【正文】 ard because, if B admires or respects A, then it obtains direct satisfactions, . rewards, from plying with A’s wishes and, if B believes A has the right to influence him, it is likely to obtain a certain satisfaction out of performing its duty as it sees it. Rewards may also be indirect. A supplier, through its expertise, may be able to give valuable information and/or training to a manufacturer, which allows the latter to improve performance and thereby gain rewards. An example would be the sales courses run by manufacturers for retail sales personnel. The setting up of punishments or negative sanctions The setting up of punishments or negative sanctions also includes more than economic penalties. In extreme form negative sanctions involve physical force which is very rare in channel contexts, but there could be threats of disapproval or loss of prestige. Furthermore, a negative sanction can be indirect, and an example of this would be the withholding of information or the giving of false or misleading information. If a firm’s power is founded on a legitimate base, be it formal or informal, this can be viewed as a use of power based on negative sanctions [10, 11]. If the legitimate power is founded on laws and regulations then conditions of punishment will be formally stated. On the other hand, if the legitimacy is based purely on the influencee’s belief that the influencer has the right to guide his/her behavior, then the potential punishment will be more in the form of the influencee’s sense of failing to carry out his/her duty. The only method of influence that is not easily interpreted in terms of these two types arises when a firm uses its power to control another’s environment rather than by operating directly on it, . when one firm controls another’s information supply, though not directly sending information. In this way the firm may circumscribe the range of behaviors the other firm considers and thus affect its behavior. A retailer may be able to affect the behaviors of other firms in the channel, . manufacturers or wholesalers, to the extent that he can control the flow through the channel of information concerning consumer purchasing behavior, which the retailer derives directly from his/her experience of consumer shopping. However, if (say) manufacturers have sources of information about consumer behavior independent from that provided by the retailers, . through market research, then the retailer’s ability to influence in this manner will be limited. Beyer [12] has pointed to the tendency in some parts of the literature to restrict analysis of the exercise of power to “… a face toface situation where the benefits and cost of changing or not changing his current behavior are clearly outlined to the influence”. As Beyer argues, although the situation may be quite fundamental, the facetoface situation is not always present when one firm influences another: “A broader approach is therefore useful and this is generally provided by discussing power in terms of controlling the perceived alternatives or the environment of other actors … thus the specific bargaining framework need not be present”. Factors affecting the use of power by firms This section considers the various factors which could affect a firm’s decision as to how it will use its power in a particular situation. The argument is primarily descriptive, isolating the various factors which are likely to affect a firm’s decisions regarding use of power, but it is partly normative suggest