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Business Buying Behavior

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Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Marketing

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Abstract

The objective of this chapter is to explain the decision-making process underlying organizational-buying behavior. Three main questions are addressed: Who is the buyer? What is the meaning of organizational-buying behavior? What are the main factors affecting organizational-buying behavior? In addition, different theories of buying behavior are described that help the analysis of organizational-buying behavior.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Cf. Sect. 1.1.3.

  2. 2.

    Cf. Sect. 1.1.

  3. 3.

    The activities of the seller are discussed as the “selling center” in the literature.

  4. 4.

    However, coercive power seems to be important for big buying centers.

  5. 5.

    However, the use of legitimate power is only attested by the study of Naumann and Reck (1982) as opposed to the finding of Patchen (1974) and Spekman (1979).

  6. 6.

    However, there seems to be no significant relationship between power strength and the purchase situation. There is no more use of power in new task situations than in straight rebuy situations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hagen oder FernUniversität in Hagen, Hagen, Germany

    Sabine Fließ

  2. Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Wesley Johnston

  3. International Marketing, University of Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Christina Sichtmann

Authors
  1. Sabine Fließ
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  2. Wesley Johnston
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  3. Christina Sichtmann
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Correspondence to Sabine Fließ .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Michael Kleinaltenkamp

  2. European School of Management and Technology, Berlin, Germany

    Wulff Plinke

  3. The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Ian Wilkinson

  4. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Ingmar Geiger

Exercises

Exercises

  1. 1.

    What difficulties are marketing activities confronted with when they have to deal with the purchasing/buying function/department in a company?

  2. 2.

    What are the different levels one can look at when analyzing the buying/buyer of a company? Use an example to show the implication of using two different units of analysis for the outcome (i.e., who and how to address, marketing strategy, coordination needs, etc.).

  3. 3.

    What are the main four views on the motives of purchasing managers? Discuss the pros and cons of each one. Use examples to explain what the implications are for the marketing.

  4. 4.

    Explain why uncertainty is a defining behavioral feature of the buying process.

  5. 5.

    Define exogenous and endogenous uncertainty. How can the buyer (or either side) reduce his/her uncertainty?

  6. 6.

    Thinking of purchases you made during the last couple months, when and why did you experience uncertainty? Find examples for exogenous and endogenous uncertainty. Concerning uncertainty, what are the differences between purchase decisions in a company and your personal purchase decisions?

  7. 7.

    Explain the buying center concept. Choose an example to explain which departments of a company are involved in the buying decision process according to this concept.

  8. 8.

    Describe the different roles according to the role allocation by Webster and Wind.

  9. 9.

    Why do individuals retain information selectively? And what consequences does that imply?

  10. 10.

    What are the buying classes in the BUYGRID model of Robinson, Faris, and Wind (1967)? Find examples from your personal experience and for industrial-buying situations for each class. In what ways does industrial-buying behavior have to account for the different purchase situations?

  11. 11.

    Differentiate between the purchase situations presented by Faris (1967).

  12. 12.

    Explain the influencing factors of the Organizational-Buying Behavior Model Webster & Wind (1972b).

  13. 13.

    What are the differences between the stimulus–response approaches to industrial-buying behavior and the dyadic approaches to industrial-buying behavior? Which models belong to these approaches?

  14. 14.

    What positions are there in a communication network and how and to what extent do they effect/influence the workings of that network? Which networking strategies could one use most effectively in the various network positions? Why?

  15. 15.

    What are the different sources of power? Find examples! Can this concept be applied to areas other than industrial-buying decisions? To which ones? Which source of power is, in your opinion, the most relevant for an organizational purchase decisions? Why?

  16. 16.

    Which concepts can be used to analyze/explain bargaining and negotiations? What are the key features of the Edgeworth Box?

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Fließ, S., Johnston, W., Sichtmann, C. (2015). Business Buying Behavior. In: Kleinaltenkamp, M., Plinke, W., Wilkinson, I., Geiger, I. (eds) Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Marketing. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12463-6_4

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