In early September 2016, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung), a leading manufacturer of smartphones headquartered in South Korea, released the new generation of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7. Despite initial positive reviews and a strong market reception, just eight days later, Samsung voluntarily recalled 2.5 million of the smartphones, after receiving reports of the devices overheating and catching on fire. The problems persisted even with the replacement device, and the company decided to cease all production and sales of the Galaxy Note 7 in October 2016. Samsung faced a highly commoditized market, decreasing global demand, and increasing competition, but the company now also needed to deal with one of the biggest recalls in the history of the industry. What had gone wrong, and how could the company move forward?

In early September 2016, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung), a leading manufacturer of smartphones headquartered in South Korea, released the new generation of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7. Despite initial positive reviews and a strong market reception, just eight days later, Samsung voluntarily recalled 2.5 million of the smartphones, after receiving reports of the devices overheating and catching on fire. The problems persisted even with the replacement device, and the company decided to cease all production and sales of the Galaxy Note 7 in October 2016. Samsung faced a highly commoditized market, decreasing global demand, and increasing competition, but the company now also needed to deal with one of the biggest recalls in the history of the industry. What had gone wrong, and how could the company move forward?

Rockwell Automation's Allen-Bradley division was considering how to deal with the threat posed by national distributors in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) business for its industrial automation products. National distributors were consolidating the MRO distribution channel, offering national account customers an integrated multichannel solution for their MRO needs. Allen-Bradley had traditionally served its customers through high-touch, high-value-added local distributors, but this channel was inadequate for the demands of large MRO customers. An effort by Allen-Bradley and other manufacturers to create an industry-wide electronic sourcing consortium called SourceAlliance.com had failed. Now the company had to choose between redesigning its traditional channel by creating a virtual network of local distributors, striking an alliance with a national distributor, or withdrawing from the MRO market. It had to contend with difficult channel conflict issues in choosing a channel strategy.