Abstract
Problem statement: There is a lack of research on B2B e-commerce, especially involving input from B2B executives. To bridge that gap, we investigate whether (1) buyers and sellers differ significantly in their preference for traditional over the online purchase method across different products and across different purchase criteria and whether (2) buyers prefer the traditional over the online method across the straight rebuy, modified rebuy and new task buying situations. In the process, we test the following hypotheses: In general, buyers prefer traditional B2B over online for B2B purchases; buyers prefer the online over traditional method of transaction for straight rebuy; buyers prefer the traditional over online method of transaction for modified rebuy and buyers prefer the traditional over online method of transaction for new task. Approach: The authors queried B2B salespersons and B2B purchase professionals across a wide range of industries, representing a crosssection of products and purchase criteria. We use independent samples t-test for our hypotheses, since the main objective is to test direction and/significance of (differences in) preference. Results: The results show that traditional B2B is the buyers’ preferred procurement method. Buyers, however, prefer the online method for straight rebuy transactions and the traditional method for modified rebuy and new task situations. Conclusion: Efforts to measure purchase preference from a B2B buyer’s and seller’s perspectives are few and far between, the main reason being the difficulty of collecting data from industry professionals. Given the popularity of B2B e-commerce and the interesting managerial and academic implications we have provided, the authors believe that this research provides valuable contribution. We also offer suggestions for future research.
Highlights
Statistics, total retail spending for the first five months of 2010 was $1.25 trillion, as reported by Electronic commerce (e-commerce), i.e., commercial transactions mediated by the Internet, supported by software and services, creates mutual value for business partners through the performance of essential business functions better, faster, easier and cheaper (Polhamus, 2001)
Comscore notes that consumer electronics, computer software, computers /peripherals/PDAs and books/magazines are some of the most hot e-commerce products Comscore Report. Despite such notable figures and prospects, most previous studies have been reported by professional consultants who typically base their reports more on industry estimates and historical data rather than on empirical studies
Results of the analysis of the three buying situations suggest that B2B buyers perceive online to be better for straight rebuy, while favoring traditional method for modified rebuy and new task--for both of which, the magnitude of preference is even stronger than that for straight rebuy scenario
Summary
Statistics, total retail spending for the first five months of 2010 was $1.25 trillion, as reported by Electronic commerce (e-commerce), i.e., commercial transactions mediated by the Internet, supported by software and services, creates mutual value for business partners through the performance of essential business functions better, faster, easier and cheaper (Polhamus, 2001). Comscore notes that consumer electronics, computer software, computers /peripherals/PDAs and books/magazines are some of the most hot e-commerce products Comscore Report Despite such notable figures and prospects, most previous studies have been reported by professional consultants who typically base their reports more on industry estimates and historical data rather than on empirical studies. The involvement of the sales and purchasing teams are likely to be very high for purchases where negotiations about price, quality or other aspects of the transaction are involved Such transactions often take anywhere between a week to more than two years to Online B2B is Better n.s. Traditional B2B is Better n.s. dollar value involved (Johnston and Bonoma, 1981).
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