Ahlome

A General Model for Understanding Organizational Buying Behavior - Research findings and theoretical discussion about consumer behavior often have little relevance for the industrial marketer - Buyer behavior model can help marketer to analyze available information about the market to identify the need for additional information - It can help to specify targets for marketing effort, the kind of information needed by various purchasing decision makers, and the criteria that they will use to make these decisions

Traditional Views - The literature of economics, purchasing, and to a limited degree, marketing has emphasized “rational,” economic factors - In these economic views, the objective of purchasing is to obtain the minimum price or the lowest total cost-in-use - Other traditional views of organizational buying err in the opposite direction, emphasizing variables such as emotion, personal goals and the internal politics that are involved in the buying decision process but not related to the goals of the buying task - This “nontask” emphasis is seen in models which emphasize the purchasing agent’s interest in obtaining personal favors, in enhancing his own ego, or in reducing perceived risk.

An Overview of a General Model - The four classes of variables determining organizational buying behavior are individual, social, organization and environmental. - Within each class, there are two board categories of variable, take and nontask - The distinction between task and nontask variables applies to all of the classes of variables, and subclasses o Eg. Motives will inevitably have both dimensions – those relating directly to the buying problem to be solved and those primarily concerned with personal goals o These motives overlap in many important respects and need not conflict - Organizational buying behavior is a complex process and involves many persons, multiple goals and potentially conflicting