Selecting marketing managers to effectively control global channels of distribution

Globalization of organizations necessitates the development of a network organizational configuration. This new form of organization requires managers to become boundary spanners between the various organizations aligned in the global business network. The question becomes how are these boundary‐spanning managers going to be identified and selected for global assignments. This paper examines the staffing options for marketing managers of integrative (i.e. relational) and market (i.e. transactional) modes of norm‐based control of global channels of distribution. Both transaction cost analysis and focus theory are used to identify which control mechanism would be most appropriate for each inter‐organizational situation.