Marketing
channels
649
number of employees, years of operation, years affiliated with primary auto
supplier. In sum, non-response bias does not appear to pose any substantial
problems.
Measures
Leadership styles. These were assessed using self-reported perceptual scales
that were originally developed by Schul et al. (1983). Considered to be seminal
scales (Bearden et al., 1993; Bruner and Hensel, 1992), they consist of a total of
nine perceptual measures of which three items each assess participative,
supportive and directive channel leadership styles respectively (see Table II for
scales). Key informants in the automobile dealership were asked to rate the
channel leader using these nine items on a scale that ranged from ``strongly
disagree’’ (1) to ``strongly agree’’ (5).
Cooperation. This was measured using a nine-item scale that was
originally developed by Childers et al. (1984). Presented in Table III, the
response format for these scales ranged from ``definitely disagree’’ (1) to
``definitely agree’’ (6).
Table II.
Factor analysis for
leadership styles:
varimax rotated matrix
Extracted factor loadings
Leadership styles scales USA Finland Poland
Participative leadership style
1. Our dealership has major influence in the determination
of policies and standards for marketing the supplier’s
autos 0.8086 0.7394 0.2046
2. Good ideas from our dealership often do not get passed
along to the supplier’s headquartersa 0.4369 0.7052 0.7069
3. Our dealership is not allowed to provide input into the
determination of standards and promotional allowancesa 0.7033 0.7822 0.8938
Supportive leadership style
4. There is definite lack of support, coaching, and feedback
from the suppliera 0.8553 0.7618 0.6750
5. Once the supplier sells us their autos they forget all
about usa 0.5088 0.8545 0.6486
6. The supplier is highly interested in the welfare of our
dealership 0.5974 0.5060 0.1747
Directive leadership style
7. The supplier provides us...