Marketing Commons^™

An Investigation Into The Unintended Consequences Of Downstream Channel Allowances, William Jason Rowe

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Downstream channel allowances involve the practice of selling firms making payments to customers in exchange for distribution of a product. Such transactions occur most frequently in a business-to-business exchange. Although various forms of channel allowances have been investigated over the past three decades, the literature is lacking in guidance regarding whether or not, and to what extent, the salesperson should control these payments. Relying on the theoretical underpinnings of cognitive evaluation theory, this dissertation takes the initial step in understanding the effects of customer perceptions of salesperson control over allowances, with special attention to the impact on the customer-salesperson relationship. …