Title: Motivations of food industries for operating on multi-channel distribution

Authors: Thamara Cristina Mendes de Oliveira; Gessuir Pigatto; Giuliana Aparecida Santini Pigatto; Renato Luiz Sproesser

Addresses: Universidade Estadual de Maringá (UEM), Maringá, Paraná, Brazil ' Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Faculdade de Ciências e Engenharia, Tupã, Brazil ' Faculdade de Ciências e Engenharia, Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp), Tupã, Brazil ' Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil

Abstract: Food industries have realised the need of establishing new points of contact with consumers and gathering information to improve their organisational performance. This study conducted a survey with 14 food-processing companies to examine the main motivations that lead these companies to operate on multi-channel distribution. The major motivations identified were access to new markets, increased profitability, and increased customer satisfaction. The findings also indicated that motivations differ according to company size and type of distribution channel, underscoring the importance of such knowledge for better management and coordination of channels distribution. Due to the high complexity of implementing and managing the multi-channel distribution strategy, it is essential that organisations have clear reasons for adopting this strategy so that they can be assertive in choosing and coordinating channels and managing their resources, in order to increase their advantage competitiveness and improving organisational performance.

Keywords: distribution channel; distribution strategy; multi-channel strategy; food industry; competitiveness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2026.155682

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2026 Vol.40 No.4, pp.555 - 573

Received: 28 Jul 2022
Accepted: 13 May 2023
Published online: 10 Aug 2026 *

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