Environmental Determinants of Decision-Making Uncertainty in Marketing Channels

To function, a marketing channel must have a certain amount of consensus and coordinated decision making among its members. Marketing channel theory has emphasized the "internal" mechanisms of achieving integrated actions. However, channels consist of exchanging organizations that are affected not only by their collective interests, but also by forces "external" to the relationship. Internal coordination mechanisms are likely to be less effective to the extent channel members are faced with uncertainties emanating from external sources. The authors examine the external or environmental factors affecting decision-making uncertainty in channels. The findings indicate that four dimensions-diversity among consumers, dynamism, concentration, and capacity-should be included in future research on the effects of environments on intrachannel variables.