Building Stronger Channel Relationships Through Information Sharing

Does sharing market information help channel partners to build stronger mutual relationships? Is low initial trust really an impediment for further relationship development by means of information sharing? How do connections with other competing channel partners affect the relationship building process? To address these questions, we conducted an experimental study. Our findings show that retailer information sharing helps to develop higher quality supplier relationships. Interestingly, even if the initial level of trust in the retailer is low, the relationship quality substantially improves. In a more competitive situation the suppliers respond more favorably to the retailer?s information-sharing initiative.