing channels. For managers, this research clarifies the importance of considering and managing conflict of different nature in the context of multi-marketing channels.

The contribution of the authors’ study is twofold. First, they develop an integrative mediating model with key constructs of multi-channels’ conflict and channel performance. They incorporate the causal relationships between functional and dysfunctional conflict, conflict management and channel performance into a single conceptual framework. This integrative mediating model to the best of their knowledge has not been developed before. Second, they provide managers with a broad understanding of conflict management implications to supplier’s multi-channel strategy, and how functional conflict can actually be beneficial for channel performance.

Besides having an important place in the daily lives of today’s consumers, technology impacts consumer behavior in variety of ways such as giving direction to their buying behavior, changing the characteristics that they expect from a product and the value they perceive, and influencing their satisfaction about the product. When omnichannel marketing is analyzed in this respect, it is an important issue that should be considered for the success of the marketing activities of the enterprises. This chapter will explain the single channel first and then multichannel marketing and omnichannel marketing concepts. The potential effects of omnichannel usage on issues about consumer behavior such as brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, perceived brand value, and buying behavior will be explained in detail. Then, the characteristics of the consumers using omnichannel and the factors affecting the success of these continents in terms of both consumers and businesses will be discussed. In this chapter, omnichannel marketing application examples will also be discussed in detail.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to identify, evaluate and structure the research that focusses on omni-channel retailing from the perspective of logistics and supply chain management; and to reveal the intellectual foundation of omni-channel retailing research.

The paper applies a multi-method approach by conducting a content-analysis-based literature review of 70 academic papers. Based on the reference lists of these papers, the authors performed a citation and co-citation analysis based on the 34 most frequently cited papers. This analysis included multidimensional scaling, a cluster analysis and factor analysis.

The study reveals the limited consideration of logistics and supply chain management literature in the foundation of the omni-channel retailing research. Further, the authors see a dominance of empirical research as compared to conceptual and analytical research. Overall, there is a focus on the Western retail context in this research field. The intellectual foundation is embedded in the marketing discipline and can be characterised as lacking a robust theoretical foundation.

The contribution of this research is identifying, evaluating and structuring the literature of omni-channel research and providing an overview of the state of the art of this research area considering its interdisciplinary nature. This paper thus supports researchers looking to holistically comprehend, prioritise and use the underpinning literature central to the phenomena of omni-channel retailing. For practitioners and academics alike, the findings can trigger and support future research and an evolving understanding of omni-channel retailing.

This paper aims to provide a systematic review of omni-channel marketing (OCM) literature and explore how it relates to business-to-business (B2B) marketing campaign development in the digital era. OCM’s evolution is tracked, exposing the areas in which research is most prevalent while also recognising knowledge gaps. Informed by these literature insights, the changing B2B channel dynamics that present within a digital era customer journey are appraised. An OCM model for B2B marketing campaign development is produced and avenues to further research are presented.

This paper uses a systematic approach to explore OCM literature. This review informs an OCM model for B2B marketing campaign development to help advance conceptualisation of OCM B2B customer engagement as an emerging phenomena in the digital era.

With just 21 papers identified, OCM is assumed to fit the criteria of an emerging concept as proposed in previous research studies. The proposed model presents the changing B2B omni-channel dynamics that can be used to create B2B OCM strategies, incorporating the myriad of B2B customer channels and touchpoints currently fabricating the modern B2B marketing terrain.

Conceptual in nature, there is a need for more empirical research to fully comprehend the emerging OCM landscape and how it relates to B2B customer dynamics.

This research provides much-needed conceptualisation of data capture and management strategies for B2B marketing campaign development across the omni-channel in the digital era. While systematic literature reviews exist within the OCM realm, none have charted the current OCM literature.