Multiple marketing channel conflict with a focus on the Internet a dual perspective

Abstract: The emergence of electronic commerce has led many companies to complement their reseller networks with direct-to-the-customer Internet sales. This inevitably creates conflict. The way companies view and manage channel conflict is consid-ered to be an important success factor. Accordingly, the purpose of this research was to explore and describe managers' perspectives on conflict in multiple market-ing channels, with a focus on the Internet. To ground the research, personal, open-ended interviews were conducted with managers at Ducati and SAS. The results of these interviews, along with an ex-tended literature review, formed the foundation for a survey among resellers of those companies. The results of this research question some of the premises in the channel conflict literature. Specifically, goal incompatibility and inadequate communication were found to have a direct and negative effect on resellers' performance. In contrast, channel conflict per se was not detrimental to firms. It is postulated that it is the causes of conflict, and not necessarily conflict itself that are harmful. Clearly, goal incompatibility and inadequate communication are damaging to performance of firms. If companies do not attend to goal compatibility and communication among chan-nel members, resellers are likely to end the relationship or otherwise behave in their own interests. For example, resellers that represent multiple firms are likely to discriminate against a company with whom they have poor communication and incompatible goals. Consequently, producers are encouraged to promote open communication with their channel members and ensure that their goals and those of their resellers are in alignment. A tangible example of the importance of goal compatibility is found in the fact that a firm that involves its resellers in its Internet sales achieves positive outcomes. To put it simply, channel integration yields lower conflict and higher performance.