INTRODUCTION
Distribution channels are very important, as we do not live in the same geographical area. For example, most fashion products are made in China and must be distributed to other countries such as America and Europe. Even the manufacturers are interested in distribution channels, as the raw materials may often times be sourced outside the company.
How distribution strategies are formulated and implemented are of high significance to the marketers to ensure goods are delivered as promised, in order to maintain good customer relationship and hence sell more goods. The target of every marketer should be towards a desired output to have a quicker and faster delivery of goods. Wilkinson (1996) emphasized on the importance of distribution channel as quoted:
“At the outset it is clear that the distribution channel is of fundamental importance to a treatment of physical distribution, because the channel is the arena within which marketing and logistics culminate into consumer transactions.”
Distribution strategies involve the overall processes of the business process, from the supply of raw materials through its operation to the distribution of the finished goods. It is obvious that to go through these whole process, so many stakeholders are involved and must be dealt with within the accepted business ethics, hence, arises the issue of governance and management control of the distribution channel.
Governance deals with the accepted code of conduct or business ethics practiced in the distribution channel while management on the other hand is the allocation of power and resources among the stakeholders which include the marketers, partners, wholesalers, consumers, transporters and many more.
In this study, the main types of management and governance issues usually seen within the distribution channel are discussed. There has been several research work written on this topic and it could be said that trust is the main governance control variable...