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臺大管理論叢
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26
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3
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203
perspectives while considering their close interrelationships to evaluate their relative impact
within a common context. The global model of perceived destructive acts is consistent with
the psychological paradigm – stimulus-organism-response. The central ideal in this model is
that key constructs can be defined according to the antecedents→mediators→outcomes
framework for understanding causal relationships.
2. Methodology
This study adopted an exploratory methodology described by the following progression:
qualitative study, quantitative study, and interpretive results. The qualitative research involved
sampling procedures based on purposeful sampling for selecting participants who had
experience with the central phenomenon and maximizing variation sampling. We identified few
participants who could provide in-depth information. This case study involved qualitatively
exploring the perceptions of manufacturers and their responses regarding the destructive
behaviors of distributors by collecting interview data from participants in various firms. The
selected firms were manufacturers X and Y, and a distributor of marketing channel Z.
A survey study was used to test the proposed model of destructive behaviors. We mailed
questionnaires to marketing or sales managers of the Top 500 manufacturing firms in
Taiwan, which were selected based on China Credit Information Service. A total of 500
questionnaires were distributed, and the final sample size was 135 (a return rate of 24%). A
scale was developed based on prior research and our case study. All constructs were
measured using a five-point Likert scale to determine the degree to which the respondent
agreed or disagreed with each items (1 =
totally disagree
to 5 =
totally agree
).
3. Findings
Most of the proposed relationships are strongly supported by the empirical results. The
results are presented and discussed as follows:
(1) Manufacturers perceived more destructive acts of distributors at a higher network
density, but fewer when there was network centrality. This finding indicates that the
two drivers of network structure play different roles in leading perceived destructive
behavior.
(2) The increase of total dependence and relational norms does not diminish the
perceived destructive acts of distributors, and the more normative contracts there
are, the more perceived destructive acts of distributors that occur. This finding