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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.

Many factors in today's competitive and global business environment contribute to an organization's financial success. A business enterprise's management must adopt a strategy that fully exploits information technology's power as a key element in order to optimize the organization's competitiveness. Recent spectacular technological advances and breakthroughs have made the effective use of modern information technology a critical, competitive business weapon.

The study identifies major factors that contrast gift decisions for different status signature clothes. Gift buying represents a significant proportion of purchases in many product classes and is a pervasive retail consumption pattern. Specialty clothing retail sales surpassed the $9 billion figure in 1983. Factors that discriminate status brands for gift purchases can be used to develop market strategies to increase purchases. Strategies are provided for brand managers, fashion marketers, and store buyers to better meet consumer needs and wants in the gift‐buying process.