Abstract:  Effective conflict management can alleviate the negative impact of channel conflict on the quality of the relationship, and therefore is conducive to repair the relationship between two channel parties. Extant literature on the relationship repair between channel members focus on the self repair of conflict parties under dyadic structure.Under the circumstance that the channel relationship in the network society has evolved from dualism to pluralism, third party intervention in conflict management is not only necessary but also inevitable. Based on social balance theory and the contingency model of third party intervention, this article explores the impact of the third party intervention on relationship repair between two parties after the channel conflict; and the type of intervention modes(process intervention and outcome intervention) should be adopted in differnet conflict situations(emotional conflict and cognitive conflict). In this study, we collect 221 valid samples through 2 x 2 scenario simulation experiments. Using SPSS 23, we find that: the third party intervention after channel conflict has a significant positive effect on the channel relationship repair; intervention mode and conflict type have a significant interaction effect. This paper broadens the subject of channel conflict management, enriches the theory and literature of channel relationship repair, and provides new ideas for channel members to effectively repair the relationship after channel conflict.

Key words: channel conflict management, third party intervention, relationship repair