Patterns of Credible Commitments: Territory and Brand Selectivity in Industrial Distribution Channels

Abstract

The authors propose a new theoretical rationale that explains the paired existence of both a manufacturer's decision to limit the number of intermediaries operating in a specific geographic market and a distributor's decision to limit brand assortment in a product category. Using transaction cost reasoning, they suggest that channel selectivity agreements can be understood as interrelated exchanges of pledges, or credible commitments, that counterbalance exposure to opportunism and neutralize sources of relationship instability, thereby strengthening an interorganizational relationship. The empirical results, which are based on dyadic data from 362 manufacturer–distributor relationships, are broadly supportive of their framework.