Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business-to-business buyers'

This dissertation begins with a comprehensive examination of the current state of research regarding organizational buying behavior. Through this review we identify a significant gap in our existing knowledge regarding organizational buying behavior in the public sector. Due to the high level of impact that government purchasing has on the economy, and the nuances that differentiate public from private sector purchasing practices, I further explore organizational buying behavior in the public sector to make the following contributions. First, I highlight the common practice in business-to-government (B2G) and business-to-business (B2B) transactions where buyers limit suppliers’ access to them during the buying process. This research terms these buyers “barricaded buyers.” Despite their prominence in practice, research related to barricaded buyers remains virtually non-existent. Therefore, the present research draws on insights gleaned from eight case studies over a period of approximately eighteen months to shed light on this important topic. Second, this dissertation advances a conceptual framework highlighting competitive actions a focal supplier can take to improve its selection likelihood when selling to barricaded buyers. The framework identifies novel ways suppliers can gain advantage by reducing competitive intensity in the pre-barricade phase (e.g., by peacocking) and by enhancing their RFP response quality in the post-barricade phase (e.g., by offering consummate solutions). Importantly, the framework invokes the notion of strategic information disclosure whereby a focal supplier may gain advantage by knowing when to convey what types of information in barricaded buying environments.

Healthy buyer-seller relationships are seen as a source of buyers’ satisfaction, commitment and loyalty. However, creating fruitful relationships with buyers is not always simple and straightforward for salespersons, especially when they seek to establish relationships with buyers from different cultures. Given the challenging nature of intercultural interaction, it becomes imperative for salespersons to identify the behaviours that will best suit such relationships. There is much evidence that salespersons frequently adopt acculturation behaviours in order to build relationships with buyers from different cultures, however the study of acculturation behaviours, though not unknown to marketing scholars, has not been well explored in relationship marketing domains. Studies on the impact of acculturation behaviours from the viewpoint of salespersons are particularly non-existent. The present study examines the limited available literature on this subject, and attempts to develop a better understanding of the concept of salespersons’ acculturation behaviours by proposing a model that explains the relationship between salespersons’ acculturation behaviours and buyers’ satisfaction as well as commitment in the banking context. The hypotheses are empirically tested in the present study by using appropriate statistical techniques. Results of the study indicate that the hypothesised model of salespersons’ acculturation behaviours fits the data well. The hypotheses focus on four dimensions of salespersons’ acculturation behaviours: assimilation, separation, integration and marginalisation. All of these dimensions, excluding separation, show an inter-relationship among the variables of the model and are confirmed with the right significance. Separation is not examined closely within the study as by its nature it is itself exclusionary of any form of interaction with buyers. Findings from the study indicate however that integration and assimilation positively affect buyers’ satisfaction, whereas marginalisation is negatively associated with buyers’ satisfaction. The results also reveal that buyers’ satisfaction has a mediation effect on the relationships between assimilation, integration, marginalisation and buyers’ commitment. The model also includes the constructs of interaction intensity, which is positively related to buyers’ satisfaction and buyers’ commitment. This study can be considered as an important step in establishing the linkage between salespersons’ acculturation behaviours and buyers’ satisfaction and commitment. It establishes that salespersons’ acculturation is needed to perform better and create sustainable intercultural interaction.

The interaction among firms in the supply chain is necessary for business process execution and relationship success. One phenomenon of great significance to buyer-supplier relationships is opportunism. Opportunism is defined as behavior that is self-interest seeking with guile. It is manifested in behaviors such as stealing, cheating, dishonesty, and withholding information. Opportunism negatively impacts relational exchange tenets such as trust, commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction. Furthermore, perceptions of opportunism negatively affect firm performance. In lieu of the known negative effects of opportunistic behavior on buyer-supplier relationships, why do agents continue to engage in opportunistic tactics with their exchange partners? A comprehensive examination is necessary in order to understand why sourcing professionals engage in acts of opportunism. Understanding why opportunism occurs will reveal how to deter it, and this remains a gap in the literature. Based on theories in economics, marketing channels, supply chain management, decision science, and psychology, a comprehensive model tested a set of factors hypothesized to drive the use of opportunistic tactics. Factors include buyer-supplier relationship-specific factors, environmental factors, individual personality-related factors, and situational factors. Data was collected via internet survey of sourcing professionals from private industry and government agencies. Common to many studies of ethics, respondents made choices based on two hypothetical vignettes. Two logistic regression models were used to test the hypotheses. Factors found to affect buyer opportunism included buyer power, corporate ethical values, pressure to perform, leadership opportunism, business sector, honesty/integrity, and subjective expected utility. This research contributes to theory by combining several disparate theories to best explain opportunism. A comprehensive evaluation should determine which theory explains the most variance in decision making. The study contributes to practice by identifying those important factors contributing to a sourcing professional's decision to use opportunistic tactics. The ability to manage these factors should improve the probability of relationship success. Additionally, the identification of these factors should help leaders to make more accurate estimates of transaction costs - key knowledge required to make an informed make or buy governance decision.

This study is one of the first studies to fully address the relationship that business-to-business buyers have with both the selling firm and salesperson within an integrated model. Finding from this survey research support 14 of the 26 original hypotheses and the 2 additional linkages using structural equation modeling. This study finds that the relationship customers have with the selling firm is a stronger predictor of continuance than the relationship that the buyer has with the salesperson. While this relationship is stronger between the buyer and the selling firm, findings suggest that the salesperson can have a direct negative impact on the relationship if conflict is present. Overall, this study provides a framework for future research on the topic of business-to-business buyer-selling firm and buyer-salesperson relationships.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2007.
Title from file title page. James Boles, committee chair; Wesley Johnston, Greg W. Marshall, Edward Rigdon, Danny Bellenger, committee members. Electronic text (222 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 29, 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-221).

Includes bibliographical references.
Most of today's knowledge of Business-to-Business marketing is grounded on studies conducted in so-called western countries. Recently some researchers have started to question the validity of concepts, ideas and measures conceived in developed markets to explain business marketing phenomena in non-western contexts. Moreover research has attributed this gap in the literature on the relative absence of Business-to-Business marketing research from emerging, non-western countries (see, for example, Biggemann and Fam, 2011.) In emerging markets firms also operate in large networks that contains multiple, complex, direct and indirect business relationships among buyers and sellers. The thesis draws on four different empirical studies to integrate key sets of knowledge spawned from the realms of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing group (IMP) to observe Business-to-Business relationships in a South African context.

Thesis (D.M.E.)--University of Toledo.
Typescript. "A dissertation [submitted] as partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Manufacturing Management and Engineering." Bibliography: leaves 177-191.

A firm�s relationships with its customers contribute to its organizational capital and represent an important part of its shareholder value, so the nature of the value in these relationships needs to be understood well and managed carefully. Marketing managers therefore require techniques that will assess relationship value comprehensively in order to manage their portfolio of customer relationships effectively and in order to argue for a sufficient share of the firm�s resources to develop these market based assets for competitive advantage. At present, there is a well-established technique for assessing customer profitability analysis which assigns revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities to customers and algebraically sums their value to reach a profitability figure for each customer. However, even in its more sophisticated forms, the primary focus of customer profitability analysis as it is currently used tends to be the management of profitability by way of the management of existing situations, and particularly of cost, rather than the management of the value that is potentially available in the future from the intangible aspects of a relationship. Without knowledge of the dimensions of intangible value in the relationship, the technique is restricted to assessing those relationship aspects that can be easily quantified in dollar terms by the modification of existing accounting information. This leaves a gap in the available toolbox for managers in assessing relationship value, because much of the value of a relationship may be in its intangible aspects, which at present can not be readily assessed other than by a manager�s experience and intuition. In order to develop techniques specifically for intangible value assessment, it is necessary to understand the dimensions of this intangible value. Development of scales to measure the dimensions of this intangible relationship value and development of an understanding of its structure is thus a useful research goal, which is supported by calls in the literature for the quantification of market-based assets and their value Elucidation of the dimensions and structure of intangible relationship value is therefore the goal of this thesis. Although there are recent reports in the literature of studies that include the intangible aspects of relationship value, most of those that have been conducted in a business-to-business context appear to be primarily concerned with investigating the drivers of value rather than its dimensions, and those that deal with the business-to-consumer context describe techniques to assess the aggregated value of many consumers, rather than an individual buyer as is required for business-to-business applications. The thesis therefore proposes a conceptual framework, synthesised from the intellectual capital literature, which provides a set of six dimensions and a structure of intangible business-to-business buyer-seller value. The six proposed dimensions are unique in that they cover the human aspects of the relationship extensively. The thesis describes the testing of the proposed conceptual framework. This was achieved primarily by the use of the structural equation modelling technique on survey data that was collected from managers in the New Zealand manufacturing industry, following qualitatively analysed interviews with managers. The tests support the framework and its value dimensions. The thesis therefore concludes that this research provides a contribution to the literature on value assessment and that future research should be conducted to validate its findings.

Introduction: Already in the 1970’s, internationalisation was noted as a striking trend in business. Since then, the speed of internationalisation has increased as infrastructure, communication, and IT have decreased space and time barriers for international trade. Today, companies must engage in international activities to survive in the competitive environment and researchers argue that firms’ international performance is determined by their ability to establish relationships.

Problem: In order to facilitate the search for business actors globally, Chamber Trade Business to Business AB offers a database in which companies can post business inquiries. Lately, the number of inquiries published in the database has decreased. Therefore, the question arose what other tools companies use instead when searching for business partners. This empirically driven problem is also matched by a theoretical need for more research about how firms establish international relationships.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse how small Swedish B2B companies find downstream international partners.

Theoretical framework: In order to create a frame of reference for guidance in the collection and analysis of the empirical data, theory has been divided into three sections; Internationalisation theory, Business to Business relationships theory, and Means for international interaction.

Method: To fulfil the purpose of the thesis, a qualitative study with an inductive approach was undertaken. Secondary data in terms of literature and academic articles were scanned to create a theoretical framework and to facilitate the collection of primary data. Primary data was gathered from ten small Swedish firms in order to find out how their downstream international business relationships had been initiated.

Conclusion: Our thesis concludes that many Swedish sellers start out their internationalisation to countries with close distance by responding to unsolicited orders from foreign customers. Over time, their proactiveness increases and they primary use the following channels in order to find international partners: networks, trade fairs, trade- and industry organisations, and the Internet. Databases have several defaults for being a useful search tool, mainly their lack of precise search criteria and personal interaction. Further, when companies offer a high quality product, a reputation is created about the company. Consequently, foreign customers pull the company into new countries and the need for external search tools is low.

What are the factors that make non buyers hesitant to buy groceries online? The purpose of this study is to examine why non buyers hesitate to buy groceries online. Different factors are linked to two theoretical frameworks, namely Theory of planned behavior (TPB) and Technology acceptance model (TAM). This study is of a quantitative nature, by conducting a web-based questionnaire. The study applies a deductive approach in order to test the relationship between the dependent and independent variables of TPB and TAM in the context of non buyers of online grocery in Sweden. The main analysis for this study is a simple linear regression analysis. The results of this study show that the main predictor of non buyers’ hesitation to buy groceries online are the factors of perceived behavioral control. Other factors that had a significant effect on intention were the ones regarding attitude, external variables and perceived ease of use. While factors of subjective norm and perceived usefulness had no influence on non buyers’ intention.

Nesta pesquisa, o principal objetivo foi analisar como são conduzidas as negociações entre compradores e vendedores que acontecem em um ambiente relacional, buscando não só entender os impactos do relacionamento das partes no processo de negociação, mas também verificar se as negociações o favorecem, notadamente em situações nas quais as partes pretendem manter ou aumentar as interações no futuro. Para responder esse objetivo foi escolhido o setor de distribuição de insumos agrícolas, com foco em defensivos, considerando as transações que ocorrem entre os distribuidores e os produtores rurais. Para ampliar as discussões desta pesquisa, optou-se por analisar as negociações entre as partes em dois países: Brasil e Estados Unidos. Assim, foi realizada uma pesquisa qualitativa, de caráter exploratório/descritivo, utilizando o método de estudos de casos múltiplos. Os dados foram coletados a partir do estudo de 13 casos - situações de negociação (seis no Brasil e sete nos Estados Unidos), considerando a visão do vendedor e do comprador (díades) para que se pudesse ter uma perspectiva de ambos os lados. Para isso, contou-se com o auxílio de seis distribuidores de insumos, sendo três no Brasil e três nos Estados Unidos. Os gerentes de vendas dos distribuidores foram entrevistados para que o entendimento do processo de negociação pudesse ser ampliado. Assim, em conjunto com observações, foram realizadas 13 entrevistas com vendedores, 13 com produtores e seis com gerentes de vendas, totalizando 32. Como principais resultados e contribuições, destaca-se: (1) foi proposta uma estrutura conceitual, baseada no modelo adaptado do IMP Group, para o estudo das negociações entre compradores e vendedores, considerando os elementos sistêmicos da negociação. Pôde-se perceber os impactos do ambiente da negociação (concorrentes e variáveis macroambientais), da atmosfera (poder, tempo e informação), do planejamento, do processo de negociação, dos resultados e da implementação dos acordos da negociação. Além disso, notou-se que os resultados substanciais (econômicos) podem ser superados pelos resultados psicológico-sociais da negociação, uma vez que vendedores e compradores podem abrir mão dos ganhos pensando na continuidade do relacionamento entre as partes; (2) a aplicação da estrutura para a análise das díades mostrouse aderente, o que resulta em outra contribuição. A estrutura conceitual poderá ser utilizada em outros contextos para o entendimento das negociações entre compradores e vendedores; (3) a partir da análise dos contextos Brasil e Estados Unidos, notou-se o impacto que o modelo de negócios dos distribuidores pode ter nas negociações. De um lado os distribuidores brasileiros têm sua oferta mais baseada em produtos, resultando em uma maior discussão de preços nas negociações. Já do lado norte-americano, a oferta é baseada em serviços e troca de informações, o que aumenta a dependência, os custos de mudança dos produtores e afeta os processos de negociação, diminuído em alguns casos a negociação de preços; (4) por fim, nota-se que o relacionamento entre as partes pode ter um impacto positivo nas negociações entre compradores e vendedores, diminuindo o uso de alternativas, aumentando a possibilidade de ampliação do valor das negociações e tirando o foco do preço. Além disso, percebe-se que a forma como as negociações são conduzidas pode ter um impacto positivo no relacionamento entre as partes. Assim, com a evolução do relacionamento, o conteúdo das negociações pode mudar da barganha de preços e evoluir para a discussão das adaptações necessárias para ampliação dos ganhos mútuos e maximização do valor das partes.
The main goal of this research was to analyze how the negotiations between buyers and sellers take place in a relational environment, seeking not only to understand the impacts of the relationship of the parties in the negotiation process, but also whether the negotiations favor the relationship, specifically in situations in which the parties aim to maintain or increase future interactions. To meet this goal, the distribution sector of agricultural inputs was chosen, focusing on defensive, and considering transactions that took place between distributors and farmers. The choice of this sector was due to its strong relational characteristic. To broaden the discussion of this research, the negotiations in two countries was analyzed: Brazil and the United States. Thus, a qualitative survey was conducted with an exploratory / descriptive perspective and using a multiple case studies method for data collection. The data was collected from the study of 13 negotiation situations (six in Brazil and seven in the United States), considering the view of the seller and the buyer (dyads) so that it was possible to have the perspective from both sides. Accordingly, interviews were conducted with six distributors, three in Brazil and three in the United States. The distributors\' sales managers were interviewed to develop a better understanding of the negotiation process. Thus, for the development of this research, 13 interviews were conducted with vendors, with 13 producers and six with sales managers, totaling 32. The main results and contributions are: (1) a conceptual framework was proposed based on the adapted model of the IMP Group for the study of negotiations between buyers and sellers, considering the systemic elements of the negotiation. The framework considers the various stages of negotiation and was the basis for the analysis of 13 dyads. From the analysis, the impact of the trading environment was observed (competitors and macroenvironmental variables), the atmosphere (power, time and information), planning, the negotiation process, the negotiation results, and the negotiation results implementation. Considering the importance of the relationship between the parties, the substantial results (economic) could be overcome by psychological and social results of the negotiation, as buyers and sellers can give up gains in exchange of maintaining and continuing with a good relationship with the other part; (2) the use of the framework to analyze the dyads proved to be effective, therefore the possible use of the framework in other contexts for the understanding of negotiations between buyers and sellers is another contribution of this thesis; (3) from the analysis of Brazilian and US contexts, it was noted the impact that the business model can have on negotiations. In one hand the Brazilian distributors have most of their supply based on products, resulting in more price discussion. In the other hand, in the US, the focus was on services and information exchange, which increases the dependency of producers decreasing, in some cases, the price negotiations; (4) finally, the relationship between the parties can have a positive impact on negotiations between buyers and sellers, reducing the use of alternatives, increasing the possibility of expanding the value of negotiations and taking the price out of focus. Moreover, it is clear that the way the negotiations are conducted can have a positive impact on the relationship between the parties. Therefore, with the relationship evolution, the negotiations content can evolve from prices negotiation to a discussion on necessary adaptation with a focus on value maximization for all parties.

Background: In order to survive and attain growth organizations need to make different investments which require that different decisions are being made. It is a process, by which a person, group or an organization identifies a choice or judgment to be made, gathers and evaluates information about alternatives and selects from among the alternatives. Thus, a decision is of great importance for an organization for which it is interesting for us to see how they make their decisions regarding a purchase and foremost how the actual decision-making process is constituted regarding a purchase of a simulation solution offered by our case company FrontWay AB.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine and understand how a client’s decision-making process looks like, concerning the purchasing of technical complex products in industrial organizations, more specifically in the pulp- and paper industry.

Method: A qualitative study has been used, based on interviews with the clients of FrontWay who have bough their simulation solution or are in the buying process.

Result and Conclusions: The empirical findings that has come to hand shows that the decision-making process actually was shorter than perceived by the case company. One explanation was that the investment was not seen as big. Further we have concluded that the selling organization and the buying organization do not see the same start and end point when a decision is being made. The decision-making process for the buying organization seems to be difficult to shorten down, however, if the selling organization will do some changes maybe it can be shortened down. It is however questionable if FrontWay can make changes at all since it requires a lot of work as well as a lot of resources. As it takes time to make a good decision, and also resources from the buying organization to have someone working with simulations solution fulltime it is unsure if it is of interest to actually shorten down the decision-making process.

Mestrado em Marketing
Esta investigação visa estudar o valor da marca dentro das redes de negócios através do caso da KIC InnoEnergy, uma entidade europeia que promove a inovação na área da energia sustentável. Com base em conceitos como redes de negócios, brand equity e comportamento de compra organizacional, pretende-se avaliar o valor da marca da empresa na sua rede, bem como entender as necessidades do seu ecossistema e o que mais valorizam. Os dados foram recolhidos através de métodos qualitativos e a amostra incluiu alguns dos stakeholders. Concluiu-se que a InnoEnergy tem um forte valor de marca entre o ecossistema das start-ups, bem como entre os seus parceiros, enquanto a educação é a linha de negócios em que as associações da marca precisam de ser mais trabalhadas. Concluiu-se também que as semelhanças entre Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC) podem ser prejudiciais para a saliência da marca no seu ecossistema. De uma perspectiva teórica, sugere-se a inclusão de um novo bloco na adaptação do modelo de Keller para business-to-business, que teria o nome de "network". Futura investigação deve centrar-se em cada relação com os diferentes atores e linhas de negócio, o papel da marca neste contexto e as consequências práticas das semelhanças em termos de branding das diferentes KICs.
This research aims to study brand equity within business networks through InnoEnergy's case, a European entity that promotes innovation in the sustainable energy field. Based on concepts such as business networks, brand equity and organizational buying behavior, it is intended to evaluate the brand equity of the company in its network as well as to understand the needs of its ecosystem and what they value the most. To this end, data was collected through qualitative methods and the sample included some of the stakeholders. It was concluded that InnoEnergy has strong brand equity among the start-up's ecosystem, as well as among its partners, whereas Education is the business line in which the associations need to strengthen the most. It was also concluded that the similarities between Knowledge and Innovation Communities can be harmful to the salience of the brand in its ecosystem. From a theoretical perspective, it is suggested the inclusion of a new block in the Keller's model adaptation to business-to-business, called "networks". Further research should focus on each relationship with the different actors and business lines, the role of branding in this context and the practical consequences of the similarities between KICs branding.
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Research gap: Reputation is seen as an important asset for companies and can create competitive advantages. Within business-to-business the reputation of the company is argued to affect the relationship between buyers and suppliers and although the area is stressed to be important, it is still under-researched. Previous literature is not aligning when it comes to the importance of reputation and the duration of the relationship and it also states trust to have impact on important parts of the relationship, such as affective commitment and the willingness to invest. Purpose: The purpose of the thesis was to measure to what extent the duration of a buyer-supplier relationship affects trust, and to what extent trust affects the affective commitment and willingness to invest, when the reputation of the supplier was negative as the outcome of adverse publicity. Hypothesis: H1a; H1b: The duration of buyer-supplier relationship has a positive impact on Trust (integrity or benevolence) if the reputation of the supplier is negative H2a; H2b: Trust (integrity or benevolence) has a positive impact on affective Commitment, if the reputation of the supplier is negative H3a; H3b: Trust (integrity or benevolence) has a positive impact on willingness to invest if the reputation of the supplier is negative Method: The study had a quantitative approach and collected the data by a questionnaire sent to manufacturing business-to-business companies by email. 462 companies were contacted which resulted in 72 usable answers. Conclusion:The buyer-supplier relationship was not to a significantly extent affected by negative reputation and the duration of the relationship was not differing to a substantially extent. The different trust increased the buyers’ affective commitment and willingness to invest which demonstrates the importance of trust in the relationship due to negative reputation.

Business Administration, Business Process & Supply Chain Management, Degree Project (Master), 30 higher education credits, 5FE02E, Spring 2012   Authors: Kateryna Zubova and Olga Arikainen   Tutor: Åsa Gustavsson Title: Procurement Process Integration in Swedish and Ukrainian Companies Producing Machinery and Equipment Background: Although the science of economics and logistics comprises a great amount of literature on supply chain integration, there is a lack of information on procurement process integration. Procurement process is one the supply chain processes and is one of the most important processes for manufacturing companies. Purpose: To describe the level of procurement process integration (PPI), tools of PPI and barriers to PPI from buyers’ perspective in Swedish and Ukrainian companies producing machinery and equipment, and then to test if there is a significant difference in them between respondents of two countries. Method: Web-based questionnaire was created and sent out to 500 companies producing machinery and equipment in Sweden and to 500 companies in Ukraine.  73 responses were received from Swedish companies and 49 responses from Ukrainian companies. T-test was performed in order to test the differences in procurement process integration between Swedish and Ukrainian companies in terms of levels of integration, tools of integration and barriers to integration. Results, conclusions: There is no significant difference in the level of integration between Swedish and Ukrainian companies. In both countries the average level of integration is medium that means long-term relationships which are reviewed periodically. However, significant differences were found in the tools and barriers to procurement process integration between Swedish and Ukrainian companies.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) online auctions represent an important new marketplace from which consumers can access the goods they require, an alternative marketplace to bricks-and-mortar and online retail stores. Sellers are often ordinary consumers and the items on sale are often second-hand household items, although, modern C2C auction sites also accommodate small businesses selling unused products. Consumer behaviour in online C2C auctions is unlike consumer behaviour in bricks-and-mortar or online retail stores. While considerable research has been conducted into the dynamics of bidding in online C2C auctions little research has addressed the motives for consumers’ ongoing participation in this marketplace. The concept of consumer involvement may explain the amount of time and money consumers are spending in online C2C auctions and the frequency of their visits to auction sites. In the context of this thesis, involvement is defined as the long-term and enduring relevance, connection and relatedness of online auctions to a consumer’s life. The aim of this research is to explore the ways in which the consumer involvement construct offers an explanation for variation in buyers’ ongoing use of online auctions. The thesis also seeks to discover which consumer motives contribute to buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions. TradeMe is New Zealand’s most popular online C2C auction site. In a country of just four million people, the TradeMe auction site has more than 2 million members and accounts for more than 50 per cent of Internet traffic originating from New Zealand websites. This study of buyers who use the TradeMe auction site, offers the opportunity to study online auction consumers in this unique context. Based on an extensive literature review, eighteen propositions were developed regarding buyer motives for enduring involvement with online C2C auctions. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty TradeMe users, to test these propositions and to identify any further motives for enduring involvement with auctions that had not been revealed in the literature review. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed in full. NVivo8 qualitative data analysis software was used to code the interview transcripts. Thematic analysis reveals six themes representing buyer motives for enduring involvement with online auctions. The significant contribution of this thesis is to identify involvement as a useful construct for explaining consumer behaviour in online auctions. In addition to utilitarian and hedonic motives for involvement with online auctions, the interviews reveal that the buyers have a number of social and personal motives for involvement with online auctions. Analysis of the qualitative dataset also reveals a set of marketer activities which encourage ongoing use of the auction site, and a number of factors (anti-motives) which discourage use of the auction site. The research reveals the existence of an off-line community of auction users who value the social contact they experience with one another outside the auction site. Ongoing buyer-seller relationships are also shown to develop outside the auction site, prompted by an initial auction transaction. TradeMe users often express loyalty to the TradeMe website because they are proud of its New Zealand origins, feel secure in using a local auction website, believe they are supporting small New Zealand businesses by buying from TradeMe, and believe they are practicing sustainable consumption behaviour by purchasing second-hand goods. Future research should develop a multi-item, quantitative measure of buyers’ enduring involvement with online auctions and test the validity of this measure with further empirical data.

Thesis (MBus) -- AUT University, 2007.
Primary Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Roger Marshall. Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (vi, 76 leaves ; 30 cm.) in City Campus Theses Collection (T 658.8040943 KON)

NETPAPER is a Portuguese Startup that was born in October 2014. The main goal of the company is: promote and generate traffic on the brands websites; and create a stronger relationship and knowledge between the brands and the consumers. NETPAPER is a B2B company in the digital marketing area. This area and the internet has been evolving a lot in the last years. The biggest advantages of NETPAPER are: companies win traffic and knowledge about their websites; and consumers win prizes. One year after NETPAPER creation, the company already should have more buyers that had in the reality, so something was going wrong. The company partners decided they had to do something in order to solve the situation, they needed to win buyers faster. And the paths they could follow were: improve the ways to attract buyers, online or simplify the NETPAPER concept.
A NETPAPER é uma Startup Portuguesa que nasceu em Outubro de 2014. Os principais objetivos da empresa são: divulgar e gerar tráfego nos sites das marcas; dar aos utilizadores mais conhecimento sobre as marcas; e criar uma relação mais forte entre as marcas e os consumidores. A NETPAPER é uma empresa que disponibiliza um serviço na área do marketing digital. Esta área e a internet têm evoluído muito nos últimos anos. As maiores vantagens da NETPAPER são: as empresas ganham tráfego e conhecimento sobre os seus sites e os consumidores ganham prémios. Um ano depois da criação da NETPAPER, a empresa já deveria ter mais clientes do que tinha na realidade, por isso alguma coisa não estava a correr bem. As sócias da empresa decidiram que tinham de fazer algo para resolver esta situação, a empresa precisava de ganhar clientes mais rapidamente. E os caminhos que a empresa podia seguir eram: melhorar a forma de atrair os clientes, Online ou simplificar o conceito de NETPAPER.

碩士
國立清華大學
國際專業管理碩士班
103
This research analyzes some specific successful business to business electronic Commerce service platforms and their strengths and weakness when approaching to buyers from Latin America. The research also identifies the most important challenges or issues that this geographically grouped target of buyers face when using these Services in order to find the main key points that a new model could solve. The findings suggests that as Latin American is very broad and different, further narrowing is necessary in order to provide a more precise solution. Therefore the decision on focusing in Mercosur’s market of buyers, and the recommendation is to provide a service model based on demand side, with customer intimacy as the company’s core value. Therefore, for the launching stage of the service, no high level of automation is required and the human involvement during the process will be highly appreciated for the first group of target market of buyers that will serve as pilot test for the solution.

Corporate reputation has become a source of competitive advantage whose underlying dimensions serve to influence companies‟ strategic direction, in order to maintain sustainable competitiveness. The purpose of this research is to determine the underlying dimensions of corporate reputation as perceived by buyers in the business-to-to business environment.Through critical review of literature on corporate reputation, the importance of building and maintaining a good reputation was highlighted by a myriad of resulting favourable consequences. Literature also revealed underlying dimensions of reputation which were complemented by the findings of the preliminary interviews with a selection of members of the sample to formulate a research instrument.Using stratified sampling of buyers in selected segments served by the steel industry, 169 questionnaire responses were gathered electronically via email and self administered. A factor analysis revealed five factors namely vision and quality of management, employment equity and social responsibility, superior quality of products and committed service, corporate appeal and safety and environment. These collaborated with the literature with the exception of two contributing elements omitted by literature, namely BEE and safety.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
unrestricted

This dissertation set out to ascertain that a South African vendor, on-time delivery to EU buyers, was unreliable. Late deliveries from South African vendors to EU buyers have led to Kingfisher Sourcing Africa (Pty) Ltd being a volatile sourcing office for the Kingfisher Group. Kingfisher Sourcing Africa (Pty) Ltd need to take considerable measures in determining which South African vendors they source products from in order to determine their success or failure. This research has highlighted the following problem: i. South African vendors are unreliable suppliers. Recommendations derived from this research include: ii. The need to clarify terms and conditions of trade, iii. To ensure Kingfisher Sourcing Africa (Pty) Ltd has a contract in place with South African vendors, iv. To periodically and systematically evaluate South African vendor's : Financial capabilities, Supply chain capacity, Management structure, Product offering mix,
Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

It is clear that there is a strong drive for organisations to adopt the shared service model with the intention to gain some economic benefits. This research also acknowledges the theory on supplier relationship management, as well as relationship quality management and how these two bodies of knowledge are connected to shared service and ultimately how they affect the relationship benefits between buyers and sellers in business to business environments. With the growing importance to distinguish one’s business from others to gain competitive advantage, relationships have become a crucial differentiator. It is important to appreciate whether the shared service model enhances relationships or not. This research therefore sought to examine the relationship quality measure elements such as trust, satisfaction and commitment as well as the relationship benefits; social, psychological and functional which are impacted by the introduction of a shared service. The research findings offer some important insights into how the introduction of a shared service model into an organisational structure impacts these relationship benefits. When comparing a shared service structure to that of a decentralised model it was evident that all elements of relationship quality and benefits changed. The results indicated that once the shared service became the central point of contact and communication for many of the suppliers, relationship quality and relationship benefits declined. Further, the results found were that many of the anticipated benefits of shared service were also not seen or experienced by the suppliers. This research involved two phases, a qualitative phase component and a quantitative phase. The qualitative phase involved face-to-face interviews with five significant suppliers to Sasol, companies in industries such as Civil, Manufacturing as well as industrial goods suppliers. The quantitative phase involved an electronic survey, distributed to all of Sasol’s suppliers. The data gathered from these interviews and surveys, together with the reviewed literature helped to measure the affects of shared service on supplier relationships. One hundred and forty questionnaires were processed and data was subjected to a variety of statistical analysis. This research will add to the limited knowledge of shared service as well as equip managers implementing shared service with some strategic insights. When implementing shared service it is imperative to look beyond mere cost savings and to also consider the relationship affects for all concerned when changing the relationship dynamics.
Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
ccgibs2014
Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
MBA
Unrestricted

碩士
靜宜大學
企業管理研究所
91
For the enterprise in manufacturing industry, lots of organization who spend more then 50% of their cost in procuring products and service. It can help organization to reduce cost and to increase advantage by implementing E-Procurement. However, the procurement is always at lower position, could not be thought by strategical position；and less research in analyse the E-Procuement Value. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of participant motive、system Integrated and value-added services on supply chain performance and the role of E-Procurement Value as a intermediary. The research design contains the quantitative and qualitative dual approach. With qualitative approach, in-depth interviews were conducted for the case (W company), which joining the project of E-Business in manufacturing industry leading by department of economic; With quantitative approach, questionnaires were given to the manufacturing . According to the result, participant motive、system Integrated and value-added services have a positive effect to the E-Procurement Value and then affect the supply chain performance. This finding suggest that buyers should be look out the participant motive、system Integrated and value-added services to improve E-Procurement Value when they implement the E-Procurement system, and develop the strategy for implementing the E-Procurement.

Despite considerable research that has focused on the attributes associated with evaluating and selecting advertising agencies, and an emerging body of literature emphasizing customer loyalty and retention, advertising agency-client investigations have often analysed these attributes in isolation. This created the need for models that represent the interrelated effects that engender retention and loyalty, especially for services, whereby evaluative as well as relational factors can influence buyer responses. Addressing this gap, this research developed and described the construct of buyer consideration sets to gain a better understanding of business relationships. This is with specific reference to advertising agency replacement considerations in the South African environment. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a more complete, integrated view of customer retention and its determinants. A heuristic model was developed with consideration of theories that originate from the transactional cost theory, social exchange theory and economic and relational contract theories. This model was empirically tested using a mixed method approach. Data obtained from 116 respondents were subjected to factor and correlation analysis to explore the dimensionality of the retention construct. An important contribution of this study is the use of multi-item scales to measure and test retention. This research supports that retention is multidimensional and highlights the limitations of research that measure single factors related to retention. What started as a complex set of relationships has been defensibly and systematically simplified into a parsimonious model. This model postulates that retention is the result of a good working relationship between an advertiser and agency; service satisfaction; respect and support; clear terms of engagement; and conflict resolution. This work also offers insight into the nuances of each of these antecedents and offer new reliable scales for measurement of the items. In management practice, this model will provide advertisers with insights with regards to procurement decisions and supplier management. It can also provide valuable insight to agencies with regard to customer retention management. Findings of this study may also be extended to other high value professional service industries.
Business Management and Entrepreneurship
D. Com. (Business Management)