ABSTRACT
But why this huge variation? By (almost) all accounts, the differential appears to be rooted in culturally founded priority variations. The vast majority of corporate representatives across the board expressed their suspicions of “unprofessional” familial links between clients and Thai sales representatives as having a major bearing on the perceived diversion of distribution budget support. Parent guidelines as to the regional/domestic “realignment” of distribution support mechanisms were thus a prime feature of the immediate postcrisis era. Concerned multinationals were anxious to secure a firmer grip upon their subsidiaries’ distribution unit expenditure with policies of methodology convergence aimed at opening up the “volume/resource” account information and thereby making it transparent. In practical terms this tended to involve the redistribution of resources in favor of the larger, more formal wholesale and franchised outlets and away from the small, more traditional family-run shops such as those that supply oil and spare parts, and carry out motor repairs.
