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Examines the behaviour of the industrial buyer, and studies the purchasing of reprographic equipment. Looks at straight replacement purchases, first time purchases, rebuys involving high cost equipment and rebuys due to dissatisfaction, in terms of a perceived risk model. Accepts that the industrial communications practitioner receives much less planning guidance than his consumer‐based counterpart. States current research is founded on the belief that a theory of communication appropriate to industrial buying must take on 6 main points – these are itemised and discussed. Discusses research design; research methodology; the determinants of perceived risk in industrial buying; risk handling behaviour in industrial buying; and a perceived risk model of buyer behaviour and its implications for competitive industrial marketing policy – all these are examined in great depth and each one given individual conclusions. Concludes that these examples by no means exhaust all the possible empirical bases from which industrial marketing policies may be devised, they serve to illustrate the way in which the model can be realistically applied to derive such competitive policies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the underlying knowledge structure and evolution of industrial-buying research published between 1965 and 2015.

Bibliometric analysis is performed on 357 relevant papers (using principal component analysis and natural language processing, using VantagePoint® tools, used to generate bubble maps, auto-correlation maps and Aduna cluster maps), demonstrating how various factors involved in industrial buying have evolved, their degree of correlation with each other and the interrelationships of multiple factors concerning their co-occurrences.

The systematic mapping of industrial-buying research would illustrate the development of the significant factors in industrial-buying research. This paper provides both a global perspective on the leading countries and journals in the field and a robust roadmap for further investigation in this field.

This paper is limited to the data considered for analysis and may, therefore, overlook or underestimate some work that has not been captured while filtering databases related to industrial buying.

This paper facilitates near-future projection and trend analysis in industrial-buying research.

The methodology used is unique to the field of business-to-business marketing.

A study of industrial buying behaviour is concerned with examining a number of central issues which arise in business to business marketing. While conceptually very similar to consumer buying behaviour, an examination of industrial buying behaviour is concerned with a number of additional dimensions which are discussed below. In this study industrial buying is examined from the perspective of the state‐sponsored sector of industry in Ireland. Many of the state‐sponsored companies in Ireland are straightforward trading enterprises which differ from large private firms only in their shareholding and control. However, because of the control element exercised by the public authorities, state‐sponsored companies tend to resemble the public sector in their buying activities. On the other hand their need to meet commercial criteria places them in the private sector arena. Because they have to operate under two very different sets of criteria it is likely that their buying behaviour would differ somewhat from the buying behaviour observed in the public sector and the private sector. For the purposes of this study seven trading companies in the state‐sponsored sector representative of a number of industries including power and fuel, transportation, food and manufactured goods and communications were examined.

Proposes that the main objective here is a system being developed for segmenting industrial markets on the basis of the level demonstrated by buying centre members. Examines the factors which influence the individual member of the buying centre in the context of his/her participating in the acquisition of an innovation. Explores the concept of consumer creativity or maturity as developed in the context of consumer marketing, and considers factors which are deemed influential. Posits that greater success rates in new product development would be achieved if research and development worked in tandem with an identified cross‐section of sophisticated buying centre members.

Highlights some of the major conceptual and methodological issues involved in organisational buying behaviour. Aims to avoid pitfalls involved in the utilisation of research regarding specified issues — at the same time stimulating research aimed at the resolution of these issues. Reviews the current status of organisational buying behaviour, follows this by identifying five potential groups of users of information on organisational buying behaviour. Goes on to focus on the conceptual and methodological issues involved in organisational buying research. Suggests new research directions which, if implemented, could help advance the relevance and quality of organisational buying research. States that academic studies, directly concerned with a better understanding of organisational buying behaviour can be classified as falling into one of three areas the: buying centre (least studied area); organisational buying centre and process; or factors affecting the organisational buying centre and process. Purports that these three concepts can provide the basis for organising much of the diverse research efforts in organisational buying behaviour and goes on to illustrate findings from each of these areas and discusses them in depth.

Provides a new paradigm capable of integrating and developing research, which, it proposes, gives a better understanding of industrial buyer behaviours. Concludes that the model provided can be used by practitioners as a basis on which to form their marketing message, but not its style of delivery or specific direction.

I. Introduction Over the past twenty years, attempts have been made to advance knowledge on industrial buying behaviour as the basis for marketing strategy decisions. In spite of the recent proliferation of research interests in this area, there remains limited information on questions such as the locus of buying responsibility and the nature of the buying process within potential customer organisations. A brief summary of industrial buying literature serves to exemplify this point:

The goal of this paper is to analyze industrial buying behavior. First, the paper reviews the previous work on the relation between the participation, influence, characteristics of the purchase situation, individuals and organizational structure. Among purchase situation conditions frequently mentioned are: novelty, product complexity, buying situation complexity, buying importance, time pressure and perceived risk associated with the purchase. With respect to individual characteristics, the paper includes personal stake and level of experience. Finally, the paper considers the set of variables which characterizes the company's organizational structure and try to determine if the influence of the different functional areas of the firm in the buying center, and the participation of individuals and the composition of it, vary significantly according to the stage of the buying decision‐making process. The paper subsequently tests the explanatory power of these variables for a sample of Spanish industrial firms.

Compares the processes for decision making during the acquisition of equipment and materials among firms in the USA, Sweden, France and Southeast Asia. Reports the findings from a detailed questionnaire in which 236 firms in the four‐country area participated. The companies provided data on buying centre influences and supplier search criteria with half reporting for capital production equipment acquisition and the other half for key production materials. It was found that buying decisions in Sweden have the highest team effort while the USA has the least, even though the American and Swedish firms had very similar demographics. Sweden depended on technical staff, both their own and suppliers′, much more than the other countries. There was no consistent pattern for purchasing department involvement. Except for the USA capital equipment buying centres were much more inclusive than materials buying centres.

Acknowledges the multiperson nature of the industrial business buying process and the development of the buying centre as the unit of analysis for business/organization buying behaviour. Addresses two main themes: conceptual issues and alternative views; and methodological dilemma. Looks at the concept of the buying centre and discusses structural properties and process considerations of the buying centre. Closes by outlining research opportunities. Concludes that present research suffers from two major flaws which inhibit development; that buying centre research tends to be descriptive, with over‐reliance on anecdotal information so that research is devoid of any theoretical foundation; and secondly many present findings have grown from research which reflects individual methodologies.