Organizational Buying Behavior Research Articles

Organizational Buying Behavior in an Interdependent World

Abstract The emergence of the field of organizational buying behavior in the mid-1960's with the publication of Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing (1967) set the stage for a new paradigm of thinking about how business was conducted in markets other than those serving ultimate consumers. Whether it is “industrial marketing” or “business-to-business marketing” (B-to-B), organizational buying behavior remains the core differentiating characteristic of this domain of marketing. This paper explores the impact of several dynamic factors that have influenced how organizations relate to one another in a rapidly increasing interdependence, which in turn can impact organizational buying behavior. The paper also raises the question of whether or not the major conceptual models of organizational buying behavior in an interdependent world are still relevant to guide research and managerial thinking, in this dynamic business environment. The paper is structured to explore three questions related to organizational...

Power priorities: A buyer–seller comparison of areas of influence

This paper contributes to the operationalisation of the power construct in inter-organisational relationships through establishing what buyers and sellers seek to influence, and the relative priorities of these areas for both roles. Through semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire, four constructs emerge: Commercial Detail, Operational Issues, Strategic Issues and Attitudes. These are identified as the key power priorities that buyers and sellers seek to influence within their inter-organisational relationships. The results reveal that despite some differences in rank-order by role, only the Commercial Detail construct reveals significant differences between the buyers’ and sellers’ ability to influence. Despite this difference, the results provide evidence that buyers and sellers share more commonalities than differences. The research adds an important dimension to understanding organisational buyer behaviour, specifically contextualising power and the boundaries of buyers’ and sellers’ influence.

Global sourcing in integrated network structures: The case of hybrid purchasing organizations

Abstract An issue for companies in globally competitive markets is to adapt their organizational structures and governance in increasingly complex organizations. At the functional level of purchasing, companies are turning to hybrid purchasing organizations in order to leverage global sourcing benefits. One of the key challenges in this context is to distinguish between categories to be integrated across sites and those that are to remain under the authority of each purchasing location in order to maximize purchasing synergies. This paper presents a purchasing portfolio model that provides a comprehensive view of relevant global synergy dimensions. Based on a literature review, a theoretically-grounded purchasing portfolio model for global sourcing is developed. The theoretical basis stems from information processing theory, organizational buying behavior (OBB) and transaction cost economics. The validity of the model is explored by means of case study research. Complementing the extant literature, the theoretical contribution of the paper lies in not only addressing category selection criteria for exploiting economies of scale, but also for economies of information and learning and economies of process. Furthermore, it provides insights regarding integrated network coordination mechanisms at the functional level of purchasing.

Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing Part I: Subject Listing

The Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing (JBBM), an important thematic journal within the field of marketing, serves as a vital venue for both academicians and practitioners interested in business-to-business marketing phenomena. Articles cover a broad spectrum of topics related to business marketing management. A subject-based listing classifies these articles into sixteen categories according to their key research issues. Those categories are: Advertising and Communication, Brand Management, Buyer-Seller Dyad and Relationships, Channels, Customer Relationships, Education, International Issues, Literature Reviews, Methodology, Networks and Strategic Alliances, Organizational Buying Behavior, Pricing and Value, Product Development, Segmentation, Selling and Salesforce Management, and Technology. After the subject listing, titles and abstracts of all articles appearing in the first fifteen volumes of JBBM are listed in volume/issue order. We hope that this index will provide a useful tool for academicians and practitioners who are interested in business-to-business marketing research

A Conceptual Model for Understanding Associations' Site Selection Processes: An Organizational Buyer Behavior Perspective

ABSTRACT Despite the importance of understanding the site selection process in the meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions (MICE) industry, there is a paucity of research in this important area. The majority of scholarly authors have focused their research work on the criteria considered significant by buyers prior to choosing a particular site rather than the decision-making process. Hence, the current article aims to develop a model of the site selection process for associations from the perspective of organizational buyer behavior (OBB) in an attempt to fill such a gap in MICE research. In establishing this model, a number of contributions that arise from the three pioneering OBB models of Robinson, Faris, and Wind (1967), Sheth (1973), and Webster and Wind (1972), along with Crouch and Ritchie's (1998) model of the site selection process, were considered. The proposed model could help meeting sites design competitive marketing strategies and develop an adequate database about the association market, the issue that could lead to their satisfaction and improve customer service.

Landscaping services adoption by organisations in Malaysia: a strategic response to sustainable development

The societal marketing concept advocates the conduct of marketing activities at the societal (or environmental) well-being. Among the ways approached by firms, this concept includes landscaping. Adopting the theory of organisational buying behaviour and the innovation diffusion theory, this paper examines the factors that discriminate between organisational adopters and non-adopters of this societal marketing strategy. About 94 organisations provided the data for the study. The results show that environmental factors such as economic outlook, government influence, competitive development and public scrutiny are important dimensions. In addition, organisational factors namely, organisation's size, organisation's people, environmental sensitivity, cost implication and management factors such as attitude and intention are sufficient for discriminating between adopters and non-adopters. Lastly, relative advantage, compatibility and complexity are significant dimensions from the innovation diffusion theory.

Ongoing search among industrial buyers

Literature on organizational buying behavior pays little attention to ongoing search, i.e., information search activities that are independent of specific purchase decisions. This study employs ethnographic methods to investigate the nature of ongoing search in the context of trade shows. The study contributes to the literature on information search among industrial buyers by highlighting its bias in favor of search processes that lead to short-term purchases. The research findings have strong implications for trade show scholarship, as they cast a critical light on the “received view” on how to effectively select, manage and measure returns on trade show investments. This article offers a more complex and nuanced view of visitor behavior at trade shows and introduces a broader perspective on the significance of these events for their underlying markets.

An examination of buying centres in Irish biotechnology companies and its marketing implications

PurposeThis research is a qualitative study which aims to investigate the intricacies of organisational buying behaviour in the context of the Irish biotechnology industry. Particularly the research seeks to focus on the phenomenon of buying centres as the core decision‐making unit in an organisation and examines the functionality of such a process. The main aims of the research study is to examine key influencers, as well as to examine the decision process itself so as to fully comprehend modern organisational buyer behaviour and to discuss these issues from a practical viewpoint beneficial to both the marketing and purchasing functions.Design/methodology/approachThe research process was conducted through qualitative methods, which formed a combination of focus group and key respondent interviewing. A triangular approach of data was also used to obtain quality information and to achieve a platform upon which to base accurate conclusions. A small number of organisations from industry participated in this study, which was deemed sufficient as the purpose of the study was gaining insight as opposed to proving or disproving previous theories.FindingsIt was discovered that users were key influencers in the decision process as were quality control personnel. In addition the business functions were found to be the decision makers in a highly dynamic buying centre process, which is constantly changing in terms of numbers, participation, and structure. Based on the finding of the research newer models of organisation buying behaviour were developed in addition to appropriate marketing strategies being put forward in order to better represent the realities of modern business‐to‐business marketing. This is where the real benefits of this research will be seen as marketing organisations become more efficient, buying organisations develop best practice procedures, and academics can build on this research base to further enhance marketing knowledge.Originality/valueThe paper examines buying centres in Irish biotechnology companies and offers recommendations for future research.

Organizational Buyer Behavior of Caribbean Food and Beverage Importers

This paper examines the behavior of Caribbean importers with respect to the purchase of branded food and beverage products manufactured in the Canadian province of Ontario. The determinants of the import purchase decision are identified, and the import response of buyers to changes in the importance rating of key purchase criteria is quantified. The study is based on personal interviews with forty-eight Caribbean food and beverage purchasing executives. The results indicate that price and requests from local customers are the most important decision criteria used by Caribbean importers. Also, firms with a recent history of importing Ontario food and beverage products place a higher level of importance on brand image and package design. A one-unit decrease in the importance rating of the packaging design variable was found to increase the odds of a firm importing from Ontario by thirty percent.

Process heuristics in organizational buying: Starting to fill a gap

More research on organizational buying behavior is required to develop dimensions of the decision-making process itself. We propose that one such dimension is process heuristics, or behavioral tendencies, decision strategies, or decision approaches invoked by the perception of various characteristics of the decision context. Process heuristics may drive more specific buying activities such as information search. Our study explores process heuristics and how they relate to aspects of the market and organizational context, and to the buying situation. Our study reveals two process heuristics, structuring and downgrading, for which we propose a model to explain the influences behind these heuristics being invoked.

Diffusion of landscaping services in organizations: a two nation study of determinant factors

PurposeEnvironmentalists, researchers, policy makers, governments, and the general public have frequently expressed the concern for the depleting state of the environment. As a panacea, many governments have called on organizations and individuals to pay greater interest in landscaping and embark on landscaping projects through planting trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in their immediate and distant environments. Through landscaping, the greenery, beauty, and scenic architecture of a place are preserved. This research, therefore, aims to evaluate landscaping adoption and adoption determinants by Malaysian and Nigerian organizations.Design/methodology/approachBased on the theory of organizational buying behavior and the innovation diffusion theory, a list of potential facilitators of landscaping adoption was derived and used as the basis for collecting data from the organizations. These data were factor analyzed to determine the key dimensions of facilitators for landscaping adoption. On the basis of the resulting dimensions, discriminant analysis was conducted to identify the factors that are sufficient in discriminating between the organizations that have adopted landscaping (adopters) and those that have not done so (non‐adopters).FindingsThe results show that organizational factors such as environmental sensitivity of the firm, organization's size, organization's people, and cost implication, as well as innovation characteristics, namely relative advantage, compatibility, and complexity, are significantly sufficient for discriminating between adopters and non‐adopters. An organization's structure and divisibility are not significant determinants.Practical implicationsThe finding of this research is beneficial in designing strategies for the protection and enhancement of the greenery and beauty of the environment, and for overall environmental management.Originality/valueThe outcome of this research provides valuable pioneer information on factors that discriminate between organizational adopters and non‐adopters of landscaping in Malaysia and Nigeria that can be used to enhance landscaping diffusion and overall environmental management.

The influence of purchase situation on buying center structure and involvement: a select meta-analysis of organizational buying behavior research

Researchers investigating various aspects of organizational buying behavior often have reported mixed, sometimes contradictory results. Recently, there have been attempts to consolidate work in this area [cf. Bunn, M.D. 1993. Taxonomy of buying decision approaches. Journal of Marketing; 57:38–56 (January); Johnston, W.J., Lewin, J.E. Organizational buying behavior: toward an integrative framework. Journal of Business Research 1996; 35 (January): 1–15]. However, to date no one has attempted a meta-analytical integration of this research stream. To fill this gap, the authors conduct a meta-analysis of the relationships between the nature of the purchase situation and buying center structure and buying center involvement. While results indicate that cumulative findings in some cases are robust, in other cases they are not. Subsequent moderator analysis indicates that study design characteristics account for significant variation in findings across studies.

Consumer Ethnocentrism: CETSCALE Validation and Measurement of Extent

Consumer ethnocentrism means ‘…the appropriateness, indeed morality of purchasing foreign made products.’ Today, when the Indian consumer has great access to foreign goods and the Indian manufacturer is facing increasing competition from foreign products, the neglect of this topic in India is hard to explain. The CETSCALE, a scale to measure consumer ethnocentrism, has been tested in many parts of the world but not in India. This research examined the psychometrics of the CETSCALE, the extent of consumer ethnocentrism in India, and the relationship of socio-demographic variables and quality consciousness with consumer ethnocentrism. Data were collected from three socio-demographic groups-materials management professionals, the group with the largest influence on organizational buying behaviour; university students, the most often researched group of respondents the world over and hence ideal for a cross-cultural comparison of results; and senior secondary school students, a group recommended as worth researching by a prominent earlier researcher. Analysis of data was done with the help of currently used and recommended tools including exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Results show that the concept of consumer ethnocentrism prevailing in India is not conceptually equivalent to the concept of consumer ethnocentrism prevailing in other countries where it has been found to be uni-dimensional. In India, the concept has more nuances. What is more, the concept as understood by the three different socio-demographic groups is also not identical. The level of consumer ethnocentrism in India is not less than that prevailing in a similar demographic group in a developed country like the US. It is the senior secondary school students who are the most consumer ethnocentric. Socio-demographic variables do not adequately explain the presence, or otherwise, of consumer ethnocentrism. Neither does quality consciousness. The managerial implications of the major findings of this study are as follows: In India, the label ‘made in India’ is not a liability. The Indian consumers will not lap up foreign goods merely because of their ‘made in’ tags. This should bring comfort to companies whose products carry the ‘made in India’ label. The threat perception of freer imports into India should be altered in the light of these findings. Foreign companies in India, planning to sell goods manufactured on Indian soil rather than imported from their plants abroad, will also get support for their actions from these findings. That the young Indians (a numerically very large segment of the market) are the most consumer ethnocentric of them all points to a comfortable future for the ‘made in India’ label. An attempt has been made to refine the CETSCALE for use in India. Marketing needs to respond to the criticism of the concept of ethnocentrism in the other social sciences. It needs to explore the relationship of consumer ethnocentrism with consumer animosity and consumer affinity (love-hate relationship with other countries).

Journal of Business to Business Marketing Part I: Subject Listing

ABSTRACT The Journal of Business to Business Marketing, an important thematic journal within the field of marketing, serves as a vital venue for both academicians and practitioners interested in business-to-business marketing phenomena. Articles cover a broad spectrum of topics related to business marketing management. A subject-based listing classifies these articles into 16 categories according to their key research issues. Those categories are: Advertising and Communication, Brand Management, Buyer-Seller Dyad and Relationships, Channels, Customer Relationships, Education, International Issues, Literature Reviews, Methodology, Networks and Strategic Alliances, Organizational Buying Behavior, Pricing and Value, Product Development, Segmentation, Selling and Salesforce Management, Technology. After the subject listing, titles and abstracts of all articles appearing in the first ten volumes of JBBM are listed in volume/issue order. We hope that this index will provide a useful tool for academicians and practitioners who are interested in business-to-business marketing research.

Customer satisfaction measurement in a business‐to‐business context: a conceptual framework

In practice, firms measure customer satisfaction using models and theory developed for evaluating the perceptions of individual consumers rather than entire organizations. This paper develops an integrated model of customer satisfaction measurement specific to a business‐to‐business context and addresses the unique challenges inherent in this context by incorporating learnings from the fields of customer satisfaction, organizational buying behavior and relationship marketing. After presenting the model and its rationale, the paper illustrates practical uses of the model as a managerial tool for framing a system of customer satisfaction measurement.

A model of the effects of technical consultants on organizational learning in high-technology purchase situations

Despite the fact that it is widely acknowledged that both organizational learning and the purchasing of high-technology products are important areas for study, it is surprising to find that little, if any, research has explicitly linked them together. Accordingly, the major motivation of this study is to begin to address this gap in the literature by developing a model that is based on a review of the extensive literature on organizational buying behavior, organizational information search, and organizational learning. Moreover, a key contribution of this research is to incorporate the effects that outside technical consultants are likely to have on the processes of information search and organizational learning in firms purchasing high-technology products. The inclusion of the effects of consultants is important because many scholars argue that such hired experts are likely to have a pronounced effect on organizational learning in a variety of high-technology contexts.

A qualitative study of the influencing factors on the decision process for acquiring ERP software

This paper focuses on the influences and characteristics of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) acquisition process (ERPAP) that were found during a multiple‐case study of four organizations that had acquired ERP solutions. From organizational buying behaviour (OBB), Webster and Wind’s (Prentice‐Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1972) served as the basis for categorizing the influences that surfaced during the study. While Webster and Wind’s model presents a broad scope of variables that might affect organizational buying without distinguishing those variables that are dependent on specific buying situations, the research herein highlights variables (influences and characteristics) specific to the buying situation for ERP software packages. Numerous influences emerged, among the most notable of which was the influence of users. Five prominent characteristics were also noted. A future study of these influences could examine the extent to which they impact the ERPAP and could serve to help organizations minimize those that are shown to hinder it.

Uses of the Internet in the global hotel industry

This article discusses a study carried out among the membership of Global Hoteliers, an organization of executives in the international hotel industry. The study looked into the uses of the Internet, such as the World Wide Web and E-mail, and at any organizational and geographical influences on those uses. Hotel size, star rating, and hotel type were among the organizational factors which had some significant effect on certain aspects of the information hotels posted on the Web and on the use of E-mail. Similarly, the geographical location of hotels was also found to have a significant effect. The similarities and differences of the use of the Internet among global hotels call for future research into the relationships between market segmentation, organizational buying behavior, hotel operations and information technology.

Organizational Buying and Advertising Agency-Client Relationships in China

The 1980s and 1990s have seen the development of an interesting, diverse, and relevant body of literature on the advertising agency-client relationship. In recent times, an area of focus has been the application of organizational buying behavior principles to companies that are purchasing advertising services from advertising agencies. However, little is known about the application of such theories in the context of a developing country. After examining the literature relating to China's advertising industry and the application of organizational buying behavior principles in the advertising industry, this article reports on a survey of 200 firms in Shanghai. The results unexpectedly show that advertising agency power in the campaign development process is not related to the nature of the advertising task (new task, modified rebuy, straight rebuy) at hand. In addition, bottom-up processes give agencies the weakest power, and the client buying process is dominated by marketers, the salesforce, and public relations, with top managers the primary deciders.

The Effects of Downsizing on Organizational Buying Behavior: An Empirical Investigation

To survive in today’s highly competitive markets, many firms are initiating fundamental changes in organizational form and practice. These restructuring efforts are having significant effects on the organization and management of work within customer firms. However, these important changes have been largely ignored in the extant marketing literature. The research presented in this article first describes a general theory of the effects of organizational downsizing. Then, it examines the potential effects of downsizing on buying center structure and purchase participant characteristics. Findings support several of the hypotheses related to the proposed effects of organizational downsizing on the outcome variables of interest.