A systems thinking approach to manage distribution channels in the Control and Instrumentation product market with multi-faceted product lines

The purpose of this paper is to explore from a systems thinking approach ways in which to model and manage distribution channels in the Control and Instrumentation product market where multi-faceted product lines, technological know-how and the position of the product in its life-cycle play important roles in the manner in which these products are diffused into the market. The focus in this paper is more the South African market although the global context for control and instrumentation products is also considered. The research is exploratory in nature addressing the complexity from a value chain point of view intertwined with product technology. Aims of the paper include the following: to assess if driving factors identified by way of preliminary research case studies and inductive reasoning are realistic and how the identified factors could be used within a soft systems methodology approach to understand the value additions per distribution channel for the various types of product lines.