The impact of channel function performance on buyer–seller relationships in marketing channels

This paper addresses the question of how distributors' channel function performance affects their relationships with organizational customers and how the impact of these actions on relationship quality is influenced by the interdependence structure of the relationship. We test our hypotheses using survey data collected from informants in the Netherlands and Belgium. Our primary finding is that the level of channel function performance by a distributor is a significant driver of customer perceptions of relationship quality. This relationship is moderated by the interdependence structure of the customer–distributor dyad, both in terms of total interdependence as well as relative customer dependence.