Distributor Whistle-blowing Deterrence: A Review and Prospects

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-459-4_104How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Distributor whistle-blowing; the dealers’ “banding together”; Perceived deterence; Network Intensity

Abstract

In channel marketing, the phenomenon of distributors uniting, or “banding together for warmth,” serves to consolidate their voice in advocating for collective interests and bolstering market presence. However, this excessive cohesion may foster detrimental competition within the channel, adversely affecting overall performance. Internal whistle-blowing among distributors emerges as a crucial mechanism to mitigate opportunistic behaviors. Nevertheless, in societies where relationships (GUANXI) prevail⁴, the costs of promoting internal whistle-blowing significantly surpass its advantages for the distributor network. Consequently, this study suggests harnessing the deterrent impact of internal whistle-blowing to diminish channel management expenses while concurrently obstructing the spread of opportunistic practices among the cohesive distributor collective. Although deterrence perception has undergone thorough investigation in psychology and related fields, it remains underexplored within the realm of marketing channels. This paper, therefore, delves into the theoretical underpinnings of deterrence perception, delineates the interplay between distributor whistle-blowing and collective deterrence effects, and underscores the pivotal role of deterrence in shaping future inquiries in channel marketing.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jingsong Chen
AU  - Kun Tan
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/07/23
TI  - Distributor Whistle-blowing Deterrence: A Review and Prospects
BT  - Proceedings of the 2024 9th International Conference on Social Sciences and Economic Development (ICSSED 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 935
EP  - 944
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-459-4_104
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-459-4_104
ID  - Chen2024
ER  -