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ABSTRACT The use of several distinct channel types by suppliers to serve a given product-market is rapidly becoming the dominant design. Such increasingly complex distribution systems present unique opportunities and problems for marketers, including how to most effectively manage the intrafirm, interchannel conflict resulting from channel coalitions competing with one another for resources, both internal (expenditures, personnel) and external (customers). Moreover, it is unclear whether conflict in a hybrid distribution system is “good” or “bad” for the supplier firm. We develop a theoretically-grounded conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of hybrid channel conflict and offer several empirically testable research propositions, including a contingency framework for determining the functionality of hybrid channel conflict. Perhaps most important in terms of contribution to the marketing literature are the conceptualization of hybrid channel conflict itself and the associated definitions which we present in this paper.
Webb et al. (Mon,) studied this question.