I have remained interested in and continued to study distribution channels since graduate school. This field focuses chiefly on businesses' choice of channel forms to deliver products to customers and management of channel relationships. A typical approach to the former of these focuses is research employing new institutional economics, such as transaction cost theory and agency theory. I have carried out research under this vast umbrella.
Choice of channel forms concerns what kinds of transaction forms manufacturers choose in distributing their products. For example, at the wholesale stage some manufacturers distribute mainly through direct channels, such as their own wholesaling sections or sales companies, while others mainly use indirect channels, such as wholesalers or distributors. Some manufacturers dexterously leverage both direct and indirect channels through what is called a dual-channel strategy.
A direct or indirect channel is said to be used to distribute a product if that channel accounts for 90% or more of product sales. Otherwise, the manufacturer is said to use dual channels. The choice of channel forms by Japanese manufacturers (at the wholesale stage) under this rule is shown in Fig. 2. As this chart shows, a higher percentage of manufacturers rely mainly on direct channels for producer goods than for consumer goods, while more manufacturers depend mainly on indirect channels for consumer goods than for producer goods.

Subsequent careful review of results of past analysis on asset specificity, the most important transaction cost factor, showed that in fact existing research either had been limited to human asset specificity alone or employed a mixed measure of human and physical asset specificity. Research Area 3 identifies this point as an issue and divides asset specificity into the two types of human and physical assets and elucidates the relationship between these and the percentage of direct channels. A main achievement in this area is Takata and Parry (2022), a joint study with Professor Mark Parry at the University of Missouri – Kansas City.
This paper can be described as a compilation of the series of prior studies, providing an overview of the results of analysis of the percentage of direct channels (at the wholesale stage), as shown in Fig. 3.

Results related to asset specificity were as expected for producer goods, showing that a higher human asset specificity led to a higher percentage of direct channels. This relationship is relatively strong, indicating that it is a more important relationship. However, similar results were not obtained for consumer goods, contrary to expectations. On the other hand, for both producer and consumer goods the expected positive relationship between physical asset specificity and the percentage of direct channels was identified. These findings suggest the need to consider the two types of asset specificity individually.
In addition, regarding capability factors the analysis showed that higher market capabilities led to a lower percentage of direct channels. This relationship was consistently strong for both producer and consumer goods. Also, in producer goods product complexity was a strong determining factor for human asset specificity.
The above research findings effectively rewrite the content of textbooks of marketing and distribution channels. They serve as useful guidelines for choice of appropriate channel forms by management and managers. I plan future research to take into account channel forms for the digital age, such as omnichannel, as well.

Research Area 5 is an area in which I am involved in joint research with Associate Professor Nobuyuki Fukawa at the Missouri University of Science and Technology. In recent years, utilization of Big Data and AI is advancing in corporate marketing strategy. But not many firms have been able to use them successfully in areas such as development of creative new products. We are taking on the challenge of researching solutions to this issue using mixed research methods combining quantitative and qualitative analysis.
As its name implies, marketing concerns active markets that resemble living creatures based on constantly changing customer needs. Under such conditions, I intend to move ahead with further research focusing on the latest developments to provide fresh insights to practitioners while adding a new page to marketing textbooks.