I. GENERAL INFORMATION PHYSICAL DISTRIBUTION MANAGEMENT BUS 373-001 SPRING 2010 Instructor: Dr. Soo-Young Moon Office: Clow 104 Telephone: 424-1462 E-mail Moon@uwosh.edu Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday (10:20 a.m. 11:20 a.m.) If these hours are not convenient, you are encouraged to make an appointment at another time. Section 001C: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 1:50 p.m. 2:50 p.m. in Clow 207 II. TEXT - Bert Rosenbloom, Marketing Channels: A Management View, 7 th Ed., Thomson/South-Western 2004 - Other readings III. NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE COURSE In this course, marketing channels are analyzed as social, economic and political systems. Strong emphasis is placed on understanding and dissecting the behavioral dimensions of channel relations - the roles of channel members, their use of power, the conflicts that arise among them, their communication networks and the like. Importantly, however, the economic and structural dimensions of retailing and wholesaling also are investigated. Finally, governmental and other constraints on channel activities are explored. It should be noted, however, that this is not a course in retailing and wholesaling methods or operations. Rather, the orientation of the course is on the management of organizations that are linked together in a distribution system. While retail and wholesale firms are significant components of marketing channels, it is held here that the relationship among the various firms comprising channels are the crucial aspects of long-term competitive viability. IV. TEACHING APPROACH The course will rely on a lecture-discussion format. Each student is expected to contribute regularly to class discussion, as called upon by the instructor and on a voluntary basis. To a substantial extent, the benefit that a student derives from the assignment is related to his/her willingness to expose his/her own viewpoints or conclusions to the critical judgment of the class, and to his/her active participation by building upon or evaluating critically the judgment of others.
V. SUPPORT OF COBA OBJECTIVES This course supports the following College of Business Administration (COBA) objectives: Business Knowledge K1. COBA graduates will demonstrate knowledge in the functional business areas. Business Environment E1. COBA graduates will be able to apply basic ethical principles to business situations. E2. COBA graduates will have an awareness of the role of diversity in the work place. E3. COBA graduates will be able to assess global business issues. Business Skills S1. COBA graduates will demonstrate competency in communications skills. S2. COBA graduates will demonstrate competency in analysis and creative problem solving by using information and solving problems. VI. COURSE GRADING This course grade will be determined as follows: Two exams (2 X 100) 200 Case analysis 100 Final exam 100 Total 400 VII. SCALE OF GRADING SYSTEM A 93 % and up A- 92 90 % B+ 89 87 % B 86 83 % B- 82-80 % C+ 79 77 % C 76 73 % C- 72 70 % D+ 69 67 % D 66 63 % D- 62 60 % F 59% and below
VIII. EXAMS You will have two mid-term exams and a final. If you miss one of the exams without a written request and an instructor's approval, you will be given "zero points" for the exam missed. But if your request is granted, your instructor will make other arrangements. So far, this instructor has allowed students to miss an exam and receive full credit only in very unusual circumstances, e.g. hospitalization. If your performance on mid-terms, project, and class participation are satisfactory, you may be excused from the final. IX. CASES The cases provide a pedagogical way to bring the "real world" into the classroom. The reader of a case is launched into the kind of situation he/she might face some years later as a manager. Through class discussion, certain marketing concepts will emerge, which can be retained vividly because of a concrete context. Cases have the virtue of requiring students to think of themselves as decision makers who must make decisions with less than perfect information. The case analysis should be double spaced with font size 12, and the main text of the case analysis should be around 10 pages plus appendix. Reports are to be submitted in a form that would be suitable to present to the principal executive or official of the focal organization in the case, upon assumption that the student, as a management consultant, has been retained to make a thorough analysis of the specific situation involved. Your initial problem presentation should include: industry analysis, three problems, three alternatives for each problem, and major assumptions for your analysis. Each team should review at least two articles from the Journal of Retailing, Journal of Marketing, or Harvard Business Review and incorporate the articles to support their analysis. For the same purpose, each team needs to find at least ten business articles from business magazines such as Business Week, Fortune and others in the areas of the focal organization, its industry and its environment. The summary of each article must be presented as a part of your oral presentation. It is required to use at least one detailed transparency or power point slide per article. The summary and a copy of each article should be in the appendix of your report. You should also utilize the information from these articles, the textbook and other relevant sources for your analysis. In order to enhance your case analysis each team is recommended (not required) to conduct a survey based on a convenience sample of 100 to 150. If your team decided to collect survey information, your appendix should include the information from the survey such as the questionnaire, the raw data with coding, analysis, and other relevant information. In addition, send me an electronic copy of the questionnaire, raw data, and coding of your survey as an e- mail attachment. It is required that the written cases be organized in the following manner: 1. Introduction: Describe briefly the case and the organization of your analysis.
2. Environmental analysis: Identify at least five environmental variables that are relevant to the industry and discuss them with statistics in detail. 3. Industry Analysis: Based on the business articles and other sources, identify at least five major trends in the industry and discuss them with statistics in detail. Discuss top three companies of the industry with their strengths and weaknesses and financial performance. 4. Problem identification: Identify the major problem in the case or decision to be made. List any assumptions that are critical to your analysis. The questions at the end of cases are only an aid to focus the analysis. 5. Concepts and Theories: Discuss any concepts, frameworks, and theories from the textbook, lectures, and articles that are pertinent to the analysis. View the concepts, theories and frameworks as tools of analysis. Briefly explain what they are and how these tools will be used in your analysis. 6. Discussion of Alternatives: Develop at least three alternatives to solve the problem, and then take the devil's advocate position for each alternative. At a minimum, you should discuss three key pros and three key cons of your alternatives. This is the most important section of your case analysis. 7. Recommendation and Justification: Identify the alternative you have selected to solve the problem AND justify why this solution is clearly superior to the non-selected alternatives. If it is possible, provide quantitative support for your solution. Don't add new information here, instead integrate and "weigh" the pros and cons discussed in the preceding section. 8. Appendices: Include all the relevant information such as references, a summary of articles, a copy of ten articles, financial data, key environmental statistics and others. Additional information through a survey should be included such as a questionnaire, raw data with coding, analysis, and others. When your team makes the final presentation, all members should wear clothes appropriate for an interview. X. CASE GRADE Your case analysis will be evaluated based on the following factors: Items Maximum Points Organization and clarity of oral presentation 30 Organization and clarity of written report 30 Quality of initial problem identification 10 Consistency of analysis 10 Quality of managerial implications 10 Selection, summary, and applications of articles 10 Total 100 Your final case grade will be adjusted based on the group evaluation and others. XI. DUE DATE AND PENALTY If any team fails to submit either of its written reports in time, there will be 20 percent penalty on the earned project points up to 24 hours. After 24 hours, no late report will be accepted.
CLASS ASSIGNMENT AND SCHEDULE Notice: DATE The schedule below is tentative and may be changed by the professor. TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS 2/1/-2/12 Introduction to class Chapter 1: Marketing Channel Concepts Vertical Marketing Systems 2/15-2/19 Chapter 14: Evaluating Channel Member Performance 2/22-2/26 Chapter 2: The Channel Participants 3/1-3/10 All problem definitions are due on 3/1. Chapter 3: The Environment of Marketing Channels 3/12 EXAM 1 at the Testing Center (3/11 and 3/12) 3/15-3/19 Chapter 4: Behavioral Processes in Marketing Channels 3/29-4/2 Chapter 6: Designing the Marketing Channel Complete the survey by April 2 4/5-4/9 Chapter 13: Logistics and Channel Management 4/12-4/16 Chapter 15: Electronic Marketing Channels 4/19-4/26 Chapter 18: International Channel Perspectives 4/28 EXAM 2 at the Testing Center (4/27 and 4/28) 4/30 Project day 5/3 TEAM 1 PRESENTATION (Saturn Motor or Bristol-Myers Squibb) All written project are due at the beginning of class. 5/5 TEAM 2 PRESENTATION (Barnes and Noble) 5/7 TEAM 3 PRESENTATION (Aldi) 5/10 TEAM 4 PRESENTATION (Ben and Jerry) 5/12 TEAM 5 PRESENTATION (Avon) 5/14 FINAL EXAM in the classroom