Special Issue: “Channel Governance and Managing Channel Relationships in China”

Guest Editors: Guijun Zhuang

Xi'an Jiaotong University

Chuang Zhang

Dongbei University of Finance and Economics

The Journal of Marketing Channels is pleased to announce and invite submissions for a Special Issue on “Channel Governance and Managing Channel Relationships in China.” The deadline for manuscript submission is December 31, 2017.

SPECIAL ISSUE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

China, the world's largest and second fastest-growing emerging economy, is immensely attractive to firms worldwide. Firms that operate in the China market must access their customers through local marketing channels (Su et al., 2009). However, it is very challenging for channel managers to manage their marketing channels in China, not only because of its unique cultural, legal, societal, and economic characteristics (Gu et al., 2008; Jia & Wang, 2013), but also because of its improving infrastructure frameworks (Herndon, 2008) and evolving channel structures.

In the past two decades, especially since 2001 when China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), there have been great changes in Chinese marketing channels. To keep WTO commitments, the Chinese government abolished restrictions on retailers’ expansion in 2004. Since then, many retailers expanded nationally and a variety of retail formats grew rapidly across China (Zhuang, 2013). For instance, Walmart, the world's largest retailer, entered China in 1996, but as of 2004 had only 43 stores: by the end of 2015 Walmart had 433 stores in 169 cities, 9 warehouse distribution centers, and 11 fresh food distribution centers nationwide (cf. http://www.wal-martchina.com).

With this expansion and development of retailers, channel power is shifting from manufacturers to retailers and channel conflicts between retailers and suppliers are increasingly severe. The explosively growth of e-commerce in its various forms is also exerting dramatic effects on the structures of traditional Chinese channels and consumers’ buying behaviors. Both manufacturers and traditional distributors are facing the impacts of online channels and are struggling for survival with this radical change in marketing channel structures. Selecting effective governance strategies and managing channel relationships in the China market is increasingly challenging for the channel manager.

Marketing is a contextual discipline where “one or more of the numerous contextual elements surrounding it (such as the economy, societal norms, demographics...)… can have significant impact on the nature and scope of the discipline” (Sheth & Sisodia, 1999, p. 72). Unique contextual characteristics require scholars to address them by generating new constructs and developing or improving existing theory. Obviously, the China market with its unique cultural, legal, societal, and economic characteristics provides a rich context to test and develop channel theories. Despite some studies showing differences between Chinese and Western contexts in channel governance and management in areas such as the relationship between power and dependence (Zhuang & Zhou, 2004) and guanxi as a relational governance strategy in China (Gu et al., 2008), the literature about channel governance and management in China is still meager and largely disjointed (Jia & Wang, 2013).

This call for papers encourages submissions that explore the role of the unique Chinese contextual elements in channel governance and channel relationship management. Topics could include, but are not limited to, the following:

•	How Chinese institutional environments influence channel governance and channel performance.
•	How Chinese cultural elements influence channel governance and channel performance.
•	How Chinese institutional and cultural elements influence firms’ channel behaviors.
•	Opportunism in channel relationships in China.
•	Managing the process of channel relationship development and termination.
•	Managing supplier–retailer relationships in China.
•	Managing multichannels with the inclusion of online channels.
•	Comparisons of channel governance strategies and behaviors between Chinese and Western contexts in channel relationships.
•	New constructs and theory development with unique Chinese characteristics for marketing channels.
•	New challenges in channel governance and channel relationship management in China.

These examples are not intended to stifle the creativity of potential authors as papers concerning most issues related to channel governance and managing channel relationships in China are welcome. If in doubt about the suitability of a paper's theme for this Special Issue, please contact either of the guest editors.

SUBMISSION INFORMATION

• 1.   Submitted manuscripts should not have been previously published or be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere.

• 2. All manuscripts will be double-blind refereed. Manuscripts must be submitted electronically in Word format and must be consistent with the author submission guidelines of the Journal of Marketing Channels that can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/WJMC. Click on the “Instructions for authors” tab. A complete Style Guide for Manuscript Submissions to the Journal of Marketing Channels can be downloaded at http://bit.ly/wjmc_styleguide

• 3. Manuscripts should be received no later than December 31, 2017, with accepted papers published in late 2018 or early 2019. Please submit directly to either of the guest editors, preferably through e-mail as a Microsoft Word attached document.

Guijun Zhuang

Professor of Marketing

School of Management

Xi'an Jiaotong University

49 Xianning Western Road

Xi'an, Shanxi, People's Republic of China

E-mail: [email protected]

Chuang Zhang

Professor of Marketing

School of Business Administration

Dongbei University of Finance and Economics

217 Jianshan Street

Dalian, Liaoning, People's Republic of China

E-mail: [email protected]