A NEW APPROACH FOR DETERMINIG THE STRUCTURE OF THE BUYING
CENTER
Assistant Sitar Corina Pop Sitar
Ph.D. candidate Anne-Marie Hordău,
North University of Baia Mare,
Victoriei Nr. 76,
Tel: 0262-276059,
e-mail: sitarcorina@yahoo.com; annemariehordau@yahoo.com
Abstract:
Although the buying center concept has made an important contribution to the study of organizational buying
behavior, comprehensive research of the buying center structure has been limited. This paper extends the
understanding of the structure of the buying center by showing and defining all the factors that have an impact
on the buying center structure and by developing a framework for determining the structure of the buying
center. The main value added of our framework is that is comprehensive and takes into consideration all the
factors that have an impact on the buying center structure. In addition to all the factors studied before, our
framework contains a new construct, the environmental characteristics, which has not been studied before by
other researchers. Within each construct we added some new characteristics and we eliminated the
duplications.
Key words: buying center; purchasing management; organizational behavior.
Literature review
The buying center notion has been one of the most important conceptual contributions made in the study of
organizational buying behavior. The concept of the buying center refers to all those members of an organization
who become involved in the buying process for a particular product or service (Robinson et. al 1967).
The main research streams of investigation found in literature include: buying center structure and factors that
influence it; influence of members of the buying center; and communication between members of the buying
center. Most researchers have studied the changes in the buying center (BC) composition and structure over the
buying process and the factors that determined these changes.
Researchers that studied the factors that determine changes in the BC composition and structure found four main
categories of factors that influence the BC structure: company specific characteristics, purchase related
characteristics, participants characteristics and type of the decision. A list of all factors that have been
researched and the author(s) that has/have studied them is given in Table 1.
From all these characteristics, purchase or product characteristics were found to be the most influential upon the
structure of the buying center. The findings in this area indicate that purchase related characteristics such as
purchase novelty, complexity, importance, time pressure and buy class are powerful determinants of the buying
center structure (Geok-Theng Lau et al., 1999; Johnston and Bonoma, 1981, Johnston and Lewin, 1996,
Bellizzi, 1979, Naumann, 1981, etc).
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Organization
characteristics
Education
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Motivation
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Experience
Centralization
*
Risk preference
Formalization
*
New task
*
*
Modified rebuy
*
*
Type of decision
Straight rebuy
*
*
Perception
Bellizzi (1979)
*
*
Personality
*
Sheth (1973)
Complexity
Webster and Wind
(1972)
Participants
characteristics
Size
Orientation
Novelty
Uncertainty
Time pressure
Complexity
Buy class
Importance
Researchers
Type of product
Purchase related
characteristics
Naumann (1981)
Johnston and Bonoma
(1981)
*
*
*
*
*
Crow and Lindquist
(1985)
Johnston and Lewin
(1996)
Geok-Theng et al.
(1999)
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Table 1: A literature review of the factors that influence the BC structure
Bellizzi (1979) and Naumann (1981) studied what impact the purchase-related factors have on the relative
influence of the BC participants. Bellizzi (1979) found that the influence of the BC members was significantly
related to the product type. Naumann (1981) discovered that purchasing agents were most influential in
modified rebuy and straight rebuy situations, while other members of the buying center were relied upon heavily
in new task situations.
Geok-Theng Lau et al. (1999) discovered that BC becomes more complex with either increasing purchase
importance or time pressure. Another conclusion was that buying under increased time pressure sees fewer
members making purchasing decision.
Sheth’ s model suggests that company factors and product specific characteristics determine whether a specific
buying decision will be joint or autonomous. (Sheth, 1973).
Webster and Wind (1972) defined buying center as a subset of the organizational actors which consists of five
roles: users, influencers, deciders, buyers and gatekeepers. In their opinion the behavior of the members of the
buying center reflects the influence of other members of the organization as well as the effect of the buying task,
the organizational structure and technologies.
Johnston and Lewin (1996) appreciated that much of the variation in the buying center appears to be related to
the level of risk associated with a given purchase situation. They appreciated that as the risk associated with the
purchase situations increases the BC will become larger and more complex and the participants in the purchase
decision-making process will be more educated.
Crow and Linquist (1985) are the only researchers to examine the impact of individual characteristics of key
buying center members on buying center structure. They found that more educated purchasing managers were
associated with larger buying centers.
All the researchers studied only some factors that have an impact on the BC structure or only parts of the buying
process were examined. With this article we want to fill this gap and we look simultaneously at all the factors
influencing the structure of the BC and we study them across all buying phases.
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A framework for determining the structure of the buying center
The proposed framework for determining the structure of the buying center is shown in Figure 1. Within the
framework we grouped all the factors that have an impact on the buying center structure into six main
constructs: environmental characteristics, organization characteristics, purchase-related characteristics, purchase
phase, purchasing department characteristics and other participants characteristics.
For the structure of the BC we took into consideration three main dimensions: complexity, formalization and
centralization. We choose these dimensions because of the growing consensus among organization theorists and
organizational buying behavior researchers that complexity, formalization and centralization are the major
dimensions of organizational structure (Van de Ven, 1976; McCabe, 1987).
Complexity is defined as the degree to which procurement activities are conducted by specialized departments
and skilled personnel. Formalization is defined in this study as the extent to which purchasing tasks are
formally prescribed by rules, policies and procedures. With regard to centralization, we consider the distribution
of formal control and power within the organization.
The environment seldom enters the purchasing decision directly, but rather set the general scenario for the BC
decision-making process. Environmental influences include economic, political, social, legal and cultural
factors. Environmental characteristics influence the buying center structure by providing information as well as
constraints and opportunities and they have direct effect on who will be in the buying center.
Environmental
characteristics
Economic
Cultural
Social
Legal
Political
Organization
characteristics
Type of firm
Type of product
Size
Other participants
Characteristics
Education Experience
Product Self-confidence
Purchase-related
characteristics
Importance
Buying
structure
center
Purchase
phase
Novelty
Specification
Complexity
Selection
PD
characteristics
Education
Complexity
Experience
Organizational
buying behavior
Figure1: A framework for determining the structure of the buying center
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Various organizational aspects have been studied to determine the influence of the organization on the buying
decision process. For our framework we selected the ones that we consider to have the biggest influence over
the BC structure: type of firm, size and structure of the organization. The number of the participants in the BC is
affected by the type and size of the organization and also by the organizational structural variables
(formalization, complexity and centralization).
Purchase phase is an important determinant of the BC structure. McWilliams et al. (1992) confirmed this and
they identified a significant relationship between the BC structure and the phase of the purchasing process. They
found that the BC was smaller in the phase of selection of suppliers than in the initial phase, identification of
need.
The size of the BC is also influenced by the characteristics of the buyers and of the other participants in the
buying decision process. Buyers characteristics such as: education, experience, motivation, location will
influence the number of people involved in the purchasing process. Besides this, the other participants’
characteristics such as: education, experience, product knowledge and self-confidence affect also the size of the
BC and the perceived influence of the members of the BC.
From all six main constructs of our framework we consider the purchase related characteristics to be the most
important factors affecting BC structure because they tend to affect how the buying organizations and buying
participants view their tasks in the buying process and therefore how they organize themselves for the decisionmaking process
Importance of purchase can be defined as the perceived impact of the purchase on the organization’s
profitability and productivity. Importance has been shown to affect participation in the BC and the behavior of
the participants throughout the purchasing process (McQuiston, 1989).
Time pressure represents the extent to which BC members feel compelled/forced to make a decision quickly
(Kohli, 1989). The amount of time pressure an organization is under to make a purchase decision has been
shown to impact the number of people that participate in the BC. Spekman and Moriarty (1984) suggest that
under high time pressure fewer members participate in the purchasing process.
Another challenge facing many buying participants in organizations is the novelty of the purchase. Novelty is
the lack of experience of individuals in the organization with similar purchase situations. Novelty of the
purchase affects the participation in the BC and the influence of the participants of the BC (Geok-Theng Lau et
al., 1999). When the purchase situation is novel, there is greater unfamiliarity and insecurity, and more
departments and people may be brought into the buying process and therefore the BC becomes more complex.
Complexity can be defined as how much information must be gathered to make an accurate evaluation of the
product/purchase. As the complexity increases, it is likely that experts and specialized personnel may be needed
as part of the buying decision process, leading to a complex BC.
Uncertainty refers to the riskiness of a decision as perceived by buying center members. In an uncertain
purchase situation, management will involve more people in the decision making process and more specialized
personnel in the BC in order to have more information and to minimize the degree of uncertainty involved.
Discussion and conclusions
This paper extends the understanding of the structure of the buying center by showing and defining al factors
that impact the buying center structure and by developing a framework for determining the structure of the
buying center.
Within our framework we grouped the factors that impact the buying center structure into six main constructs:
environmental characteristics, organization characteristics, purchase-related characteristics, purchase phase,
purchasing department characteristics and other participants characteristics. Then we took each construct and
defined its characteristics and determined their impact on the buying center structure.
We emphasized the purchase-related characteristics because literature suggests they significantly affect the
buying center process, perhaps more than any other aspect of the situation including the buying organization’s
structure.
With regard to the organizational characteristics we argue that three of them (type of firm, size and structure) are
most important and have a direct impact on to the buying center structure. We consider that the purchase phase
is an important determinant of the BC structure that is why we included it in our framework. The participants in
the purchasing process influence also the structure of the BC but most researchers studied the characteristics of
the buying center without making the distinction between purchasing department characteristics and other
participants characteristics. We argue that this distinction is important because the purchasing department
members have different characteristics form the other participants of the buying center and they play different
roles in the buying decision process and therefore impact the buying center structure differently.
The main value added of our framework is that is comprehensive and takes into consideration all factors that
impact the buying center structure. All previous researchers took into consideration only two or three factors
that influence the buying center structure. In addition our framework contains a new construct, the
environmental characteristics, which has not been studied by other researchers. Within each construct we added
some new characteristics and we eliminated the duplications.The framework can be used to learn what
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characteristics to examine when studying the structure of the BC. It can be also used as a foundation for further
research in this subject.
References:
1.
Bellizzi, J.A., Product type and the relative influence of buyers in commercial construction. Industrial
Marketing Management, Vol. 8, 1979, pp. 213-220.
2. Crow, L.E. and Lindquist, J. D., Impact of organizational and buyer characteristics on the buying
center. Industrial Marketing Management 14, 1985, pp. 49-58.
3. Dawes, P. L. et al., Factors affecting the structure of buying centers for the purchase of professional
business advisory services. International Journal of Research in marketing, Vol. 9, 1992, pp. 269-279.
4. Johnston, W. J. and Bonoma, T. V., The buying center: structure and interaction patterns. Journal of
Marketing, Vol. 45, 1981, pp. 143-156.
5. Johnston, W. J. and Lewin, J. E., Organizational buying behavior: toward an integrative framework.
Journal of Business Research 35, 1996, pp.1-15.
6. Kohli, A., Determinants of influence in organizational buying: a contingency approach. Journal of
marketing, Vol.53, 1989, pp. 50-65.
7. Naumann, E., The impact of purchase situation and purchase phase on amount and bases of influence
in organizational purchasing: an empirical investigation. D.B.A. dissertation, Arizona State
University,1981.
8. Robinson, P. J. et al., Industrial Buying and Creative Marketing. Allyn & Bacon, Boston.
9. Sheth, J. N., 1973. A model of industrial buyer behavior. Jo urnal of Marketing, Vol. 37, 1967,pp. 5056.
10. Webster, F. and Wind, Y., A general model for understanding organizational buying behavior. Journal
of Marketing, vol. 36, 1972, pp. 12-19.
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