The influence of legal environment and levels of integration on retailer capabilities

Abstract

Mientras que la academia ha prestado sobrada atención a a los canales de distribución, sin embargo, no es el caso del aspecto concreto de las capacidades del distribuidor, cuya caracterización está fuertemente influenciada por el entorno legal y el nivel de integración del canal de distribución. Este paper pone el foco en estas variables y su impacto en las capacidades del minorista en diferentes canales de distribución de productos de belleza e higiene (gran consumo, canal especialista y canal farmacéutico), mediente una metodología de modelización SEM.

Research on relational aspects of the distribution channel has been extensively performed but not exhaustively completed. There is room for further research into the retailer capabilities and how its characterization is influenced by external political aspects like the legal framework or internal organizational aspects like the level of functional integration of the channel. This paper focuses on proving the causal relationship between the legal framework, the level of integration and the distributor capabilities by comparing the dynamics of three different distribu-tion channels of the beauty & personal care category in Spain (pharmacies; specialized beauty stores and FMCG retail stores) in order to provide extended models for political/economical dynamics in distribution channel analysis.