Determinants of Partner Relationship Management Practice in Ethio- Telecom: The Case of Eastern Region

The purpose of this study was to examine the determinant of partner relationship management practice in Ethio-Telecom’s distributor and sub-distributers of products and services of the company by considering 6 independent variables: top management support, motivational factors in terms of finance, It infrastructure, and distribution management system in terms of communication, organization structure and skills man powers. Descriptive and explanatory research designs in the form of cross-sectional survey were used to reveal the determinants of partner relationship management practice in channel. Census sampling technique was employed to select a total of 138 participants of which 97 distributors such as 14 regional distributors, 75 sub distributors, and 8 national distributors and 41 Ethio-telecom staffs of which 9 managers, 9 supervisor and 23 staffs operating with in Eastern Region in the year 2012/2020. The descriptive statistics and inferential data analysis were performed by IBM SPSS version 20. Out of 97 questionnaires distributed to distributors, 90 respondents completed and returned the questionnaires as 8 national distributors, 68 sub-distributors and 14 regional distributors with a response rate of 100%, 90.7 %, and 100 %, respectively. Three focus group discussions at ER,CER & EER of ET Staffs were organized. The ANOVA and the T-tests result proved the participants had awareness on each variable to determine the PRMP in channel. The result finding suggested the status of 6 variables and PRM practice in channels are equal across each groups without any significant difference at Sig. >0.05. The 6 explanatory variables have a positive and strong correlation of .865 and statistically significant with PRM practices in Ethio telecom at (F=41.249), (P<0.001). Top management support, Motivation, Organization structure, IT infrastructure and Communications have positive and significant influence on PRM practices of Ethio-Telecom at 0.05 levels. The target allocation and unequal period gap allocated to credit payment by Ethio-telecom were found to be major challenges in the distribution channel. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends the company should work towards the creation of relationship managers, with clear job descriptions and annual plans for their relationships.