Industrial buyer behaviour in the thermoplastic raw material manufacturing industry in India for capital, fabricated and standard items

Abstract

This dissertation researched the industrial buyer behavior In one industry in India for three types of firms namely centralized, mixed decentralized and decentralized organizations, in so far as the purchase decision making authority of only buyers were concerned. It was carried out for three purchase categories, namely capital items, fabricated items and standard item, Effects on industrial buyer behavior due to both the degree of centralization of authority of buyers for purchase decision making as also the industrial buying process were researched into through two phases of primary data collection. This exploratory survey in four firms generated four hypotheses, besides bringing out the information handling habits of buyers during purchase decision making process and vendors' assessments of what all they considered to be the purchase dimensions. The hypotheses, empirically validated, related the trends due to increasing degree of decentralization with the conflict situations and their incidence in the firms for different purchase categories, the price consciousness of buyers and how actual users are influenced by company image of vendors -besides other issues like sales presentation by vendors. A new method of market segmentation was also found out. The research output would be directly applicable to industrialize marketers to design as well. As improve their marketing strategies. The research findings would be helpful to top management and especially the purchase managers in the research firms for comparing their purchase policies with those of other firms and benefit from these comparisons. Finally, the dissertation suggested areas for future research in this field.