From Cross-Sectional to Longitudinal and Experimental Research. The majority of empirical channel management research relied on survey data to examine a relationship at one point in time. That is, cross-sectional, one-shot studies have dominated empirical channels research. Such research designs, however, often impede finding meaningful channel management effects (Frazier 1999; Koza and Dant, 2007). The first longitudinal designs were applied to channel research in the 1980s.But a substantial increase in longitudinal studies has occurred in recent years.