The article "The Evolution of Marketing Channel Research Domains and Methodologies: An Integrative Review and Future Directions" by Manfred Krafft, Oliver Götz, Francesca Sotgiu, Murali Mantrala and Sebastian Tillmanns has been accepted for publication in Journal of Retailing (Jourqual: A).

Marketing channels are among the most important elements of any value chain. This is because the bulk of a nation’s manufacturing output flows through them. The intermediaries (e.g., distributors, wholesalers, retailers) constituting marketing channels perform specific distribution functions, such as transportation, storage, sales, financing, and relationship building, better than most manufacturers. Today, the academic marketing literature contains hundreds of articles that have employed these three broad classes of methodologies to investigate issues of channel intermediaries’ interorganizational relationships, e.g., power-dependence, relational outcomes, conflict and negotiations, and manufacturing firms’ channel strategy, e.g., channel structure, selection, coordination and control. So far, however, there has been no review of how the three different methodologies have contributed to advancing knowledge across this set of channels research domains. This paper is the first that aims to (1) chart how channels research employing each of the three classes of methodologies – conceptual, empirical, microeconomics model-based – has evolved since the late 1950s along with current trends; (2) review the contributions and shortcomings of research to date using these methodologies; and (3) suggest future research opportunities using these methodologies, separately or in an integrated fashion.