Buyer-seller relationships in distribution channels

Distribution is one of the important elements of the marketing mix. Distribution channels have important roles in delivering manufactured goods to customers. There are many studies about the buyer-seller relationships among the members of distribution channels in the literature. However there are comparatively fewer studies about the buyer-seller relationships among the members of distribution channels in tourism sector. Study of buyer-seller relationships about Turkish tourism sector could not be found in the literature.This study is mainly focused on the buyer-seller relationships among distribution channels. The basic models of buyer-seller relationships were examined and it was seen that the latest studies are primarily focused on the antecedents of the buyer-seller relationships. It was seen from the literature that there are seven mostly examined antecedents of buyer-seller relationships. In the empirical research part of the study, three scenarios about the relationships between travel-agencies and hotels in tourism sector of Turkey were developed based on the literature. First scenario was used to test the model of the Leonidou et al. (2008) which includes the many of the seven antecedents of the buyer-seller relationships. Second scenario was used to test the literature-based enhanced model of the first model. Third scenario was used to test an alternative model which was developed by considering the antecedents of the second model. Analyses of this study reveals that the first scenario needs improvements, the goodness of fit criteria of the third scenario are partially enough to indicate a good fit, and the second scenario is the best model among the others.Based on the hypothesis of the study, following results are gathered. Coercive power positively affects conflict, but negatively affects satisfaction. Non-coercive power positively affects satisfaction. Conflict negatively affects trust, satisfaction positively effects trust, trust positively affects commitment, conflict negatively affects satisfaction, satisfaction positively affects commitment, coercive power negatively affects trust, commitment positively affects satisfaction and trust positively affects satisfaction. Another hypothesis are rejected.In the results and suggestions part of the study, the scientific and practical contributions of this study were examined and some suggestions were offered to the tourism sector.