On the effects of customer conditions on distributor commitment and supplier commitment in industrial channels of distribution

Commitment in channel relationships has received increasing research attention lately. Although a number of driving forces of commitment have been identified, all of them are dyad-specific factors, and the potential influence of the environmental conditions on commitment has been ignored. The author broadens the scope beyond the distributor-supplier dyad and suggests that the commitment of channel members is affected by not only the dyadic factors, but also by the changes in customer conditions. The results of a national survey of industrial distributors and suppliers indicate that the impact of customer conditions on supplier commitment is different from their impact on distributor commitment. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.