Seminar On “Sources of Power in Marketing Channel: Impact on channel member behavior”

Posted on October 22, 2018 by administrator

By: Prof. Pradip Sadarangani, Associate Professor, IIM Shillong.

Abstract of the talk:  Power is an important construct in retailing and channel management. The paper focused on the interrelation dynamics among sources of social power as well as the relationship among behavior of channel members and sources of social power. Trust, agent dependence, affective commitment and environmental munificence behavior of channel members are examined individually with relation to sources of social power. The paper established that the dichotomous nature of social power categorized as coercive and noncoercive power exists in context of emerging economy. The paper also established that the power sources are independent of each other. Except for trust, the coercive power sources are found to have no relation with the affective commitment, agent dependence, and environmental munificence. Whereas the noncoercive power sources can influence all examined behavioral dimensions. During analysis, an abstract concept ‘Power’ emerged indicating the presence of a latent concept which governs the social power sources. These findings offer a new paradigm in channel literature and call for further research in oriental as well as in occidental context. For practitioners, the paper highlighted the possibility of exerting coercive and non-coercive power sources to bring desired changes in channel member behavior. Also, acknowledged the power position between channel leader and channel member can foster more efficient association.