Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transformation of the perspective applied to distribution structures in the late 1900s. This change implied that the previous focus on channel management by a channel captain was abandoned because of changes in the business reality. This perspective was replaced by models and concepts featuring collaboration and joint coordination between actors and relationships embedded in networks.

Design/methodology/approach

Changes of perspectives on phenomena are assumed to occur through the dynamic interplay between business reality, the conceptualisation of this reality and the managerial recommendations derived from this conceptualisation. The study is based on a thorough longitudinal literature review.

Findings

Shifts of perspectives occur when there is an increasing mismatch between the current business reality and mainstream conceptualisations. In this transformation, new constructs are required to illustrate new aspects of the business reality, exemplified in the study by interaction and networks. Some established concepts lose their significance, illustrated by the channel captain. Others may be re-interpreted, as is the case with the power concept. The study also shows that “forgotten” conceptualisations can be re-wakened, exemplified by the view of distribution structures as network constellations. In turn, these changes in the conceptualisation of distribution impact the managerial recommendations.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, there are no previous studies analysing how the perspective on a certain phenomenon changes through the dynamic interplay between business reality, conceptualisations and managerial recommendations.

中文翻译：

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从渠道管理到网络协调–改变分销安排的观点

目的

本文的目的是研究在1900年代后期应用于分配结构的视角的转变。这种变化意味着，由于业务现实的变化，以前放弃了由渠道负责人进行渠道管理的工作已被放弃。这种观点已被模型和概念所取代，这些模型和概念的特征是参与者之间的协作和联合协调以及网络中嵌入的关系。

设计/方法/方法

假定通过业务现实，该现实的概念化和从该概念化得出的管理建议之间的动态相互作用来发生现象观点的变化。该研究基于对纵向文献的全面回顾。

发现

当前商业现实与主流概念之间越来越不匹配时，观点就会发生转变。在这种转变中，需要新的结构来说明业务现实的新方面，在本研究中通过交互和网络来举例说明。一些确定的概念失去了意义，渠道负责人对此进行了说明。其他的可能会重新解释，就像权力概念一样。该研究还表明，“被遗忘的”概念可以重新唤醒，例如，将分布结构视为网络星座。反过来，分配概念上的这些变化也会影响管理建议。

创意/价值

据作者所知，以前没有研究分析某种现象的观点如何通过业务现实，概念化和管理建议之间的动态相互作用而改变。