Buying centre members’ information control and complex organizational buying

This study aims to examine buying center members’ information control (IC) in complex organizational buying contexts to uncover the effect of IC on overall procurement performance (PP) and the effects of expert power (EP), legitimate power (LP) and referent power as antecedents to IC.

The study uses confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling in AMOS version 21 to assess the hypotheses using a cross-sectional survey of 294 Sri Lankan buying center members active in complex organizational buying.

Results show that IC has positive effects on overall PP and that both EP and LP are significant antecedents to IC.

The findings challenge the conventional wisdom that sharing all information in complex organizational buying is a sure-fire way to gain success. Instead, a measured, deliberate approach is more productive and this is more likely necessary and fruitful if the buying center member has EP or LP.

Procurement managers, supply chain managers and other managers with responsibility for implementing complex organizational buying outcomes should seek to enhance IC in buying center members to promote positive procurement outcomes, but this may stifle suppliers’ attempts to influence the process. Buying center members with EP and LP are more likely to face pressure to exert IC.

This study is the first to examine IC, its antecedents and consequences in complex organizational buying scenarios. EP and LP appear to underpin IC which, itself, has significant effects on PP.