Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

5-1998

Abstract

Using data from automobile dealers in the Netherlands, the authors find that dealers' punitive actions toward their key suppliers are affected by their perceptions of their own and their supplier's interdependence and punitive capabilities, as well as by the supplier's punitive actions. Punitive actions are affected by interdependence, but a more complete picture is achieved by also examining punitive capability. The authors test hypotheses based on bilateral deterrence, conflict spiral, and relative power theories, but none of these comprehensively explains the effects of both total power and power asymmetry. Dealer punitive actions are inhibited as total interdependence increases, but are promoted as total punitive capability increases. Using spline regression, the authors find that interdependence asymmetry has no direct effect on punitive actions, whereas punitive capability asymmetry does. As dealers' punitive capability advantage as compared with their suppliers' increases, dealers make greater use of punitive actions, whereas they use fewer punitive actions as their punitive capability deficit increases. The authors also find that dealers with a relative advantage in dependence or punitive capability are more likely to reciprocate their supplier's punitive actions.

Keywords

marketing channel, influence strategies, developing-country, power sources, commitment, dependence, performance, perceptions, behavior, outcomes

Discipline

Marketing

Research Areas

Marketing

Publication

Journal of Marketing Research

Volume

35

Issue

2

First Page

225

Last Page

235

ISSN

0022-2437

Identifier

10.2307/3151850

Publisher

American Marketing Association

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.2307/3151850

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