Author(s) : Patrali Chatterjee
Interfirm Alliances in online Retailing
Patrali Chatterjee
Department of Marketing, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ 07102-1897, USA
LITERATURE REVIEW
The author of this article discusses the interfirm alliances in retailing, which he defines as contractual relationship undertaken by firms who perform complementary activities in facilitating marketing exchanges.
The author through his research on the topic tries to build on the popular media attestation to the fact that greater interconnectedness and competition of firms has been sparked by commercial development of the web.
Thus, the purpose and objective of the research is to investigate how satisfaction with performance and resource dependency in the presence of market and technology turbulence affects alliance outcomes.
The author further in the research examines the factors that contribute to successful alliances relationship as well as factors that affect alliance outcome.
The data for the research was collected through the use of questionnaire from selected firms within the online retailing sector. He explains that the limitation to sample within a single industry is to maintain homogeneity.
The research design is unique in that the author studies both partner of the alliance. Responses were correlated to detect cases where the partners colluded in answering the questionnaire. Usable data from 466 firms were collected after the return of questionnaires. The author identifies eight hypotheses to which he intends to confirm or repute.
The results of the research were set in tabular form which clearly presents the data and also compliments the research. The findings of the research support the notion that alliances succeeded when firms are satisfied with their own gains and partner firms performance.
The author concludes that the results from the research show that resource dependency and satisfaction with alliance partner and owns gains from the alliance determines whether a firm will continue in alliance.
The author intends to use the findings of the result for both practice and research purposes.
HYPOTHESIS
The author identified eight hypotheses which include:
Hypothesis A: Satisfaction with the partners’ performance has a positive effect on intention to continue with the alliance.
Hypothesis B: Satisfaction with firm’s gains from the alliance has a positive effect on intension to continue with alliance.
Hypothesis C: In the online retailing industry, satisfaction with firm’s gains from the alliance will have a stronger effect on the intension to continue with the alliance than satisfaction with partner performance.
Hypothesis D: Firms in the online retail industry that are relatively more dependent on their partners are more likely to continue with the alliance.
Hypothesis D1: Firms that primarily get market, product, and channel access are more likely to be dependent on their alliance partner than those who get revenue or marketing services.
Hypothesis D2: Firms that own both offline and online operations will be relatively less dependent on their alliance partner than pure play firms who own either an offline or online channel.
Hypothesis E: Firms that are involved in more alliance relationship are more likely to continue in the alliance than those involved I fewer alliances.
Hypothesis F: Firms that perceive greater technological turbulence affecting the online retailing industry are more likely to continue in an alliance.
Hypothesis G: Firms that perceive greater market turbulence affecting the online retailing industry are less likely to continue in an alliance.
Hypothesis H: The effect of resources dependency on intension to continue in an alliance would be lower for firms that perceive greater (a) market turbulence and (b) technological turbulence.
EXPERIMENT
Scales
The research made use of-
1.Five point scale. Scale 1-5 with 1 as poor and 5 as excellent.
2.Binary for each variable.
Dependent Variable
In the alliance equation, the dependent variable is – Intension to continue in alliance.
Independent Variables
The independent variables are: main effect of satisfaction with own gains and partner performance, involvement in other alliances, relative dependency and impetus for alliance, the hypothesized moderator effects of technological and market turbulence.
RESULTS
The result or findings from the research support the notion that alliances succeed when firms are satisfied with their own gains and partner firm performance.
CONCLUSION
The author concluded that the result suggest that resource dependency, satisfaction with alliance partner and own gains from the alliance determine whether a firm will continue in an alliance. Also,that the analyses of primary impetus for forming alliance relationships indicates that alliances that primarily involve merging of products, service and content, and fulfillment capabilities are more likely to survive.
CRITIC
Non return of questionnaires. The research questionnaires were sent out to 3167 alliance partner but only 446 were returned which is not up to half of the sample used. There may be the problem of inadequate representation to enable the author to generalise result.
REFERENCES
Anderson,J.C and Narus, J.A (1990) A model of distributor firm and manufacturer firm working partnerships. Vol.54 p.42-58.
Chatterpee, P (2002) Interfirm alliances in online retailing. Journal of business research . Vol.57 p.714-723