consumer buyer relation

The relevance of organizational buying behavior concepts and methods to the study of consumer behavior is examined. The paper suggests a number of implications for the study of consumer behavior and calls for the legitimization of the study of organizational buying behavior within the boundaries of the consumer behavior discipline.

INTRODUCTION

The basic premise of this paper is that our concepts of and approaches to the study of consumer behavior can benefit from a close examination of the organizational buying behavior literature. [The converse (i.e., the contribution of consumer behavior models, concepts, and findings to the study of organizational buying behavior) is also true. Yet, given the orientation of this audience, the paper focuses on the contributions of the organizational buying behavior area to the study of consumer behavior.] Many of the consumer behavior models recognize the social context and multiperson nature of most purchase and consumption behavior. Yet, to date, these models and most of the consumer behavior concepts and studies have focused on the individual as the unit of analysis.

The lopsided emphasis on the individual and the tendency to ignore the multiperson issue can be attributed to three major reasons:

1. Conceptual difficulties involving the development of multiperson variables (as distinct from individual variables) and hypotheses.

2. Methodological difficulties involving the analysis of multiperson data.

3. Operational difficulties involving added time and monetary costs for collection and analysis of multiperson data.

Organizational buying behavior, on the other hand, did not have the luxury of focusing on the individual. Even the early conceptual and empirical organizational buying behavior studies recognized the fact that meaningful studies cannot focus only on the purchasing agent but rather should be concerned also with other organization- al members (e.g., users) involved with the purchase and usage of the given products or services.

In this respect then, the usually neglected area of organizational buying behavior could conceivably provide concepts and methods relevant to the study of multiperson consumer behavior. The objective of this paper is to briefly outline some of these possible contributions and suggest that advances in our understanding of consumer behavior can be gained not only from research on consumer behavior but also indirectly from research on organizational buying behavior.

CONCEPTUAL CONTRIBUTIONS

The conceptual contributions of organizational buying behavior to the study of consumer behavior include the concepts of:

-the buying center

-decision stages and roles in the buying center

-group choice models

-buying situations

-a building block modeling approach

-buying center tasks and objectives

-consumers' organizational climate and structure consumers' organizational technology

-consumers' organizational (vs. individual) variables

The Buying Center

Consumer products and services are purchased not only by individuals, but quite frequently by a number of individuals (not all of whom are members of the same household) or by an individual who buys for the consumption of someone else. Even when a person buys a product or service for his or her own consumption, a number of aspects of the purchase decision are often influenced by some relevant others. In all of these cases a sole focus on the individual could be quite misleading.

Recognizing the multiperson nature of most consumer behavior, greater emphasis has been placed in recent years on the study of the family and, in particular, the husband-wife dyad. Yet, the husband-wife dyad is not always the relevant unit of analysis (consider, for example, purchases involving products for children and the cases in which consumers are not living within the boundaries of the traditional family). It would be much more desirable, therefore, to accept the concept of the buying center, which was developed in the context of organizational buying behavior (Wind, 1967). The concept calls for the identification, in each purchase situation, of the relevant individuals involved in the buying decision process (whether they are members of the same household or not) and using them (the members of the buying center) as the relevant unit of analysis.

Conceptually, the buying center is the appropriate unit of analysis in consumer behavior. Yet, implementing the concept requires the resolution of a number of conceptual and methodological issues (Wind, 1977). A number of these issues are currently studied in the context of organizational buying behavior, and could provide better insight into consumer behavior.

Decision Stages and Roles in the Buying Center

Consumer behavior involves a large number of decisions [A large number of models have been proposed in both the consumer and organizational behavior literature to describe the various buying decisions and their sequence. Since there does not seem to be any consensus as to the "true" sequence of purchase decisions, the readers may select the model of their choice replacing the rows in Exhibit 1 with the decision stages of their own model.] ranging from the identification of a need, through various stages of generation and evaluation of alternatives, to the selection of a product, specific features of a given brand, and time and place of purchase. Since these decisions are typically made by a number of members in the buying center, it is useful to construct a matrix of decision stages by roles as illustrated in Exhibit 1 (which is an adaptation of a matrix developed in an industrial buying study). The specific decision stages and roles would most likely change across buying situations. The same individual could occupy a number of roles (e.g., buyer and user), and a number of individuals could occupy the same role (e.g., there may be a number of users).