Japanese Marketing Channels during the 1980s to the 1990s

The main objective of this book is to find out how and why the Japanese manufacturers, who once controlled the distributors, failed to change the channel strategies whereas the retailers took the distribution initiative and established distribution collaborations during the late 1980s. Another objective is to understand what implications this circumstance has brought to the channel theories. This book reviews conventional channel theories to present the preconditions of powerful channel commanders, or manufacturers in many cases, which allowed them to have unilateral control over other marketing channels. When the preconditions started to change, the manufacturers’ channel strategies as well as the channel theories underwent some changes.