窜货是一个对制造商-经销商关系和品牌权益产生负面影响的严重问题,它最终会侵蚀分销渠道的完整性(Corey,Cespedes,&Rangan,1989;Myers&Griffith,1999),使正常经营的经销商经营效益下降、经营意愿下降甚至退出,从而导致制造商产品分销渠道萎缩。研究如何控制和减少窜货,在实践和理论上都具有重要意义。
作为营销渠道理论研究的领域之一,学术界主要从制造商-经销商双边关系的视角来研究窜货治理。Antia、 Bergen、 Dutta和Fisher(2006)研究了制造商对灰色市场制裁措施的有效问题。他们使用了威慑理论(Deterrence Doctrine)的相关构念,如严厉程度(Enforcement Severity)、确定性(Certainty)、速度(Speed),来研究制造商-经销商双边关系下的窜货治理策略。研究结论认为制裁的严厉程度本身并不能遏制灰色市场,制裁的确定性、反应速度等其他因素和严厉程度交互作用才会有效。制造商对窜货行为采取的惩罚措施属于正式制裁的范畴,它的作用效果在实践和研究中均得到证实。然而这个理论视角并不能穷尽对窜货意愿存在抑制作用的因素,因而不能囊括全部的窜货治理策略。为了加深对抑制窜货意愿因素的理解、拓展窜货治理的策略,笔者从社会网络的视角研究了社会制裁因素对窜货意愿的抑制作用,并基于研究结论开发了新的窜货治理策略。
在威慑理论中,除了正式制裁,非正式的社会制裁对违规行为的抑制作用也受到了肯定,运用威慑理论建立的犯罪学实证研究显示了非正式制裁(社会制裁)比正式制裁对犯罪行为的抑制更有价值(Paternoster,2010)。同一制造商的授权经销商之间存在着一个社会网络。这个网络的成员有着共同的利益诉求,即通过转售制造商的产品获利。如果经营同一产品的经销商在同一市场不受限制地开展竞争,其结果是经销商的获利空间逐渐趋于零。
所以,制造商的渠道规划中,授权经销商的转售区域通常都受到了限定。为了维护群体利益,经销商社会网络通过对遵守转售区域限制的行为进行褒奖和对违反转售区域限制的行为进行惩罚来维护制造商划定的转售区域界限。在经销商看来由同一品牌授权经销商构成的社会结构是一个社会网络,而对制造商来说这正是他的营销渠道。在该社会网络中发展出不窜货的社会规范,有助于经销商社会网络的存续和演进,同时也维护了制造商营销渠道的质量和效率。
经销商社会网络如何抑制经销商的窜货意愿?社会网络的哪些因素可以直接或间接地作用于窜货意愿?解释以上问题不仅在理论上可以完善窜货治理的研究、揭示社会因素对营销渠道行为的影响机制,而且可以在实践上指导窜货治理,丰富窜货治理的策略。
为了回答以上问题,笔者就社会网络因素对窜货意愿的抑制作用开展了实证研究,以期发现社会网络因素作用于窜货意愿的途径以及哪些社会网络因素对窜货意愿产生抑制作用。
一、研究方法与内容
全书共六章。第一章,绪论。本章介绍了文章选题背景、研究思路以及全书的整体情况。第二章,文献及理论基础回顾。本章全面对国内外有关威慑理论(Deterrence Doctrine)、社会资本理论(Theory of Social Capital)、社会规范和社会制裁的研究文献进行梳理、总结,介绍了主流的观点,并就有关问题开展评述,为后面概念模型的构建提供了坚实的基础。这些理论和专题文献也为本书概念模型的构建和变量关系的假设提供了理论支撑。第三章,概念发展、假设推演与模型构建。本章通过对从业人员的访谈调查,总结出了研究主体相关的理论概念,结合前章文献回顾定义了相关变量,并且推演出各变量之间的关系假设,从而整体上形成概念模型。理论假设包含了群体制裁对窜货意愿的抑制作用、社会网络因素对群体制裁的影响、个人规范对窜货的抑制作用及其对群体制裁抑制窜货意愿的调节作用、网络关系依赖对群体制裁抑制窜货意愿的调节作用等方面共计7个主要假设、5个子假设。第四章,研究设计与方法。本章介绍了研究的设计思路、数据处理的基本方法,并且介绍了每个变量量表的设计思路和结果。第五章,数据分析与假设检验。本章介绍了研究的样本情况,对每个量表的信度、效度开展了检验。在此基础上,使用调研数据,用线性回归和结构方程模型的方法对全部理论假设进行了检验。第六章,研究结论、理论贡献与未来研究方向。本章是全书的总结部分,归纳总结研究取得的主要结论、理论创新点;同时指出文章的不足之处;最后给出笔者对相关问题未来研究方向的一些看法。
二 、 研究结论
笔者对两家酒业公司的320家经销商开展调查,利用调查获得的274份有效问卷提供的数据对本研究的全部理论假设进行了检验。十一项假设得到了数据分析的支持。
数据分析的结论证实了群体制裁对经销商窜货意愿确实存在抑制作用。在三种不同类型的群体制裁中,态度类、声誉类群体制裁作用效果显著。个人规范对窜货意愿的直接抑制作用和它对群体制裁抑制效果的调节作用也得到了验证。网络沟通能力、关系涉入、群体规范与群体制裁的正向关系均得到了验证。网络关系依赖对群体制裁主效应的调节作用亦被证实。
三 、 研究创新
本书从社会网络的视角来研究窜货意愿,运用囚徒困境的博弈范式来解释窜货行为,将威慑理论的一般研究范式用于非正式制裁的作用研究,体现出本书在研究思路上的创新。基于思路的拓展,研究得出的结论亦丰富了相关理论。本书主要创新点如下:
(1)在经销商社会网络情景下,定义了群体制裁变量,并按照制裁的形式区分了群体制裁的维度。
(2)完善了营销渠道场景中决定渠道成员群体制裁的社会网络因素。本书引入关系涉入作为群体制裁的前置因素,结合已有的研究成果完善了群体制裁决定因素的相关理论。
(3)构建了一种研究社会网络对渠道成员机会主义行为作用的理论模型。本书选择群体制裁作为中介变量,根据威慑理论,搭建了一个从社会网络因素到社会制裁再到机会主义行为的研究框架。
(4)从理论上区分了对社会制裁敏感度不同的行动者类型。网络关系依赖和个人规范是区分行动者社会制裁敏感类型的两个因素。
四 、 研究局限
(1)本研究样本有局限性。本书以两家白酒企业的经销商为研究对象。虽然样本经抽样产生,但这两家企业同位于四川,而且缺乏可供对比的其他行业的数据。因此难以明确行业特征、企业所处的地理位置是否对研究结论有影响,从而在一定程度上影响了本研究的外部效度。
(2)本书概念模型中存在部分内隐性态度变量,研究使用的问卷调查方式不一定能准确测量受访者的真实态度。个人规范和窜货意愿这两个变量就涉及这个问题,受访者在回答问卷的时候可能会依从社会称许性的方向来美化自己的态度,因而可能导致研究不能获得真实的测量值。
关键词 :群体制裁 窜货 机会主义 社会网络 营销渠道
Gray marketing is problematic for manufacturers,because it can have a negative impact on distributor relations and the manufacturer's brand equity,ultimately undermining the integrity of the distribution channel(Corey,Cespedes,&Rangan,1989;Myers&Griffith,1999).To understand how to control and reduce gray marketing is of great significance in both theory and practice.
As a field in marketing theoretical research,gray marketing was studied mainly from the perspective of bilateral relationship between the manufacturer and the distributor.The works of Antia,Bergen,Dutta and Fisher(2006)revealed what led to the effectiveness of the gray market governance strategy.The study was based on the manufacturer-distributor bilateral relationship.Under the theoretical framework of Deterrence Doctrine,they examined the effects of punishment on the likelihood of gray market incidence.Three characteristics of punishment were also examined,namely enforcement severity,certainty and speed.Antia and his co-worker declared that none of the three characteristics of enforcement(i.e.,severity,certainty,and speed)has deterrent value alone.Rather,deterrence is most likely to occur when the penalties for gray market violations are severe,when manufacturers are able to detect violations or mete out punishments in a timely fashion,or both.
The punishment adopted by manufacturer belongs to formal sanction.Its effect on deterrence for gray market incidence is verified both in practice and academic research.However,this perspective does not reveal all the factors deterring the gray market incidence.Hence not all governance strategies for gray market have been discovered.In order to have a larger picture of the factors deterring gray market incidence,and develop further strategy of deterring gray market incidence,the author,from a social network perspective,examined the effects of the distributors'social network's on gray market incidence.
Based on the reviews on relevant literatures,a theoretical model of explaining the effect of the distributors'social network on the intention of gray marketing was developed,which employed Group Sanction as the intermediary variable.The construct of Group Sanction bridged social network factors to the intention of gray marketing.
A survey on 320 distributors of two distilled spirit(baijiu) factories was conducted to collect data.274 valid returned questionnaires were generated.Based on these data,my study discovered that social sanction does have the deterring effect on gray market incidence.It also revealed three factors of the distributors' social network which led to higher group sanction.They are Communication in the Network,Group Norms and Involvement.The moderating effect of Dependence on the Network and Individual Norms were also found on the relationship between Group Sanction and the Intention of Gray Marketing.
My work is the first one that studies deterrence of gray marketing from the social network's perspective.It is the first academic research,which views the gray market phenomenon as a social dilemma.This helps to understand how the social interaction of distributors affects their intention of gray marketing.It is also the first academic research which adopts research paradigm of general deterrence doctrine to examine the deterrence effect of informal sanction.
There are theoretical contributions of my study.
My work defines the construct of Group Sanction under the scenarios of social network in marketing channel.With factor analysis,the paper extracts three factors for group sanction,namely group sanction by attitude,group sanction by reputation and group sanction by action.
This paper reveals that communication in the network,group norms in the distributors'social network and involvement of distributors are three social network factors that determine group sanction.My study also demonstrates the effects they have on the group sanctions.
This paper constructs a theoretical model,which can be widely applied for studies on social network's effect on the opportunism behavior of distribution channel members.The main path of this model is:characters of social network→social sanction→opportunism behaviors.
In this paper I use this theoretical model to examine effects of network communication,group norm and group participation on gray marketing intention via the intermediate variable:group sanction.
In my study,I defined different categories of distributors in terms of their sensitiveness on group sanction.It is confirmed that dependence on social network and individual norms are the two factors that differentiate distributors'categories for sensitiveness on group sanction.Actors with high dependence on the network and high personal recognition on no gray marketing norms belong to the high sensitiveness category;actors with low dependence on the network and low personal recognition on no gray marketing norms belong to the low sensitiveness category.
Although this study I reported herein provides several contributions to academics and managers alike,much work remains to be done.
The samples of this study were taken from the distributors of two spirit companies both located in Sichuan Province.Although the samples are generated randomly,the two companies are located in a same province and they are from the same industry.The validity of the results from this paper needs to be verified by data from samples from different industries and different locations.
(2)There are some implicit attitude variables involved in the theory model of this study.The questionnaire I used to collect data may not be able to measure these attitudes accurately.Individual norms and intention of gray marketing are implicit attitude variables.Further technics should be used to increase the accuracy of measuring these variables.
KeyWords :Group Sanction,Gray Market,Opportunism,Social Network,Marketing Channel