Relationship and conflicts in distribution channels: a study in agricultural input industry

Abstract

This paper discusses the existence and the consequences of conflicts in marketing channels. The paper describes the main types of conflicts and the ways of minimizing them. Also, it is intended to relate the level of conflicts, first to the satisfaction of a distributor and second to his intention to invest in specific assets in order to increase his commitment to a particular supplier. Questionnaires were applied on 122 agricultural input distributors, when qualitative and quantitative information were collected. The results show that the level of satisfaction varies significantly according to the level of conflict, behaving as hypothesized by the authors. The same could not be said to which concerns to the level of investment in specific assets in the relationship with the supplier, considering the level of conflict.