Organizational Buying Behavior
Under Organizational buying behavior or Organizational Buying Behavior is defined as a business management approach, with the purchasing behavior of companies is analyzed as a collective process. The starting point is that the complex decision-making process by which organizations identify their needs for products and choose between existing alternatives is usually not facilitated by the large number of people involved, often with different goals.
The organizational purchase decision process differs from that of the consumer mainly in that it is more formalized, the fact that several people are often involved in the process and a very precise definition of needs. The knowledge of organizational buying behavior is used in particular in capital goods marketing.
Phases of the purchasing decision process of organizations
- Problem detection
- specification
- Search for alternatives and suppliers
- Obtaining offers and selecting a supplier
- Specification of the order
- Negotiating the terms
- Evaluation.
If it is a simple or modified repeat purchase, some stages can be left out.
Webster, Wind, Faris, Ronbinson, Anderson, Chu and Weitz provided the first approaches to this topic.
Buying Center
A buying center refers to the entirety of the people involved in a purchase decision process for capital goods . There are the following roles:
- User : are the members of an organization who use the products and services.
- Influencer: like technical staff and engineers, who provide information and thereby influence decisions.
- Buyers : are those with formal responsibility and authority, especially on supplier issues.
- Decision maker (decider): are the management and the buyers
- Informant (gatekeeper): are the buyer and secretary. Control the internal flow of information and the flow of new information.
In addition to the formal roles, the promoter concept can be used:
Power promoter : power through high hierarchical position. Performance contributions: Provides resources, sets goals, sanctions actors and blocks opponents. Possibly. Barriers of will and hierarchy.
Specialist promoter : power through expert competence. Performance contributions: Evaluates problems, assesses, develops and implements solutions to problems, promotes learning processes. Possibly. subject-specific ability barriers.
Process promoter : Power through organizational knowledge and internal communication potential. Contribution to performance: collects, filters, translates and interprets information and forwards it specifically to actors, promotes communication relationships and coalitions.
In reality, there is no buying center in any organization. It is only used to make it easier to represent the different people and their different influences.
Influencing factors of organizational buying behavior
Environmental factors: They are difficult to identify and measure. Environmental influences can be physical, technological, economic, political and cultural. Influences are exerted by different institutions such as suppliers, competitors and customers. The environmental conditions are v. a. relevant where cross-border cooperation takes place.
Examples of environmental factors: investment behavior, consumer behavior, interest rate, technology, legislation, competition, politics, ecology, ...
Organizational factors: cause individuals to behave differently than when they make decisions on their own or in another organization. Organizational Buying Behavior is controlled by goals of the organization, which in turn are determined by financial means, technology and human resources.
Examples of organizational factors: goals, purchasing tactics, organizational structure, hierarchy.
Social, interpersonal factors: Group decisions, as they are made in the buying center, are influenced by various factors. Influencing factors are the individual goals and character traits, the type of leadership of a group, the group structure and external influences (environment, organization).
Examples of social factors: group dynamics, authority, ...
Individual factors of the people involved: Individuals are shaped by complex combinations between personal and organizational goals. Both cultural, organizational and social factors affect individuals. Individual factors also influence the decision-making process due to ignorance, e.g. B. about available alternatives, due to information gaps.
Examples of individual factors: education, personality, willingness to take risks, ...
literature
- PJ Robinson, CW Faris, Y. Wind: Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing . Allyn & Bacon Boston 1967.
- Frederick E. Webster, Yoram Wind: "Organizational Buying Behavior (Foundations of Marketing)" Englewood Cliffs NJ 1972, ISBN 0136409539
See also
Web links
- Chapter 7 Organizational Buying Behavior (PDF file; 19 kB)
- Influencing factors of organizational buying behavior
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kurt Jeschke Marketing Management of the Consulting Company , p. 170
- ↑ A. Walter: The relationship promoter . Wiesbaden 1998, p. 106.