최근 20여년 간 유통경로 구성원 간 힘-의존 관계를 연구하는 많은 학자들은 힘의 행사방식으로서 영향전략에 대해 관심 을 가져왔다. 하지만 힘의 사용방법인 영향전략은 힘의 행사기업과 대상기업 간의 의존구조와 별개로 생각할 수 없다. 본 연구는 이를 위해 국내 유통산업의 대표적인 소매업체들의 구매자와 판매자 관계를 대상으로 원천기업의 대상기업에 대한 의존구조를 파악하여 원천기업의 힘이 큰 경우와 그렇지 않은 경우 과연 어떠한 영향전략을 사용할 때 대상기업이 관계에 대해 만족하는 지를 살펴보았다. 총 1,030개의 표본을 대상으로 구조방정식 모형분석을 실시한 결과 권고, 정보교환, 약속 전략은 대상기업의 관계만족을 강화시켰고, 요청, 위협은 약화시켰으며, 법적탄원은 아무런 영향을 미치지 않았다. 한편, 의존구조에 따른 분석결과 권고 와 약속은 의존성이 약한(힘이 강한) 원천기업이 사용할 때 관계만족을 더 강화하였고, 요청과 위협은 의존성이 약한(힘 이 강한) 원천기업이 사용할 때 관계만족을 덜 약화시켰다.
In recent decades, Scholars of power-dependence theory in marketing channels have been interested in influence strategies as an use of power. Studies in 1980’s and 1990’s mainly had a concern in definition and effective use of them, and studies in 2000’s were interested in their using conditions, such as, power asymmetry, interdependence, and buying situations. However, studies dealing with influence strategies have had a tendency ignoring dependence structure between source firm and target firm as a interorganizational contingency. The lack of understanding about how the relationship between influence strategies and relationship quality vary as a function of dependence structure represents a significant gap in the literature. Also, it throw many practitioners into confusion in using influence strategies as a control mechanism of distribution channels. ‘Win-Win’ partnership between buyers and sellers, regarded as a key success factor by many companies, can get damaged by ineffective uses of influence strategies. Hence, our research try to investigate the roles of dependence structure in understanding complex mechanisms influence strategies have. In short, the purpose of this article is two-fold. First, we propose that six influence strategies, such as, recommendation, information exchange, promise, request, threat, and legalistic plea have effects on relationship satisfaction as a relationship quality, and we test this proposal empirically. Second we examine how dependence structure moderates the impact of influence strategies upon relationship satisfaction. A total of 12 hypotheses were established through prior studies dealing with powerdependence theory, influence strategy theory and relationship marketing theory. Then we drove conceptual research model. For the purpose of empirical testing, we managed to obtain the list of suppliers of 45 retailers from nine retailer formats, such as, department store, discount store, convenience store, TV home shopping, internet shopping mall, door-to-door selling, dining franchiser, service franchiser, wholesale-retail franchiser. They were asked to respond to the survey via face-to-face interview conducted by a professional research company. During the one month period of September, 2007, we were able to collect data from 1,030 suppliers. The respondents were restricted to direct dealing authorities and manager with at least three months of dealing experience with retailers. The analysis utilizing structural equation model indicated that recommendation, information exchange, and promise had positive effects on relationship satisfaction. And request, threat had contrary effects on it. However, legalistic plea had no significant effect on it. In addition, row dependence of source firm strengthened the positive effects of recommendation and promise on relationship satisfaction, and weakened the negative effects of request and threat on it.