互联网环境下的多渠道管理研究--一个综述

A Literature Review on Multichannel Management

信息技术的发展为企业开展多渠道营销提供了可能性,也使得多渠道管理逐渐成为企业管理以及学术研究所面临的重要问题。多渠道管理的概念起源于渠道营销,通常涉及到企业在不同营销渠道间的选择与组合以最大化收益。传统企业"触网"或是互联网企业搭建线下渠道是目前最常见的多渠道策略,但大多数企业对多渠道管理的定义、内涵、规则等仍缺乏认知,多渠道管理并非简单地堆砌多种渠道,而是期望整合多条渠道的特性与功能,以实现整体的效用最大化。多渠道管理的概念与内涵随着市场环境的变化而不断发生变化,例如,互联网兴起之初,企业对电子商务的追求使得传统线下渠道日渐式微,而随着移动商务的飞速发展以及消费者对线下体验的不断重视,又使得企业需要重新布局移动端与线下端。新的市场环境赋予了多渠道管理新的研究意义,本文旨在通过对现有多渠道管理领域相关文献进行梳理,明确多渠道管理的定义与内涵,并从渠道整合、渠道交互以及消费者渠道选择三个方面对现有研究成果进行相应回顾与评述,帮助企业明确多渠道甚至全渠道管理的要点,也为未来新型互联网环境下的多渠道与全渠道管理研究指明方向。

As an important aspect of business retailing, muhichannel management is becoming one of the most popular research topics in marketing research. Multichannel management is based on the concept of channel retai- ling, which refers to how enterprises choose and manage their retailing channels, including offline channel, online channel, mobile channel, etc. The evolvement of business environment has substantially changed the basis of channel retailing, especially under the fast development of e-business, as well as the mobile commerce. The target of this pa- per is to clarify the definition and key components of multichannel management through reviewing extant literature, and we also discussed the major findings and limitations of current studies from three perspectives ： channel integra- tion, channel interaction,and consumer＇ s channel choice. Finally this paper sheds light on future research direction on multichannel management. The idea of multichannel management is developed from channel retailing, which refers to the route through which firms provide products or services to the market. When firms first begin to adopt muhichannel strategy, different channels usually are totally isolated from each other, to serve consumers from different groups. However, as con- sumers＇ preference evolves over time, one consumer might have demand for multiple channels, and channels without integration might lead to the dissatisfaction of consumers, as well as the decrease of business operation efficiency. In this case, firms begin to integrate different channels and design muhichannel management strategies. In muhichannel management, three basic concepts need to be clarified ： （ 1 ） multi-channel retailing, refers to the strategy the firms a- dopt different marketing channels to provide products and services to consumers, and those channels usually are iso- lated from each other and consumer could adopt any one to finish a complete purchasing process. （2） Cross-channel retailing, refers to the strategy that firms adopt different channels to fulfill different phases within a complete purcha-sing process, and cross-channel retailing usually requires channels to be semi-integrated with each other. （3） Omni-channel retailing, refers to the strategy that firms integrate all marketing channels and consumers could adopt any channel to finish any phase within purchasing process anytime and anywhere. Current studies on muhichannel management are focused on three aspects：（ 1 ） the value generated by multi- channel activities to retailers and consumers, studies have shown that muhichannel can bring more business value and utility to retailers and consumers respectively. （2） The interaction between different channels, there are two ma- jor effects when introducing new channels to the market：the cannibalization effect and the synergy effect, and those two effects are likely to happen under different circumstances. （3） The choice of multichannel strategies for enter- prises, including channel integration and channel separation. The paper further discussed major findings and limita- tions of extant studies based on three major research questions ： channel integration, channel interaction, and con- sumer＇ s channel choice. According to the discussion of current findings on muhichannel management, we determined two directions de- serve future investigation ： （ 1 ） the dimensions of channel integration, scholars have achieved an agreement on the definition of channel integration ,however, the dimensions of channel integration have no consensus, this paper tried to define four dimensions of channel integration：the diversification of channel access, the integration of product information, the sharing of user information, and the integration of business process. Those four dimensions can be further discussed. （2） Different channel integration strategies might influence channel interaction effects, only a few studies have discussed the relationship between channel integration and channel interaction and findings also are limited, this direction also deserves further investigation.