Unilateral control and the moderating effects of fairness on the target's performance in asymmetric channel partnerships

With the use of unilateral control, the leader in a channel dyad (source) leads the activities of its partner (target) to achieve its own goals. Although there are numerous studies that have found a positive effect of a company's unilateral control on its own performance, the effects on the target's performance remain unexplored, even though this is essential to explain the long‐term survival of the relationship. In this research, the concept of attributed performance, defined as the fraction of its own performance that the target attributes to the relationship maintained with the source, is addressed postulating a number of hypotheses about the direct effects of unilateral control and the moderating role of the source's fair behaviour. In a sample of companies involved in channel partnerships, strong evidence is found about the positive effects of unilateral control on attributed performance, and the moderating role of the source's distributive and procedural fairness.