Links between influence strategies and satisfaction: reexamination from the dyadic and network perspectives

Previous studies have investigated the influence strategy–economic satisfaction links within a pairwise framework. This study aims to reexamine this issue in a network context from both the structural and relational embeddedness perspectives.

An ego network approach in which the network consists of a focal distributor, other distributors and alternate manufacturers is adopted to measure the distributor’s network. Drawing on data from 124 distributors from China’s tire industry, a hierarchical multiple regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results find a positive relationship between a manufacturer’s noncoercive influence strategies and the distributor’s economic satisfaction and an inverse U-shaped relationship between coercive influence strategies and economic satisfaction. It discusses the joint effects of coercive and noncoercive influence strategies and finds that the former mitigate the positive effects of the latter and that the latter flatten the inverse-U shaped effect of the former. Further, when a distributor spans rich structural holes, the effects of coercive and noncoercive influence strategies on economic satisfaction weaken. When a distributor has strong ties with its network members, the effects of noncoercive influence strategies are mitigated, while the effects of coercive influence strategies are enhanced.

This study provides implications for manufacturers, particularly concerning how to properly exert influence strategies to improve distributors’ economic satisfaction. Manufacturers should consider the attributes of the networks in which the distributors are embedded, involving structural holes and tie strength. They should also carefully use the two influence strategies simultaneously.

This study contributes to the influence strategy literature by incorporating a network perspective by empirically examining the different moderating effects of structural holes and tie strength; provides a new and powerful explanation for the effects that coercive influence strategies have on economic satisfaction by testing an inverse U-shaped effect; and examines the effects of the interaction of two strategies.