Study On The Influence Factors Of Relationship Commitment In Marketing Channel

The relationship between manufacturers and dealers in their marketing channels directly affects competitive advantage of enterprise. It has been the focus in the field of marketing research. The attitude of channel members expectation to keep the relationship each other,i.e., relationship commitment is key factor to retain and coordinate it. From the view of the dealers, the paper studies how the main channel factors influence relationship commitment in the background of China through investigation, which can offer some suggestions for the manufacturers to improve channel relationship with the dealers.There are lots of factors influencing channel relationship commitment,and this study sums up four main factors that have been discussed widely such as values and norms, service quality, trust, relationship termination costs. The comprehension on influence factors of relationship commitment is good for analyzing the classification and reasons, and offering some strategies for the manufacturers to maintain channel relationship with the dealers.Based on what we analyzed and the review of the literature, the paper advances a model of influence factors of channel relationship commitment. Then, we use the questionnaires to investigate the dealers of electronic product in Wuhan and Guangzhou. We found that there may be a positive relationship between values and norms and relationship commitment (income commitment, switching cost commitment, affective commitment). Additionally, a positive association between service quality and income commitment was encountered; a negative relationship between service quality and switching cost commitment was found; a positive association between service quality and affective commitment was encountered. We found that there may be a positive relationship between trust and relationship commitment (income commitment, switching cost commitment, affective commitment). Furthermore, a positive relationship between relationship termination costs and relationship commitment (income commitment, switching cost commitment, affective commitment) was found.