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Observations of Centralized Corporate Procurement
Abstract
An ethnographic approach was used to develop flow diagrams of the information processes and decision making stages of corporate and plant purchasing personnel in developing corporate purchasing agreements with suppliers. Participant observations of the processes used to develop corporate purchasing agreements were conducted along with extensive personal interviews of plant buyers at seven plant locations of Epsilon Corporation-a multinational electronics firm with headquarter offices in New York City. The results indicate that valid and useful descriptions can be provided of the information processes and decisions actually used to produce corporate purchasing agreements. Several diagnostic comments are provided to each of the four phases in the processes used to develop corporate purchasing agreements.
... A set price is frequently negotiated between the marketer and customer. The customer frequently includes multiple-parties in B2B contexts as well (Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
... T 10 : price setting frequently involves a series of feedback loops in real-life contexts. Formal meetings often occur in negotiating annual contracts among manufacturers buying component parts and informal meetings both precede and follow these formal meetings Woodside and Samuel (1981) provide a marketing-purchasing participant observation study that confirms this tenth tenet. Their study includes a decision systems analysis (DSA) showing several feedback loops in negotiation processes involving centralized purchasing offices and various plant-level purchasing officers as well as companywide purchasing committees negotiating with global suppliers. ...
... The general theory of behavioral pricing may offer unique advantages for attaining the objectives of heterogeneity, realism, and high-predictive accuracy. Gladwin (1989), Morgenroth (1964), Howard andMorgenroth (1968), Van Maanen (1978), Van Someren et al. (1994), Vyas and Woodside (1984), Woodside and Samuel (1981), Woodside (2010), and Woodside, Pattinson, and Montgomery (2012) offer details and examples for collecting data from decision participants on their perceiving information, sense-making, assessing issues, and choice-making processes in natural contexts; these sources also discuss the collection of documents and data from direct observations of participants' actions in natural contexts. The blessings from such data collection and handling include the combination of verbal and written data and process information relevant to specific contexts that the use of fixed-point (e.g., 1 to 5 or 1 to 7 valuations) surveys cannot provide; also, invariably, participants blurt out information during moments in think aloud data collection procedures that they would never report in written survey responses-especially when the participants are interviewed on two or more occasions. ...
Building behavioral-pricing models-in-contexts enriches one or more goals of science and practice: description, understanding, prediction, and influence/control. The general theory of behavioral strategy includes a set of tenets that describes alternative configurations of decision processes and objectives, contextual features, and beliefs/assessments associating with different outcomes involving specific price-points. This article explicates these tenets and discusses empirical studies which support the general theory. The empirical studies include the use of alternative data collection and analytical tools including true field experiments, think aloud methods, long interviews, ethnographic decision-tree-modeling, and building and testing algorithms (e.g., fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis). The general theory of behavioral pricing involves the blending of cognitive science, complexity theory, economics, marketing, psychology, and implemented practices. Consequently, behavioral pricing theory is distinct from context-free microeconomics, market-driven, and competitor-only price-setting. Capturing and reporting contextually-driven alternative routines to price setting by a compelling set of tenets represents what is particularly new and valuable about the general theory. The general theory serves as a useful foundation for advances in pricing theory and improving pricing practice.
... A set price is frequently negotiated between the marketer and customer. The customer frequently includes multiple-parties in B2B contexts as well (Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
... T 10 : price setting frequently involves a series of feedback loops in real-life contexts. Formal meetings often occur in negotiating annual contracts among manufacturers buying component parts and informal meetings both precede and follow these formal meetings Woodside and Samuel (1981) provide a marketing-purchasing participant observation study that confirms this tenth tenet. Their study includes a decision systems analysis (DSA) showing several feedback loops in negotiation processes involving centralized purchasing offices and various plant-level purchasing officers as well as companywide purchasing committees negotiating with global suppliers. ...
... The general theory of behavioral pricing may offer unique advantages for attaining the objectives of heterogeneity, realism, and high-predictive accuracy. Gladwin (1989), Morgenroth (1964), Howard andMorgenroth (1968), Van Maanen (1978), Van Someren et al. (1994), Vyas and Woodside (1984), Woodside and Samuel (1981), Woodside (2010), and Woodside, Pattinson, and Montgomery (2012) offer details and examples for collecting data from decision participants on their perceiving information, sense-making, assessing issues, and choice-making processes in natural contexts; these sources also discuss the collection of documents and data from direct observations of participants' actions in natural contexts. The blessings from such data collection and handling include the combination of verbal and written data and process information relevant to specific contexts that the use of fixed-point (e.g., 1 to 5 or 1 to 7 valuations) surveys cannot provide; also, invariably, participants blurt out information during moments in think aloud data collection procedures that they would never report in written survey responses-especially when the participants are interviewed on two or more occasions. ...
... Whyte was a participant observer for 3.5 years in this study. In an industrial marketing setting, Woodside and Samuel's (1981) study of corporate buying agreements is the result of Woodside living and working inside a corporate purchasing office for six weeks with Samuel providing an informant's interpretation-inside "member check"-of the researcher's (Woodside's) interpretations of what was happening and the meaning of actions of individuals and groups. The presence of, and reliance on, informant member checking is another characteristic of naïve observation (e.g., Whyte relied on "Doc" (the de facto leader of the group) to help him interpret events and the meanings of interactions among street gang members with each other and other persons in the local society). ...
... Rich, deep, insights into what is happening and why it is happening follow from such mixed-methods research studies. Woodside and Samuel's (1981) decision systems mapping (Capon & Hulbert, 1975;Howard, Hulbert, & Farley, 1975;Hulbert, 2003) of corporate purchasing processes is an application of a mixed-methods strategy. Fig. 6 illustrates the main components of this mixed-methods application. ...
... Triangulation methods application in case study research. Source: Compiled from Woodside and Samuel (1981). Howard and Morgenroth (1968) are useful sources illustrating the achievement of generality in model building for information processing, thinking, and deciding price increases and decreases by one group of decision-makers across multiple applications. ...
This article describes how behavioral science research methods that management and marketing scholars apply in studying processes involving decisions and organizational outcomes relate to three principal research objectives: fulfilling generality of findings, achieving accuracy of process actions and outcomes, and capturing complexity of nuances and conditions. The article's unique contribution is in advocating and describing the possibilities of researchers replacing Thorngate's (1976) “postulate of commensurate complexity” – it is impossible for a theory of social behavior to be simultaneously general, accurate, and simple and as a result organizational theorists inevitably have to make tradeoffs in their theory development – with a new postulate of disproportionate achievement. This new postulate proposes the possibilities and advocates the building and testing of useful process models that achieve all three principal research objectives. Rather than assuming the stance that a researcher must make tradeoffs that permit achieving any two, but not all three, principal research objectives as Weick (1979) clock analogy shows, this article advocates embracing a property space (a three-dimensional box rather than a clock) view of research objectives and research methods. Tradeoffs need not be made; having-your-cake-and-eating-it-too is possible. The article includes a brief review of principal criticisms that case study researchers often express of surveys of respondents using fixed-point surveys. Likewise, the article reviews principal criticisms of case study research studies that researchers who favor the use of fixed-point surveys express.
... A set price is frequently negotiation between the marketer and customer. The customer frequently includes multiple-parties in B2B contexts as well (Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
... Formal meetings often occur in negotiating annual contracts among manufacturers buying component parts and informal meetings both precede and follow these formal meetings. Woodside and Samuel (1981) provide a marketing-purchasing participant observation study that confirms this tenth tenet. Their study includes a decision systems analysis (DSA) showing several feedback loops in the negotiations processes involving centralized purchasing office and various plant-level purchasing officers and well as company-wide purchasing committees negotiating with global suppliers. ...
... Because relationships in real-life are asymmetrical rather than symmetrical, configural descriptions of B2B relationships are most useful and more accurate than structural equation models of these same relationships (see the FS/QCA discussion below in this chapter and Ragin, 2008;Woodside, 2010). Eichenwald (2000) and Woodside and Samuel (1981) are two exemplar direct research studies that include participant observation (PO) in B2B contexts. In The Informant (Eichenwald, 2000) an executive in an international manufacturing firm becomes an undercover researcher (with hidden cameras and listening devices) to collect data showing his colleagues planning and doing illegal price-fixing deals with executives in other firms. ...
... In most studies PO data collection is obtrusive with the organizations' members knowing that a researcher is present for the purposes of observing, describing, and explaining what is occurring in the organization. Woodside and Samuel (1981) apply an ethnographic approach to develop flow diagrams of the information processes and decision making stages of corporate and plant executives in developing corporate purchasing agreements with suppliers. ...
... A set price is frequently negotiation between the marketer and customer. The customer frequently includes multiple-parties in B2B contexts as well (Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
... Formal meetings often occur in negotiating annual contracts among manufacturers buying component parts and informal meetings both precede and follow these formal meetings. Woodside and Samuel (1981) provide a marketing-purchasing participant observation study that confirms this tenth tenet. Their study includes a decision systems analysis (DSA) showing several feedback loops in the negotiations processes involving centralized purchasing office and various plant-level purchasing officers and well as company-wide purchasing committees negotiating with global suppliers. ...
The general theory of behavioral strategies includes a set of propositions supporting alternative configurations of objectives, contextual features, and beliefs/assessments by executives. The theory includes the outcomes of selections of specific decision alternatives. Building behavioral-strategy models in contexts enriches one or more goals of science and practice: description, understanding, prediction, and influence/control. This chapter is a primer to the general theory. A brief review of relevant empirical studies supports the general theory. The empirical studies include the use of alternative data collection and analytically tools including true field experiments, think aloud methods, long interviews, statistical hypothesis testing, ethnographic decision tree modeling, and building and testing algorithms (e.g., qualitative comparative analysis, QCA). The general theory is the blending of cognitive science, economics, marketing, psychology, and implemented practices in explicit contexts. Consequently, behavioral-strategy theory is distinct from context-free microeconomics, market-driven, and competitor-only decision-making. Capturing and reporting contextually driven alternative routines to strategy setting by a compelling set of propositions represents what is particularly new and valuable about the general theory. The general theory serves as a useful foundation for advances theory and improving the practice of implemented strategies.
... (Workman, 1993, p. 406) Hence, inductive field research is lacking in marketing-related development studies. In management studies on product development and innovation, more ethnographies and field research can be found (see, e.g., Barley, 1990; van de Ven & Poole, 1990), particularly in studies on decision making (see, e.g., the classical works by Cyert, Simon, & Trow, 1956;Howard, Hulbert, & Farley, 1975;Hulbert, Farley, & Howard, 1972;Mintzberg, Raisinghani, & The´oret, 1976;Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
... This understanding helped me in getting it right and thus enhanced the study's veracity (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). In addition, I relied on informant member checking, which means that I relied on the main key informant, the development project leader, to help me interpret the happenings and meanings of actions and language of the development project members (Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
This chapter focuses on the ethnographic research approach that I employed in a service marketing study. The first part briefly describes ethnography’s key characteristics, that is, emergent research logic, prolonged fieldwork, and multiple modes of data collection, where the main method is observation. The second part discusses the data collection methods: participant observation, informal discussion, interview, and document analysis. This section describes in detail how these techniques were used in practice and highlights the key challenges I faced, especially related to the observations, and how I managed these challenges. The third part describes the case, field setting, informants, and field relationships. The development project that I studied concerned a bank’s website and project members from the bank and different consultant agencies represent the study’s informants. The fieldwork lasted for about one year and covered the entire development process from the initial stages to the launch, and some time after. The chapter ends with a thorough discussion about the research criteria of validity, reliability, and generality, and the coping tactics that I used in this study to enhance these. Prolonged fieldwork, multiple modes of data collection, reflexivity, and specification of the research are among those important tactics that this last section discusses in detail.
... Because relationships in real-life are asymmetrical rather than symmetrical, configural descriptions of B2B relationships are most useful and more accurate than structural equation models of these same relationships (see the FS/QCA discussion below in this article and Ragin, 2008;Woodside, 2010). Eichenwald (2000) and Woodside and Samuel (1981) are two exemplar direct research studies that include participant observation (PO) in B2B contexts. In The Informant (Eichenwald, 2000) an executive in an international manufacturing firm becomes an undercover researcher (with hidden cameras and listening devices) to collect data showing his colleagues planning and doing illegal price-fixing deals with executives in other firms. ...
... In most studies PO data collection is obtrusive with the organizations' members knowing that a researcher is present for the purposes of observing, describing, and explaining what is occurring in the organization. Woodside and Samuel (1981) apply an ethnographic approach to develop flow diagrams of the information processes and decision making stages of corporate and plant executives in developing corporate purchasing agreements with suppliers. ...
This article describes field research methods that provide advances in developing accurate theories of business-to-business (B2B) decision processes. The article supports and extends prior work by Woodside (2010) that bridging qualitative and quantitative research method is possible to achieve accuracy, complexity, and generality across cases in B2B decision processes. As an aid in doing so, the article argues for the study of a few (n = 5 to 50) cases via case study research (CSR). The article defines CSR, and describes several CSR theories and methods that are useful for describing, explaining, and forecasting processes occurring in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. The discussion includes summaries of six B2B case studies spanning more than 60 years of research. This article advocates embracing the view that isomorphic theory of realities of B2B processes is possible via advances in CSR methods. The discussion advocates rejecting the dominant logic of attempting to describe and explain B2B processes by arms-length fixed-point surveys that usually involve responses from one executive per firm with no data-matching of firms in specific B2B relationships—such surveys lack details and accuracy necessary for understanding, describing, and forecasting B2B processes.
... Prior reports of multiple rounds of interviewing informants that include informants interpreting researchers' findings do appear in the BIM literature (e.g., Howard and Morgenroth, 1968;Woodside and Samuel, 1981). The inclusion of different sets of researchers, the systematic collection of additional data not included in the original report, and the retrospective focus represent a unique contribution by the present article. ...
... There is no theoretically fixed number of required rounds of analysis -for example, if there are outstanding ambiguities, paradoxes, and conflicting views, then additional rounds of emic and etic analysis may be conducted to gain further insights. Such analysis may go as far as co-opting participants as co-authors in updated case studies following the participant's and researcher's revisions of several rounds of DSA models (see Woodside and Samuel (1981) for an example). ...
Purpose – This case study research report aims to include collecting additional field interviews with the original and additional executives participating in the original case study (on the Zaplet software applications firm) to enhance the interpretations by the original case study investigators as well as add-in downstream events occurring after the original report. The focus of the study is to increase descriptive knowledge and understanding of innovation and diffusion processes in developing high-tech disruptive software technologies. Design/methodology/approach – The study includes an application of the long-interview method and reinterpretation of original case data along with preparing and interpreting decision system analysis and chronological maps. Findings – The reinterpretation and expansion of the original case study illustrate dramatic revisions in plans and implementing new applications following positive and negative responses by third-parties and lead-user customers to alpha and beta designs. Concrete field trials occur frequently in shaping where and how the firm goes about changing its direction. Third-parties play critical roles in multiple time periods in shaping the firm's new product development direction. Research limitations/implications – The case study reanalysis and expansion are generalizable to innovation and diffusion theory and not to a specific population of firms. Practical implications – The paper illustrates the wisdom of Tom Peter's dictum, “Put it to tin quickly” and Dwight Eisenhower's focus on improvising, “The plan is nothing, planning is everything.” Originality/value – Formal sensemaking of what happened helps to destroy the myth that executives must have the resources before innovating. Resources follow vision and action (implementing) is the hidden and great lesson of this paper – what Tom Peters means when he writes about the value in creating a “skunk works” – using “borrowed” time, material, places, and creative juices to make things happen.
... A number of researchers have tried to decompose the purchasing decision process into a number of stages. More specifically, Woodside and Samuel (1981) divided the events and purchase decisions into four parts (i.e. developing and analysing requirements, preparing RFQs and analysing quotations, committee-supplier negotiations, and post-negotiation evaluation and reporting). ...
... Each phase represents a subset of discrete and directly observable tasks defined in the course of field studies in six enterprises. The four phases are similar to the stages of the buying process used by other authors (Kotteaku et al., 1995;Woodside and Samuel, 1981;Xideas and Moschuris, 1998), and include the activities of the version of the purchasing phases suggested by Bellizzi and Belonax (1982). The four purchasing phases and associated tasks are: ...
This article reports on the influence of the enterprise type on the purchasing decision process within selected product types and phases by using analysis of variance on data from Greek manufacturing and utility enterprises. Our study examined the influence of enterprise type on four parameters of the purchasing decision process, across two different product types and four phases of the purchasing process. The results suggested that all but one parameter varied considerably among the different types of enterprises, and that companies adopt an appropriate structural configuration, which fits to the attributes of the purchased items and the mission of the enterprises.
... The roles and responsibilities of purchasing have expanded greatly since the function has matured into a recognized profession. Cost saving has long been an important and high visibility priority for the purchasing function (Woodside and Samuel 1981;Ellram 1992;Tchokogu e et al., 2017;Ellram et al. 2020). Today, purchasing departments are accountable for both efficiency and effectiveness (Tate et al. 2016). ...
... The roles and responsibilities of purchasing have expanded greatly since the function has matured into a recognized profession. Cost saving has long been an important and high visibility priority for the purchasing function (Woodside and Samuel 1981;Ellram 1992;Tchokogu e et al., 2017;Ellram et al. 2020). Today, purchasing departments are accountable for both efficiency and effectiveness (Tate et al. 2016). ...
It is widely recognized that one of the purchasing function’s primary objectives is to generate cost saving through cost reduction and cost avoidance as it works with the supply base to provide high quality materials and services on a timely basis. This research develops mid‐range theory by incorporating empirical evidence and the tenets of agency theory to the specific domain of a purchasing agent working within an organization. This domain differs from other agency relationships because there are multiple principals with misaligned goals within the organization that influence how purchasing cost saving are counted and thus influence the impact of those savings on purchasing performance. Agency theory helps articulate propositions in this context by providing insight into how purchasing agents perform their organizational duties related to cost saving and avoiding cost increases. The focus is specifically on examining how the challenging area of cost avoidance savings are tracked, measured, and recognized. Case studies from eight organizations reveal that there is significant prospect for suboptimal performance due to the design of reward and measurement systems and the reluctance of purchasing to challenge these systems. However, this can be addressed through an investment in robust systems supported by top management and finance.
... Cognitive mapping is a much applied research method in organizational contexts, encouraging organizational members to share their idiosyncratic sensemaking of organizational reality, giving insights into actual values, beliefs, and behaviors guiding behaviors in their immediate social context (e.g., Howard & Morgenroth, 1968;Huff & Jenkins, 2002;Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
... Often, these early models depict the purchasing process as a linear process consisting of between four and eleven steps (see e.g. Bellizzi and Belonax, 1982;Lilien and Wong, 1984;Stock and Zinszer, 1987;Webster Jr, 1965;Woodside and Samuel, 1981). ...
Most scholars of purchasing and supply management (PSM) are familiar with some form of a purchasing process model (PPM). A PPM is the visual representation of the sequence of activities that constitute purchasing and supply management. Such a visual representation can be a tool in teaching PSM since it gives students an overview of an otherwise intangible process. Moreover, a PPM can also be viewed as a representation of the identity of PSM, providing a schema of what is PSM (and what it is not). In this notes and debates paper, a systematic overview of different types of PPMs, and their evolution, is presented, based on a literature review and a survey, with the models being classified as tactical/operational, strategic, cyclical, or decision-making processes. Our first aim is to inspire PSM scholars and educators when they are considering various PPMs to be used in their teaching of PSM. Our second aim is to debate the question where the evolution of PPMs is heading and explore whether a single holistic model can provide an accurate and representative framework to structure purchasing activities both today and in the future.
... Often, these early models depict the purchasing process as a linear process consisting of between four and eleven steps (see e.g. Bellizzi and Belonax, 1982;Lilien and Wong, 1984;Stock and Zinszer, 1987;Webster Jr, 1965;Woodside and Samuel, 1981). ...
Most PSM scholars are familiar with some form of a Purchasing Process Model (PPM). A PPM is a schematic representation of the main tasks, activities, and processes that constitute purchasing and supply management. Our aim is to inspire PSM scholars and educators in considering various purchasing process models. We set out to gather PPMs through a survey of PSM educators (108 respondents) and asked them to submit the models they use to teach PSM. In this paper, we provide a systematic overview of these models and classify them as tactical/operational, strategic, cyclical, or decision-making processes.
... For example, optimisation models are developed to aid purchasing functions in make-or-buy decision-making (e.g., Manes et al., 1982). Also, the information processes and decision stages followed by a typical purchasing committee for corporate purchasing agreements are captured by Woodside and Samuel (1981), while Sarin (1982) shows that the purchasing practices in developing countries like India were similar to what was being practiced in the West around the 1950s. Notwithstanding this 'operational view', Jauch and Wilson (1979, p. 61) contend that the make-or-buy decisions carry significant implications for firms at strategic level, and hence, should not be relegated to purchasing managers. ...
While strategic decision-making on outsourcing has definitely become popular in practice, the question remains how this is linked to building of theory and empirical evidence relating to its (perceived) benefits. A scoping study in the form of a systematic literature review has drawn academic literature from four snapshots of five years, covering a time-span of 47 years. A more detailed analysis shows that the development of literature on strategic decision-making on outsourcing corresponds with managerial practice in relation to the greater consideration given to risk and quality considerations in the decision-making process. There has also been growth in use of decision making frameworks and a shift in focus from decision making related to outsourcing of manufacturing to outsourcing of business processes and functions, particularly IT. While decision-making on outsourcing is still popular and so is its research, there are signs that both academics and practitioners are starting to question its foundations; a research agenda is proposed for building more adequate theory.
... Written procedures of discussion, and minutes of conversations and decision outcomes (including formal purchase agreements), often follow from cross-departmental meetings in business organizations more often than in meetings of household members. To achieve wiser decisions and savings in bulk purchases, meetings for the purpose of evaluating and selecting suppliers may extend across several manufacturing locations for an industrial firm on an annual basis for several product categories (see Woodside and Samuel, 1981). Such meetings may be held rarely by adult siblings living in separate households. ...
... Cognitive mapping is a much applied research method in organizational contexts, encouraging organizational members to share their idiosyncratic sensemaking of organizational reality, giving insights into actual values and beliefs guiding behaviors in their immediate social context (e.g., Howard & Morgenroth, 1968;Huff & Jenkins, 2002;Woodside & Samuel, 1981). ...
This chapter examines the topic of internal branding from an organizational/behavioral science perspective, theoretically and empirically investigating how organizational members actually enact corporate brands. A mixed-method research procedure serves to surface conscious (i.e., deliberate) and unconscious (i.e., tacit) internal brand meaning enactments in an internationally operating Austrian corporate business-to-business (B2B) brand. The results are an evidence of the potential complexity of real-life internal branding processes that limit the possibility of achieving a cohesive intended internal implementation of corporate brands. The chapter concludes with the managerial implication that purposeful managerial interventions necessitate an understanding of the social system that is the target of the internal branding initiative.
... Such ethnographic--live-inside the firm while studying interfirm behavior-anthropological methods rarely appear in the business-to-business literature; Woodside and Samuel (1981) is an example of one such B-to-B anthropology study. Conducting contemporary anthropological interfirm joint research is possible (e.g., an established researcher working with Ph.D. students with the cooperation of firms and national/regional interfirm organizations whereby the Ph.D. students have inside-the-firm residencies of several weeks-tomonths after receiving training in ethnographic research procedures). ...
Purpose: This article describes the principal limitations frequently observable in variable-based and case-based research in business-to-business (B-to-B) marketing. Focus: The limitations relate to B-to-B theory construction, data collection, and data analysis and interpretation. The principal limitations in variable-based research include the reliance on regression (net effects) models in theory construction and the pervasive failure to test resulting empirical regression models for predictive validity. The principal limitations of case-based research are the frequent absence of rigorous theory formulation either pre- or postdata collection and failures to test propositions for predictive validity. Recommendations: The article directs attention to iconic studies that break free in part from these and additional limitations. The article offers useful steps on how to break free completely from the principal limitations. Managerial implications: B-to-B executives should insist that researchers include asymmetric algorithm models in reports that include symmetric (regression analysis) and analysis of variance findings.
... For many industrial organizations, buying is a key process to manage efficiently, and has become better structured, more sophisticated, and increasingly professional (Hunter et al., 2006). The buying process structure has been widely researched (Eades, 2004;Jobber and Lancaster, 2006;Kotler et al., 2009;Kotteaku et al., 1995;Laios and Moschuris, 2001;McWilliams et al., 1992;Rackham and DeVincentis, 1999;Woodside and Samuel, 1981;Xideas and Moschuris, 1998). While the buying process models proposed generally share the same structure, their level of detail, focus, and aggregation logic of the key tasks varies (Johnston and Lewin, 1996). ...
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate the managerial practices to assess value creation and value capture potential in longitudinal buyer-seller relationships, and proposes a framework for evaluating such potential for maximizing sales function efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
– The research is based on an exploratory multi-case study with seven internationally operating companies from a variety of industries, with the aim of building the framework for sales opportunity management. The framework is then refined in eight workshops with 21 companies.
Findings
– The findings suggest that industrial companies need to develop new capabilities to efficiently manage value selling opportunities at different stages of the opportunity lifecycle.
Research limitations/implications
– The underlying sales approach of the research is proactive value selling in a service business context. The findings may not be generalizable into other sales contexts.
Practical implications
– The paper provides practicing managers with an actionable sales opportunity management framework for an effective management of sales quality.
Originality/value
– The research contributes to a previously unexplored area of sales management, and suggests a managerial practice linking strategy to implementation at the customer interface.
... First the actor (i.e., executive) reports aloud and responds to questions by the researcher. The researcher prepares a preliminary decision tree diagram or decision systems analysis (DSA) map (Howard, Hulbert, and Farley, 1975;Woodside and Samuel, 1981) that describes and explains the information from the actor. This researcher shows this preliminary report to the actor and other actors participating in the task environment. ...
Rather than taking a variable-oriented approach, the study here extends Ragin's (1999) perspective on studying conjunctive paths or “causal recipes” for a limited number of cases (usually n 300 – or, in the study here, n>30,000). The aim here is to provide a primer in theory and practice of qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) — a method that goes beyond considering the net contributions of individual variables in influencing a dependent variable. The study aims to describe alternative conjunctive paths (estimated algorithms using Boolean algebra and set theory) that associate with a given outcome. The “outcome condition” being modeled (predicted) in the study are cases (travelers) who complete more than 24 airline trips for personal reasons annually; the label “extreme” or “X” air travelers identifies these cases. Though small in share of numbers (.2%) of Americans, X air travelers are mighty in share (7%) of air-trips for personal reasons. The study finds that completing a university/college degree is a necessary, but not sufficient, simple antecedent condition that identifies X air travelers; the conjunction of completing college and very frequent vacation travel is a sufficient, but not necessary, complex antecedent condition for identifying X air travelers. The approach can be useful in estimating conjunctive conditions leading to specific actions by consumers and executives.
... "Extended observations" allowed the four researchers to systematically record virtual interactions and behaviors in online environments (see Burawoy 1998;Woodside and Samuel 1981). The researchers spent approximately 15 hours over the course of four months recording observations. ...
Internet-based developments are generating opportunities for enhancing business-to-business operations. One approach involves the adoption of e-collaborative networks, which have the potential to strengthen communications between the members of a value-chain network. An effective communication interface within the value chain is central to the client’s productivity, and the sales force plays an important role in facilitating this process. Here, we examine an e-collaborative network built and sustained by one global, U.S.-based technology firm. Using an extended case study method, we identify software capabilities that influence e-collaboration and discuss the mediating role of the sales team: (1) monitoring communal involvement, (2) identifying prospective e-collaborative firms, (3) inspiring a cooperative environment, and (4) fostering a sense of trust. We offer performance metrics and suggest implications for the sales force.
... If ambiguities, paradoxes, and conflicting views still exist and may be potentially resolvable, additional rounds of emic and etic analysis may be conducted. Woodside and Samuel (1981) provide an example of a participant becoming a coauthor to an case study report following the participant's and researcher's revisions of several rounds of DSA models. ...
Purpose
The principal objective here is to describe conceptual and research tools for achieving deeper sense‐making of what happened and why it happened –including how participants interpret outcomes of what happened and the dynamics of emic (executive) and etic (researcher) sense‐making.
Design/methodology/approach
This article uses a mixed research design including decision systems analysis, cognitive mapping, computer software‐based text analysis, and the long interview method for mapping the mental models of the participants in specific decision‐making processes as well as mapping the immediate, feedback, and downstream influences of decisions‐actions‐outcomes.
Findings
The findings in the empirical study support the view that decision processes are prospective, introspective, and retrospective, sporadically rational, ultimately affective, and altogether imaginatively unbounded.
Research limitations/implications
Not using outside auditors to evaluate post‐etic interpretations is recognized as a method limitation to the extended case study; such outside auditor reports represent an etic‐4 level of interpretation. Incorporating such etic‐4 interpretation is one suggestion for further research.
Practical implications
Asking executives for in‐depth stories about what happened and why helps them reflect and uncover very subtle nuances of what went right and what went wrong.
Originality/value
A series advanced hermeneutic B2B research reports of a specific issue (e.g., new product innovation processes) provides an advance for developing a grounded theory of what happened and why it happened. Such a large‐scale research effort enables more rigorous, accurate and useful generalizations of decision making on a specific issue than is found in literature reviews of models of complex systems.
... Written procedures of discussion, and minutes of conversations and decision outcomes (including formal purchase agreements), often follow from crossdepartmental meetings in business organizations more often than in meetings of household members. To achieve effective decisions and savings in bulk purchases, meetings for the purpose of evaluating and selecting suppliers may extend across several manufacturing locations for an industrial firm on an annual basis for several product categories (see Woodside and Samuel, 1981). Such meetings may be held rarely by adult siblings living in separate households. ...
Both marketing executives and consumers engage in a combination of automatic and strategic (i.e. controlled) thinking and doing processes when they become aware of problems/opportunities. Similarities and departures in these processes among executives and consumers occur through all stages of their decisions. This article includes a paradigm describing similarities (Si) and departures (Di) in the stream of thinking and behaviors of executives and consumers. For example, both executives and consumers apply simplifying categorizing rules for defining decision contexts; for repetitive decision-making contexts, categorization rules are more often formalized in writing by executives but not by consumers. The extant literature on the quality of decision processes offers several easy-to-apply, but often unknown rules helpful for both executives and consumers for improving the quality of their decisions; these rules are examined briefly within the framework of similarities and departures. Formal study by all marketers of such similarities and departures of consumer/business buying decisions may be helpful for recognizing nuances critical in selling-buying processes for achieving desired outcomes – such as getting a sale or building a marketing relationship. The article describes “direct research” studies of decision processes implemented by executives and consumers; direct research studies hold particular promise for uncovering similarities and departures when comparing the two areas of study.
... That is what Mintzberg (1973) did for his Ph.D. dissertation (which became his first published book). That is what Woodside and Samuel (1981) did in their participant observation, interview, and document analysis of corporate purchase agreements. ''In situ'' expresses a necessary even though not sufficient condition for describing and understanding actual processes happening in reallife contexts. ...
While a meta-analysis is necessary to test the claim that the logic dominates the majority of studies, most studies by academic scholars on thinking and actions by executives appear to rely on cross-sectional surveys that use self-reports by executives via scaled (e.g., strongly disagree to strongly agree) instruments whereby one executive per firm completes the instrument and data are collected for 50–500 firms. Useable response rates in these studies are almost always below 30% of the distributions of the surveys. While these studies are sometimes worthwhile for learning how respondents assess concepts and relationships among concepts, Rong and Wilkinson’s perspective on the severe limits to the value of such studies rings true: such surveys reveal more about executives’ sensemaking processes than the actual processes. The limitations of using one-shot, one-person-per-firm, self-reports as valid indicators of causal relationships of actual processes are so severe that academics should do more than think twice before using such surveys as the main method for collecting data – if scholars seek to understand and describe actual processes additional methods are necessary for data collection. The relevant literature includes several gems of exceptionally high quality, validity, and usefulness in the study of actual processes; identifying these studies is a useful step toward reducing the reliance on one-shot self-report surveys.
... executive) reports aloud and responds to questions by the researcher. The researcher prepares a preliminary decision tree diagram or decision systems analysis (DSA) map (Howard et al., 1975; Woodside and Samuel, 1981) that describes and explains the information from the actor. This researcher shows this preliminary report to the actor and other actors participating in the task environment. ...
... executive) reports aloud and responds to questions by the researcher. The researcher prepares a preliminary decision tree diagram or decision systems analysis (DSA) map (Howard et al., 1975; Woodside and Samuel, 1981) that describes and explains the information from the actor. This researcher shows this preliminary report to the actor and other actors participating in the task environment. ...
Purpose
This article aims to describe ethnographic theory and research that maintains the integrity of the individual case while generalizing to multiple cases in research on management decisions. The study aims to provoke and prod management decision researchers to employ ethnographic research tools rather than relying only or mainly on the dominant logic of variable‐based empirical positivism.
Design/methodology/approach
Details of two studies of multiple cases in two task environments inform explicit statements of the principles necessary for bridging the gap between management decision practice and research. Six principles serve as pillars for this bridge.
Findings
Averages mislead. Partial regression coefficients inform about the impact of variables but mislead in hinting at the sufficiency of individual variables for all cases when high or low values on any one variable are not sufficient or necessary for a high or low outcome on a dependent variable. Research on management decisions must maintain the integrity of the individual case in analyzing and reporting findings on management decisions. Research tools are available now to accomplish these principles.
Research limitations/implications
Get out and into task environments of management decision makers and collect multiple rounds of emic‐etic‐emic‐etic interpretations of management decision processes and outcomes. Go to fsQCA.com to learn how to do qualitative comparative analysis of alternative causal recipes leading to relevant management decision outcomes.
Originality/value
This article describes and calls for a paradigm shift from the current empirical‐positivistic matrix‐algebra dominant logic to a new case‐based Boolean‐algebra logic for management decision researchers.
... Each phase represents a subset of discrete and directly observable tasks defined in the course of field studies in six enterprises. The four phases are similar to the four levels of buying process used by other authors (Burt, 1984; Kotteaku et al., 1995; Xideas, 1994a, 1994b; Stock and Zinszer, 1987; Woodside and Samuel, 1981) and include the activities of the modified version of the purchasing phases suggested by Belizzi (1981). The four purchasing phases and associated tasks are: ...
This article reports on the influence of product type on the purchasing structure within selected phases of the purchasing process by using regression analysis on data from Greek manufacturing and utility enterprises. Our study examined the influence of two different categories of items, namely product incorporated items and MRO (maintenance, repair and operating) items, on various aspects of the purchasing cycle. The results suggested that parameters of purchasing structure varied considerably between the two product types and that their configuration depended on attributes such as product complexity and environmental uncertainty.
... The third category, services, included all the services under make-or-buy investigation (e.g., maintenance, software, advertising). This classification is easily understood in any business environment and is proposed by a number of authors (Woodside and Samuel 1981;Kotler 1984;Mattson 1988). ...
While make-or-buy decisions are important, there is a dearth of empirical research dealing with issues that originate the make-or-buy process. The current research reports findings of an exploratory study regarding make-or-buy triggers in enterprises operating in Greece. The research involved depth company interviews followed by mail questionnaires. Results indicate that cost and quality problems are the most important make-or-buy triggers. Moreover, the importance of some triggers varies considerably among companies, depending on organizational characteristics (environmental uncertainty, operations technology) and the characteristics (type, method of acquisition) of the item/service under consideration.
... The most notorious offspring of the latter tradition is MAN theory. Antecedents of MAN theory can be found in three strands of research: first, earlier studies in distribution channels, particularly on ''power'' and ''control'' issues between channel members (e.g., Bucklin, 1965;El-Ansary & Stern, 1972;Rosenberg & Stern, 1970;Stern & Reve, 1980;Webster, 1976;Wilkinson, 1976Wilkinson, , 1973Wilkinson, , 1979; second, studies in the firm's internationalization process (e.g., Johanson & Vahlne, 1977;Johanson & Wiedersheim-Paul, 1975); and finally, a vast array of studies in both ''industrial buying behavior'' (e.g., Blois, 1970;Cunningham & Kettlewood, 1976;Cunningham & White, 1974aHakansson & Wootz, 1975a, 1975bJarvis & Wilcox, 1977;Johnston & Bonoma, 1981;Luffman, 1974;Pettigrew, 1975;Sheth, 1973;Spekman & Stern, 1979;Webster, 1965;Webster & Wind, 1972b;Wind, 1970;Woodside & Sammuel, 1981) and ''industrial marketing processes'' (e.g., Blois, 1977;Cunningham & White, 1974b;Ford, 1978;Hakansson, 1980;Hakansson, Johanson, & Wootz, 1976;Hakansson & Ostberg, 1975;Hakansson, Wootz, Andersson, & Hangard, 1979;Mattsson, 1973;Reve & Stern, 1979;Turnbull, 1974). ...
This paper exposes the development of Markets-as-Networks Theory from formal inception in the mid-1970s until the present state-of-the-art, en route presenting its historical roots.
... Whether the last mentioned is appropriate highly depends on how the relationship has developed until now. However, insourcing can be difficult, and it takes good preparation and management for the process to develop as frictionless as possible (Woodside & Samuel (1981). In this connection it is important to currently evaluate the process, and, finally, assess if the goals defined for both the activity and the process have been reached. ...
This article is based on a specific situation and competence analysis research project. The objective of the project is to point out possible action areas for improvements and potential competence areas; areas that should be integrated in the company's future strategic work. In the long term, the objective is to develop specific tools that can support a company's decision processes when in and/or outsourcing. The specific tools form the basis for the development of a conceptual framework that may facilitate the work with and the understanding of strategic in and outsourcing.During recent years new theories on SCM, outsourcing, supplier cooperation, etc. have emerged. Each theory has its own specific basis seeking to give solutions to problems concerning how to use and cooperate with suppliers. All theories, however, seek to solve a well-known problem within economic theory. Thus, the issue on division of labour and specialization is well known (Foretag i netwark, Stockholm, Studieforbundet for Naringsliv och Sammhallet, 1982; Joint Venture: theoretische und empirische analyse unter besonderer berücksichtigung der chemischen industrie der schweiz. Verlag Rugger, Germany, 1989). From an economic point of view it is a question of reaching the situation with the lowest production and transaction costs (Handbook of Industrial Organization. Amsterdam, 1989, pp. 135).
... Each phase represented a subset of discrete and directly observable tasks defined in the course of field studies in six enterprises. The four phases are similar to the four levels of buying process used by other authors [7,41,46] and include the activities of the modified version of the purchasing phases suggested by Belizzi [4]. ...
This article reports on the influence of product complexity on the purchasing structure within selected product types and phases of the purchasing process by using Analysis of Variance on data from Greek manufacturing and utility enterprises. Our study examined the influence of product complexity on four parameters of purchasing structure, across two different product types and four phases of the purchasing process. The results suggested that all but one parameter varied considerably among different degrees of product complexity and that their configuration depended on attributes such as product differentiation, technical complexity, specialized installation, and existence of after sale service.
... The antecedents of the Markets-as-Networks Theory can be hence found in three streams of research: (i) the earlier studies in distribution channels, particularly on the issues of power and control between channel members (Bucklin 1965;El-Ansary and Stern 1972;Rosenberg and Stern 1970;Stern and Reve 1980;Webster 1976;Wilkinson 1976Wilkinson , 1973Wilkinson , 1979; (ii) the studies in the internationalisation process of the firm (Johanson and Vahlne 1977;Johanson and Wiedersheim-Paul 1975); and (iii) a vast array of studies in both the industrial buying behaviour (Blois 1970;Cunningham and Kettlewood 1976;Cunningham andWhite 1974a, 1973;Hakansson andWootz 1975a, 1975b;Jarvis and Wilcox 1977;Johnston and Bonoma 1981;Luffman 1974;Pettigrew 1975;Sheth 1973;Spekman and Stern 1979;Webster 1965;Webster and Wind 1972b;Wind 1970;Woodside and Sammuel 1981) and the industrial marketing processes (Blois 1977;Cunningham and White 1974b;Ford 1978;Hakansson 1980;Hakansson et al. 1976;Hakansson and Ostberg 1975;Hakansson et al. 1979;Mattsson 1973;Reve and Stern 1979;Turnbull 1974). ...
Ciências Empresariais (sem parte escolar) Os teoristas de redes industriais argumentam, explicita ou implicitamente, a significância das relações de negócio para a empresa focal isto é, as relações de negócio contribuem em alguma medida para a sobrevivência e crescimento da empresa focal. Eu não nego a possível existência de relações de negócio significantes mas sustento, em contraste com o consenso dentro da Teoria de Mercados-como-Redes, que a significância das relações não deve ser um axioma. A significância não pode ser uma propriedade assumida a priori para cada uma das relações de negócio da empresa focal. Ao invés, a noção de significância das relações tem de ser discutida e as suas causas totalmente explicadas. Adoptando uma posição de Realismo Crítico, defendo que a significância das relações é um evento do mundo empresarial que merece uma explicação causal robusta. A minha principal questão de investigação é a seguinte: Como é produzida a significância das relações de negócio? Todas as relações de negócio que a empresa focal estabelece, desenvolve, sustenta, e termina com contrapartes (tipicamente seus fornecedores e clientes) podem ser consideradas entidades que exibem características estruturais tais como continuidade, complexidade, informalidade, e simetria. Em virtude dessa estrutura peculiar, as relações de negócio ficam na posse de certos poderes e susceptibilidades (e.g., permitem o acesso e exploração de recursos e competências externos e complementares). Quando esses poderes e susceptibilidades (i.e., funções e disfunções) são postos em prática, inevitavelmente sob certas contingências (em particular os mercados e redes que rodeiam a empresa focal), efeitos (i.e., benefícios e sacrifícios) resultam para a empresa focal e a significância das relações de negócio é potencialmente gerada. Dois dos poderes das relações os de `acesso e `inovação são especialmente consequenciais, dado que a sua activação afecta provavelmente a delimitação das fronteiras verticais da empresa focal. A significância das relações pode ser gerada por causa dos benefícios em excesso de sacrifícios (i.e., valor de relação) que são apropriados pela empresa focal assim como pela influência dual que as relações de negócio exercem sobre o que a empresa focal faz e obtém feito por outros. As relações de negócio contribuem respectivamente para (i) o acesso a e exploração de (e ocasionalmente o desenvolvimento de) recursos e competências externos, tipicamente complementares e desejados pela empresa focal e (ii) a criação de novos e a modificação e melhoria (ou não) dos recursos e competências internos, existentes na empresa focal. Aquilo que a empresa focal inclui dentro das suas fronteiras verticais (primariamente recursos e competências) e aquilo que faz e obtêm feito (actividades), são ambos fortemente moldados pelas relações de negócio nas quais está largamente embebida. A significância das relações de negócio pode resultar da influência que as relações de negócio exercem sobre a natureza e o âmbito da empresa focal. The markets-as-networks theorists contend, either explicitly or tacitly, the significance of business relationships for the focal firm that is, business relationships contribute somewhat to the focal firm s survival and growth. I do not deny the possible existence of significant business relationships but sustain, in contrast to the consensus within the Markets-as-Networks Theory, that relationship significance should not be a self-evident assumption. Significance cannot be a taken-for-granted property of each and every one of the focal firm s business relationships. Instead, the notion of relationship significance needs to be discussed and its causes thoroughly explained. Adopting a critical realist position, the relationship significance is claimed to be an event of the business world, rightly deserving a robust causal explanation. My main research question is thus the following: How is the relationship significance brought about? All the business relationships that the focal firm establishes, develops, maintains, and terminates with counterparts (most typically its suppliers and customers) can be adequately considered as entities which exhibit structural features namely continuity, complexity, informality, and symmetry. Owing to that peculiar structure, business relationships are endowed with certain causal powers and liabilities (e.g., allow the access to and exploitation of external and complementary resources and competences). Where those powers and liabilities (i.e., functions and dysfunctions) are put to work, inevitably under certain contingencies (namely the markets and networks surrounding the focal firm), effects (i.e., benefits and sacrifices) result for the focal firm and the relationship significance is likely to be brought about. Two of those relationship powers the `access and `innovation ones are especially consequential, for their activation is likely to affect the delimitation of the focal firm s vertical boundaries. The relationship significance can be brought about owing to the overall benefits in excess of sacrifices (i.e., relationship value) accruing to the focal firm as well as the dual influence that business relationships have on what the focal firm does and gets done by others. For the business relationships contribute respectively both (i) to the access to and exploitation (and on occasion the development) of the external, typically complementary competences and resources needed by the focal firm and (ii) to the creation of new, and the modification and enhancement (or impairment) of the extant, internal resources and competences of the focal firm. What the focal firm comprises within its vertical boundaries (chiefly resources and competences) and what it does and gets done (activities) are both strongly shaped by the business relationships in which it is deeply embedded. The relationship significance can result from the influence of business relationships on the nature and scope of the focal firm.
... In this method, in different rounds of observation of persons involved in the decision-making process, the decision is split up into its smallest parts, which are then related to each other and represented in a decision flow diagram. For examples of the use of the method see Cyert, March, and Moore [5] , Kennedy [12], Woodside and Samuel [30] , and Moller [ 161. ...
This study aims to integrate the intelligence and design stages of the purchasing decision process with the choice stage. The present research on industrial purchasing has neglected the strategic aspects of buying in favor of more operational and structured buying processes. The model for unstructured decision making developed by Mintzberg, Raisinghani, and Theoret [15] is used to analyze five cases of strategic purchasing processes concerning production materials. Descriptive flow models are developed for each case, and the usefulness of Mintzberg et al.'s approach is evaluated. A discussion of the implications for both purchasing and marketing management ends the study.
W połowie lat 90. XX w literaturze zaczęto podkreślać rolę strategicznego zarządzania zakupami, ponieważ mają one znaczenie w umocnieniu i stworzeniu funkcji zakupowej w strukturze organizacyjnej. Ponadto, działania strategicznego podejścia do zakupów mają za zadanie wsparcia najwyższej kadry zarządzającej, stworzenia interakcji z innymi funkcjami biznesowymi oraz dostawcami w łańcuchu dostaw, jak również podnieść kompetencje osób odpowiedzialnych za zarządzanie zakupami. Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowani teoretycznych oraz praktycznych aspektów definiowania zakupów strategicznych, na przykładzie wybranego przedsiębiorstwa, w postaci studium przypadku.
The greening of corporate America has added a new and different type of criterion to some organizational buying decisions—social responsibility. Scholars have given little attention to such noneconomic buying criteria. On the basis of a study of 35 buying processes in ten organizations and an in-depth examination of 21 of those processes, the author addresses how and why socially responsible buying comes about in organizations. The findings suggest that two factors have been key to the success of socially responsible buying initiatives. One factor is the presence of a skillful policy entrepreneur. Policy entrepreneurs are found to have many of the same characteristics as business entrepreneurs, but invest their resources in instituting new organizational policies. Their zeal for socially responsible buying is rooted in a commitment based on a complex and often difficult process of moral reasoning. The second factor influencing the success of socially responsible buying is the organizational context within which policy entrepreneurs operate. The author differentiates organizational contexts on the basis of whether the socially responsible buying is part of a deliberate corporate strategy and further classifies them through a framework and identifies themes observed across the contexts. Guidance is offered for vendors marketing socially responsible products and services.
Decision systems analysis, participant observation, and document analysis were used to collect data on the activities, decisions, and interactions of persons involved in 18 plant purchasing agreements (PPAs) in six industrial firms. PPAs are statements of intention to buy (and sell) a quantity of a specified production or nonproduction material within a given time period, usually a year or more. A descriptive, composite model of activities, decisions, and interactions is presented. Differences and similarities across the 18 PPAs investigated in the study are reviewed. Implications for theory development and for marketing management are offered.
This chapter points out that the use of a wide range of theoretical paradigms in marketing research requires researchers to use a broad range of methodologies. As an aid in doing so, the chapter argues for the use of case study research (CSR), defines CSR, and describes several CSR theories and methods that are useful for describing, explaining, and forecasting processes occurring in business-to-business (B2B) contexts. The discussion includes summaries of six B2B case studies spanning more than 60 years of research. This chapter advocates embracing the view that learning and reporting objective realities of B2B processes is possible using CSR methods. CSR methods in the chapter include using multiple interviews (2 + ) separately of multiple persons participating in B2B processes, direct research and participant observation, decision systems analysis, degrees-of-freedom analysis, ethnographic-decision-tree-modeling, content analysis, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fs/QCA.com). The discussion advocates rejecting the dominant logic of attempting to describe and explain B2B processes by arms-length fixed-point surveys that usually involve responses from one executive per firm with no data-matching of firms in specific B2B relationships – such surveys lack details and accuracy necessary for understanding, describing, and forecasting B2B processes.
e-Novation is innovation developed and delivered through a collaborative information platform evolving in sophistication and capability in the digital economy era. A neo-Schumpeterian perspective of innovation through an age of technological revolution focused on computerising (digitising) the global economy running from about 1971 to about 2020 to 2030 in this chapter. A platform perspective is outlined, offering insights into developments in innovative digital technology and business, institutional, economic and social development. The Wide–Wide Web is discussed as a “Platform” (Web 2.0 and Social Media), with reference to e-Marketing 2.0 based on a Service-Dominant Logic Perspective (S-D Logic). Innovation sensemaking, visualisation, mapping and operationalization into collaborative information platforms are discussed, with reference to a selection of approaches for incorporating conscious and unconscious decision-making into software applications and systems––including Decision-System Analysis (DSA), Roadmapping, Business Models, Case-Base Reasoning (CBR) , and Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA). Next generation e-Novation will be characterised by development of an increasingly intelligent collaborative information platform capable of producing a fully digital innovation cycle (ideation, feasibility and digital commercialization), including new developments in “additive manufacturing”, and rendering of digital economy services––including group and individual digital “selves”.
This study focuses on the designing of implementable innovative realities, considering the development of innovative economy policy since Polish–EU integration through a Neo-Schumpeterian economics and a critical perspective lens. The special case of NeoLek—Integrated Laboratory of Experimental Oncology and Innovative Technologies—presents what is possible. This project takes place at the Ludwik Hirszfeld Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences in Wroclaw, Poland. The case shows an opportunity to reveal in what perspectives NeoLek influences the designing of implementable innovative realities. On the one hand, the study points out if and in what extent NeoLek influences innovative realities in the following perspectives: political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. On the other hand, these perspectives intertwine and also affect NeoLek activity.
The strategy-developing unit of analysis has shifted from industry (industry structure view) to firm's unique characteristics (resource-based view) to dyad routine and processes (relational view) to the current network relationships (strategic network) view. As a result, the supply chains, due to their cross-functional and cross-organisational nature, are getting promoted from being merely operational and tactical concerns to more strategic ones and therefore becoming a major stakeholder in corporate strategy. This change is significant particularly in industries that are classified as low clock-speed and complex product industries. In this article, a conceptual framework for investigating the contribution of supply chain management to corporate strategy is developed and applied in agriculture machinery industry. The results indicate that supply chain contribution to the corporate strategy is significant in multi-business firms that are characterised by low clock-speed industry, high reciprocal interdependence between OEM and immediate suppliers, related diversification strategy, focus on economy of scale advantage, and that are looking for synergies such as vertical integration, centralised procurement, asset improvement and centralised inbound and outbound logistics.
Industry observers note that of late industrial marketers are making a greater use of “selling teams” or “selling centers” to better deal with multiple influences on the buying side. This paper reports the findings from a field study which examined selling center participation in the negotiations involved in a common type of industrial purchase, the rebuy of a component part. The results suggest that the makeup of the selling firm's negotiation team is affected by the importance of the purchase and its riskiness regarding the potential for problems. The managerial implications of the study are discussed, and suggestions are offered for future research on multifunctional involvement in negotiations.
Given that planned marketing strategies and observable behaviors often are contingent on buyer and third-party (e.g. competitor) responses, deep understanding and descriptions of the thoughts and actions of marketers need to reflect the dynamic interplay of such contingencies. The same view applies to planned organizational buying strategies and observable behaviors: buying behavior adapts through time based on information learned and marketers’ responses to requests made by the customer organization. Consequently, a two-way, or multiple-party, approach to theory construction is useful in particular for mapping the “if-then” responses of the marketer’s thoughts/actions linked with the if-then responses of buyers’ thoughts/actions through several time periods. Using in-depth interviews and case histories of one marketing organization and 28 buying organizations related to the office furniture industry, the article illustrates descriptive modeling of the contingency dynamics in the thoughts and actions across the multiple parties involved in marketing-buying interactions.
The greening of corporate America has added a new and different type of criterion to some organizational buying decisions-social responsibility. Scholars have given little attention to such noneconomic buying criteria. On the basis of a study of 35 buying processes in ten organizations and an in-depth examination of 21 of those processes, the author addresses how and why socially responsible buying comes about in organizations. The findings suggest that two factors have been key to the success of socially responsible buying initiatives. One factor is the presence of a skillful policy entrepreneur. Policy entrepreneurs are found to have many of the same characteristics as business entrepreneurs, but invest their resources in instituting new organizational policies. Their zeal for socially responsible buying is rooted in a commitment based on a complex and often difficult process of moral reasoning. The second factor influencing the success of socially responsible buying is the organizational context within which policy entrepreneurs operate. The author differentiates organizational contexts on the basis of whether the socially responsible buying is part of a deliberate corporate strategy and further classifies them through a framework and identifies themes observed across the contexts. Guidance is offered for vendors marketing socially responsible products and services.
This article reports on buying distribution poles in the utilities industry. In-depth interviews were utilized to collect data on the activities and choice strategies of an industrial buyer. A descriptive model of the buying process is developed.
This chapter documents the contributions in the business-to-business (B2B) marketing–buying literature that focus on implemented strategies in specific contexts. Research on implemented strategies often includes thick descriptions of how things actually get done over a period of weeks, months, or years including how decision makers make sense of situations, go about processing information, make choices, interact with other decision makers, participate in specific actions, and interpret events and outcomes. Research on implemented strategies favors “direct research” (Mintzberg, 1979) that includes multiple face-to-face interviews of the same and different participants in B2B processes over the course of days, week, months, or years. Direct research is inherently inductive theory-building and case-based data driven in its theory-empirical approach. Direct research includes applying a number of possible research methods and results in a number of advances in B2B implemented-strategy-in-context theory.
Yes, this article is ambitious in covering fifty years of OBB theory and research before and after 2006. "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread" comes readily-to-mind. Still, explicitly identifying and reflecting on landmark contributions in the literature likely helps to increase the quality of sensemaking as to where OBB theory and research is heading in the decades ahead. 1956 is an important OBB milestone because it included the publication of Cyert, Simon, and Trow's "observation of a business decision" - a call for a descriptive theory of "how real human beings go about making choices in the real world." CST (1956) illustrate propositions in their rudimentary descriptive theory via a thick description of one organisation's real-life process in deciding on (not) buying a mainframe computer. CST's landmark contribution follows a comparative method case-based logic of examining the fit between the rational-choice process theories with real-life process data. The OBB literature since 1956 includes deepening and extending of core propositions in CST's early descriptive theory building. These advances include Mintzberg, Raisinghani, and Theoret's (1976) mapping the "structure of unstructured decision-making," von Hippel's (1986) lead-user's drive innovation proposal, Biemans (1991) identifying third-party influences in buying new technologies, Langley, Mintzberg, Pitcher, Posada, and Saint-Macary, (1995) "opening-up decision making theory to include seemingly random context influences, and other important milestones." The present article's sensemaking of the 1956-2006 literature informs the building of case-based reasoning models that goes beyond the arguing among empirical positivists versus existential phenomenologists to a bright future that includes system dynamics and mixed methods research strategies.
Licthenthal, Mummalaneni, and Wilson's (LMW) insights and review of the JBBM literature fulfills its objectives in describing the rich value and positioning of the journal and in increasing readers' knowledge of the scholarly contributions that its first thirteen years of publication provide. Such retrospection is timely and valuable for achieving useful sense-making about JBBM's role in providing new knowledge about business-to-business behavior. LMW's literature review and discussion of retrospections by other editors of marketing-related journals serves well in defining the JBBM's uniqueness, value, and relatedness to these other scholarly publications. The appendix in LMW provides a rich introduction of reasonable depth to the very substantial article contributions available in the JBBM. The rich details in the appendix in covering research issues, theory, method, findings, and contributions for each article published in the journal offer business marketing scholars, trainers (instructors), and executives a highly valuable digest and intellectual map for most topics relating to business marketing. This commentary serves to emphasize several propositions that follow from reading these JBMM contributions—propositions that may be helpful for the next generation of scholars working on business-to-business research topics.
Weick (1995) describes retrospection as a distinguishing characteristic of sensemaking: “people can know what they are doing only after they have done it” (p. 24) and “how can I know what we did until I see what we produced” (p. 30). While each of us engages in sensemaking implicitly, applying explicit sensemaking tools-such as written retrospection-helps to clarify and deepen our understanding of phenomena. Reid and Plank's business-to-business marketing retrospection of more than 2,500 journals, proceedings, and book references from 1978–1997 serves well as a sensemaking tool. A strength of Reid and Plank's retrospection is its breadth of coverage of topics and sources. Limitations of their review include the lack of coverage of key findings from the cited empirical studies and the failure to develop theoretical propositions on relationships and strategies. By reading Reid and Plank's review, both new and lifelong students of business-to-business marketing will find useful references and insights for improving sensemaking capabilities.
During its first twenty-four years of publication, Industrial Marketing Management has been at the forefront of development of marketing thought applied to industrial, high-tech, and business-to-business market environments. Over 900 articles have appeared concerned with topics such as: marketing strategy and planning, marketing management, industrial buyer behavior, sales and sales management, marketing research, product development, pricing and others. As its name implies, over thirty percent of Industrial Marketing Management's articles have focused on the management of marketing and sales functions. This article presents highlights of outstanding articles from IMM's past arranged by major topical area: marketing management, market segmentation, strategic marketing planning, selling and sales management, purchasing and industrial buying behavior, global and international industrial, researching industrial markets, innovation and new product development, distribution, pricing, and promotions and advertising.
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A two-step structure is hypothesized to underlie generation and selection of alternatives in repetitive decision making. In the first the decision maker generates and maintains a large, stable set of alternatives generally acceptable in the repetitive decision. In the second he chooses his action from this stable set. Evidence tending to support this hypothesis is presented. Further hypotheses on repetitive decisions from the Cyert-March theory of the firm are also evaluated.
Reports on an empirical study of the decision to purchase computers in a single firm. States it is a competitive bidding situation with several suppliers attempting to win a contract that eventually reached £3.5 million pounds. Illustrates how the politics of the firm can influence significant purchase decisions and, in particular, how gatekeepers within the firm's buying centre can structure the outcome of purchase decision in line with their position in the political process. Bases the study on a large organisation in England, in the period 1957–1968, with regard to four computer purchase decisions. Concludes that it is clear that the computer suppliers had differential access to the firm's power structure and it was also evident they had differential knowledge of its operation.
Company information systems demand a better understanding of the nature of the executive's decision process. Above all his information requirements must be specified. The capacity to specify these requirements is the hallmark of the information-processing model. An example of the form of the simulation of a pricing decision process is presented. The model, a binary flow chart type, simulates the pricing decision in a differentiated oligopolistic market. The validity of the model is established by comparing the two kinds of predictions that it makes--output and process--with reality. A number of problems encountered in developing models of this type are discussed. Some of the broader implications of these models are described and others are briefly mentioned.
Acquiring relevant information, processing it sensibly and acting rationally on the results is central to proper functioning at all management levels of an organization. To improve these capabilities is a major concern of developers of management information systems, yet a growing consensus indicates that it is infeasible to initiate system development by modeling a total organization's information system. Thus, many systems designers— drawn less from the ranks of technologists than of experienced managers—have scaled down aspirations, and are thinking of parts of an organization rather than of the whole. This change of philosophy has emerged most clearly in marketing, where Chambers comments that “attempts to construct large scale models in marketing have generally resulted in failure… the management scientist has now recognized that it is usually better to begin by solving smaller segments of the total problem” [9].Failure of systems designers to adapt their efforts to the structure of the organization and to the people in it also has impeded successful development of information systems. Researchers and managers long have recognized the necessity for such adaptation [25, p/ 483] and also have been concerned by other behavioral problems raised by information systems [25, 3].This study presents a structure for development of “partial” information systems in their organizational context. It utilizes a growing body of empirical knowledge—drawn mainly from marketing—to help analyze organizations in terms of operational guidelines for the development of information systems.