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Decisions about Decisions: Leveraging the Internet to Distribute Influence in Organisational Buying Centres

Making Tough Decisions Well and Badly: Framing, Deciding, Implementing, Assessing

ISBN: 978-1-78635-120-3, eISBN: 978-1-78635-119-7

Publication date: 12 October 2016

Abstract

Understanding the nature and distribution of influence within buying centres is of critical importance to researchers in organisational buying behaviour (Dawes, Lee, & Dowling, 1998). However, the effects of the Internet on organisational buying behaviour remain rather vague. The primary objective of this study is to examine the effects of the Internet on the distribution of influence within buying centres. In particular, the study aims to identify the changes in levels of influence among key players at each stage of the organisational buying process due to the introduction of the Internet as a means of gathering information. Two groups of companies, representing high-internet-usage and low-internet-usage companies are identified. Results show that there is a significant difference in the distribution of influence within buying centres between the two groups where the level of influence of general managers tend to decline while functional managers tend to enjoy increased levels of influence in high-internet-usage companies.

Keywords

Citation

Marshall, R., Chih, L.L.P., Khim, P.Y. and Cheng, G.W. (2016), "Decisions about Decisions: Leveraging the Internet to Distribute Influence in Organisational Buying Centres", Making Tough Decisions Well and Badly: Framing, Deciding, Implementing, Assessing (Advances in Business Marketing and Purchasing, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 69-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1069-096420160000024005

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited