分销渠道管理：效率因素[外文翻译].doc

Distribution channel management: power considerations 原文： The role of power in distribution channels Channels of distribution can be viewed as social systems comprising a set of interdependent organizations, which perform all the activities (functions), utilized to move a product and its title from production to consumption. Because of this interdependency there arises a need for some form of co-operation between channel members and co-ordination of activities. This co-operation and co-ordination is necessary in order to ensure predictability and dependability between members which will allow individual organizations to plan effectively. Also, conflict arises in channels, because members sometimes have incompatible goals, differing ideas as to the functions each should perform, and differing perceptions of reality. This conflict needs to be controlled so that it does not disrupt channel functioning. Power or, rather, the use of power by individual channel members to affect the decision making and/or behavior of one another (whether deliberate or not), is the mechanism by which the channel is organized and orderly behavior preserved. This is not meant to imply that organizations necessarily set out deliberately to organize the channel, but that this organization of the channel arises out of individual organizations adjusting their behavior to one another in relation to the power they each have and use. However, in some channels, firm(s) may assume a leadership role and make deliberate attempts to organize the channel, making use of their power. Power is the means by which co-operation between individual channel members’ activities are co-ordinate and the means by which any conflict between firms is controlled. Bierstadt [7], in a general context, has aptly summarized the role of power in any system: “Power supports the fundamental order of society and the social organizations within it, whenever there is order. Power stands behind every association and sustains its s